David Fincher is probably

David Fincher is probably the best comprehensive director in terms of being a manger of a process that must drive forward. He has such confident command of cinema language and visual language and script and performance. He knows more about f-stops than any cameraman, he knows more about lighting than any gaffer, he is a … Read more

I think of the

I think of the medium as a people-to-people medium, not cameraman-to-people, not direction-to-people, not writers-to-people, but people-to-peopleYou can only involve an audience with people. You can’t involve them with gimmicks, with sunsets, with hand-held cameras, zoom shots, or anything else. They couldn’t care less about those things. But you give them something to worry about, … Read more

Of course, it may

Of course, it may be that the arts of writing and photography are antithetical. The hope and aim of a word-handler is that he maycommunicate a thought or an impression to his reader without the reader’s realizing that he has been dragged through a series of hazardous or grotesque syntactical situations. In photography the goal … Read more

For us as writers,

For us as writers, it’s really important to have songs we believe in – even before sometimes we shoot a scene. If we have a song that’s so perfectly designed for a scene on ‘Rescue Me,’ we’ll play it on loud speakers during the shooting. It helps the cameraman and it helps the director, and … Read more

Directing ain’t about drawing

Directing ain’t about drawing a neat little picture and showing it to the cameraman. I didn’t want to go to film school. I didn’t know what the point was. The fact is, you don’t know what directing is until the sun is setting and you’ve got to get five shots and you’re only going to … Read more