I recently finished reading Making Movies by Sidney Lumet. Lumet has directed some of my favourite films; from Dog Day Afternoon to Serpico. He's one of my favourite directors, and Making Movies is easily one of the best filmmaking books I've ever read. It was really interesting. There was just too much in it to say here, but here are some of my favourite quotes from it:
"In drama, the characters should determine the story. In melodrama, the story determines the characters.”
“I don't know how to choose work that illuminates what my life is about. I don't know what my life is about and don't examine it. My life will define itself as I live it. The movies will define themselves as I make them. As long as the theme is something I care about at the moment, it's enough for me to start work. Maybe work itself is what my life is about.”
“The varying physical characteristics of the actors may also necessitate changes. Sean Connery is six feet four. Dustin Hoffman isn't.”
"There are no minor decisions in movie making. Each decision will either contribute to a good piece of work or bring the whole movie crashing down around my head many months later. We’re not out for consensus here."
"We’re out for communication. And sometimes we even get consensus. And that’s thrilling."
"The script must keep you off balance. Keep you surprised, entertained, involved, and yet, when the denouement is reached, still give a sense that the story HAD to turn out that way."
"A character should be clear from his present actions."
"If the writer has to state the reasons, something’s wrong in the way the character is written. Dialogue is like anything else in movies. It can be a crutch, or when used well, it can enhance, deepen, and reveal."
"The way you tell a story should relate somehow to what that story is. Because that’s what style is: the way you tell a particular story."
"Improvisation can be an effective tool in rehearsal as a way of finding what you’re really like when, for example, you’re angry. Knowing your feelings let you know when those feelings are real as opposed to when you’re simulating them."
"Good camera work is not pretty pictures. It should augment and reveal the theme as fully as the actors and directors do."
"Blue or red may mean totally different things to you and me. But as long as my interpretation of a color is consistent, eventually you’ll become aware (subconciously, I hope) of how I’m using that color, and what I’m using it for."
"When this magic happens, the best thing you can do is get out of the way of the picture. Let IT tell YOU how to do it from now on."
"I guess I’m talking about self-deception. In any creative effort, I think that’s absolutely necessary. Creative work is hard, and some sort of self-deception in necessary simply in order to begin. To start, you have to believe that it’s going to turn out well. And so often it doesn’t."
"Don’t let the difficulty of actually achieveing a shot make you think that the shot is good."
"A good place to make an audio cut is on a plosive, a P or a B. An S works well."
"If a picture is edited in the same tempo for its entire length, it will feel much longer. It doesn’t matter if five cuts per minute or five cuts every ten minutes are being used. If the same pace is maintained throughout, it will start to feel slower and slower. In other words, it’s the change in tempo we feel, not the tempo itself."
"Short melodramatic bursts or segues from one scene to another simply fill the air with useless sound and therefore reduce the effectiveness of the music when it’s really needed."
"And that’s what so much of making movies is about: fighting."
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