Film Writing Quotes

Filmmaking in general is my second career. I thought that writing wasn't practical, so I went to business school and got an MBA, and I worked three years in grant management.

Writing a film is like building a brick wall. You have a plan, and you have the blocks. Then, somebody says, 'I think we'll take this stone out of here and put it over there. And while we're at it, let's make this stone red and that stone green.'

I read a lot of script. In my opinion, most of them aren't good or aren't about people.

When you sit down to write a film, you direct it in your head. If you are writing a scene, you are watching the scene. And maybe it's different when you are writing a novel because you are thinking of it in terms of being read. But films are only consumed one way - through the eyes and the ears.

It was interesting to write ad films and scripts for TV shows before I moved on to writing a feature film. That helped me grow as a writer, and I also found out how long I could sit in front of a computer and see something through.

When I write a film, there's a particular thing I am wrestling with and the question or concern I'm dealing with has to be big enough for me to dedicate a year or two of my life. If the question isn't big enough, or rich enough, I'll lose interest.

When I'm writing, I can always play around with tense. I can always make past present. I can always kind of manipulate, and I can always be delusional in a way that's completely self-serving. With film, it's like, the camera can't really lie. It can manipulate to a certain extent.

That's also why comedy and horror are my two favorite genres of film to write, because you get these outbursts of emotion from people, laughter and shock, and it's really thrilling, and I like to be thrilled.

I'm trying to write a film with my friend. I'd love to get the thrill of speaking actors making my work even funnier.

I was a journalist and wrote about filmmakers, but I didn't review movies per se.

Usually with film writing I start with characters, and set about writing their story.

I'd love to work on a script in collaboration.

I wrote 'Mud' for Matthew McConaughey and had never met him.

I'm not Akira Kurosawa. He used to write...He used to write a completely new spec script over a couple of nights. I'm not like that. It takes me a long time to put a film together that I want to make.

Taking a comic strip character is very hard to write. Because comics are meant to work in one page, to work in frames with minimalistic dialogue. And a lot of it is left to the imagination of the reader. To do that in film, you've got to be a little more explanatory. And that requires a good screenplay and good dialogue.

It's hard to tell writers, especially in movies, that words are secondary. Behavior is important.

I think 'Cool Hand Luke' was probably the first movie in which I was aware of the writing as its own separate thing. It was that speech when the guy reads Paul Newman the riot act. The speech about going in the box.

I considered going to film school; I took a course in film and was very interested in filmmaking as well as film writing.

Should 50 per cent of Telefilm's projects be helmed, produced, or written by women? I think so.

When you're writing a feature film, the moment you begin Page 1, you are in a sweat that you're running out of pages.

Funny enough, there have been puppets in everything I've written because I have a huge love of puppets. There's a big puppet musical at the end of 'Sarah Marshall.' I wrote 'The Muppets.'

Designing Woman was written for the screen.

I wouldn't not want to be a director and write as I wouldn't not to want to be a writer and direct movies.

I've worked with multiple directors throughout the 'Saw' series with a lot of conversations as they bring their particular installment to the screen. If I've been able to do anything throughout the course of these films, it's been to help shape dialogue and to try to make things as delicate and as intelligent as I can.

My politics are expressed through the films that I write. That's why doing 'Arabikkadh' was a great experience because I got to associate with like-minded people.