Project Oversight Quotes

What's crucial about being an executive producer is that you stay in the loop, information-wise. They have to share all their major decisions with you.

Directing is such alchemy, it's so easy to fail. And I've seen people who are great at their jobs because everybody has a go. Editors, DPs, actors, craft services guy, everybody wants to try it out but it is such a diffuse but necessary set of skills that you never know which one this person might lack.

As a director, I'm not the one animating every frame, every shot. I'm moving around like a surgeon on rounds, or a farmer checking in on all the plants being grown, pruning and adjusting. For me, it's a very exciting job.

I was not a project manager who was managing and executing the day-to-day operational work of building HealthCare.gov. I didn't have the kind of comprehensive, detailed, deep knowledge of that project that a manager would have.

When you're directing something, you absolutely have to be involved in all layers of the process.

I'm a designer, producer and I am hands-on for every project I undertake. The creative side of what I do is really something I think people overlooked for a while.

My Dad has been on board for the entire project. He has produced Hello' and made sure that everything is just right this time.

Studios are an assembly line. They can be a very good assembly line. As a producer, you concentrate on one project at a time. As an executive, you're in charge of a slate.

Currently, I am overseeing the construction of the new Trump Tower in Chicago. I am involved in meeting with the construction crews, architects and sales teams. I am learning a lot and working with some of the best in the business.

Ashley Cheng, who I've worked with for 20 years, he's the studio head in Rockville now. He manages more of the day-to-day stuff. I can focus creatively on what we're doing now and what we should be doing in the future.

If you cannot be on the project each day to check on things, then you should not try and be your own contractor.

The cost overrun [for the C-5A] here is so much smaller as a percentage of what we expected it to be when we let the contract, that it is a great improvement.

Directing was a big learning experience for me because I had to deal with every aspect of everything-all this constant decision-making, with people asking you questions at every moment, and you have to have answers for them all.

Working in MTV's development team, my days would consist of pitches and deciding which concepts we wanted to buy. We would then develop those into a pilot. Very few ended up making it to a full series, but if they did, I would manage the project alongside the show's creators.

I try to keep in touch with the details... I also look at the product daily. That doesn't mean you interfere, but it's important occasionally to show the ability to be involved. It shows you understand what's happening.

Being the executive producer of a film is not that difficult. It just means that you have some power. There's not a huge amount of skill involved, I don't know how much I'm giving away here. I feel like that guy on Fox, giving away the magicians' tricks. It's not rocket science, being an executive producer of a film.

We don't over-manage projects like the studios do.

Executive producers don't have to do anything. Nor do any kind of producers. They just sit around on deck chairs watching stuff, and if it gets cold, they leave. Actually I suppose as a producer you've got to be involved in helping out with solving problems.

I think that during the shoot, you should never be there, unless something goes really wrong and as producer, you're responsible. The sign you did your job right is if you are not there.

I travel probably four days a week. That's the game of international development. You have to be at your properties. No developer is successful sitting behind their desk.