The process of film-making is an unusual combination of art and industry.
The use of the word “film” today is somewhat of a misnomer since most contemporary films are now fully digital through the entire process of production, distribution, and exhibition from start to finish. Perhaps the American use of the term ” movie” is more appropriate now than the British and European term “film.”
Films may be considered cultural artifacts created by specific cultures to both reflect and influence them. Whilst they may be an art form and a source of popular entertainment, they also provide a powerful medium for educating – or indoctrinating – people.
However, the contemporary definition of cinema is the art of simulating experiences to communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty or atmosphere.
The responsibility for the creative element of that communication is fundamentally in the hands of the director.
Consequently, what directors think about the business they are in is very revealing. Our LifeDaily team has selected a few examples of what directors have said about their work and their industry.
Browse these quotes to get an insight:
- Alfred Hitchcock:
The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
- Orson Welles:
If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.
- Jean-Luc Godard:
A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.
- Samuel Goldwyn:
A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad.
- Alfred Hitchcock:
A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theater admission and the babysitter were worth it.
- Samuel Goldwyn:
Give me a couple of years, and I’ll make that actress an overnight success.
- Frank Capra:
I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.
- Woody Allen:
If my films make one more person miserable, I’ll feel I have done my job.
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz:
The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn’t.
- Woody Allen:
If my films don’t show a profit, I know I’m doing something right.
- Billy Wilder:
Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.
- William Wyler:
I made over forty Westerns. I used to lie awake nights trying to think up new ways of getting on and off a horse.
- Cecil B. DeMille:
Every time I make a picture the critics’ estimate of American public taste goes down ten percent.
- Samuel Goldwyn:
Why should people go out and pay money to see bad films when they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing?
- Roland Emmerich:
Nobody makes movies bad on purpose.
There is no doubt that films have been one of the most influential elements of modern culture for over 100 years.
But what about the next 100 years? With the growth of the internet and social media sites do you think films will have the same influence and effect?
Do you actually go to the cinema, or do you view films online?
Share your views by making use of the comments feed below.
