Mark Duplass
As the death of the middle class of film has happened, it has been re-birthed in television.
George Saunders is the funniest. He makes me laugh in the way I want to laugh - with so much empathy and deep understanding of people. He illuminates things and people I've never thought about - and I've dedicated my life to the study of people and their idiosyncrasies. He is light years ahead.
I'll do any kind of movie, as long as it's a good version of it.
When you're improvising, it's fun to find something that you can lean on that is similar to your life experience. In my opinion, that's very helpful.
'Somewhere in Time' is in the top-five cheesiest movies ever made. It's super melodrama.
I'm interested to see what happens to Spike Lee with limited resources, you know? I love Spike Lee's movies. But you know what? I kinda liked his movies when he used to scramble and fight more for them.
They're each on separate coasts but I think that the deep Maine woods shares some similarities to the Pacific Northwest.
If you're locked to the words on the script, as good as those scripted words are, if you didn't have the time to rehearse them correctly or if the perceived dynamic between the actors is different from what the writer imagined, and you're not allowed to stray from that, you're going to have a stilted scene.
I question every move. I'm constantly second-guessing myself.
You know, I watched the original 'Same Time, Next Year' on DVD about ten times this year, and I cried all ten times.
Obviously we know Bill Hader is funny and charming, but my question is, can he do raw humanity and naturalism? I think so.
I'm not someone who feels that unless I am anxious or depressed, there will be no creative drive. My greatest desire in the world is that my desperation goes away, and I can be happy.
I think 'Cyrus' has a lot of fat in it. It was a $7 million movie. If you're going to make a movie with famous people, you don't necessarily need to spend 7 million dollars. Make it for less than that, and you'll be able to sell it and make a ton more than that, and everybody shares the profits.
When we saw the first cut of 'Wild Wild Country,' it was like, Wow.
I would say if you have a dream - and whether that is you want to be some sort of artist, or you want to start a start-up or a business, anything that very much feels like it's uniquely yours and you may not be able to get traction going through traditional channels - the way to do it is to build it brick by brick on your own in microsteps.
We built a business for ourselves just out of hard work, and I think people really want to hear from us about that.
Not all movies are movies you want to spend $14 on - and not all movies are movies you want to spend $10 on for ultra VOD, or even $6.99 on renting.
'The One I Love' came out in theaters for the enthusiasts and did a chunk of business on VOD. But when it started streaming on Netflix, it exploded. Same thing with 'Safety Not Guaranteed.'
I played acoustic guitar so intensely, for so long - for nine hours a day as a 10-year-old, writing songs through the night, on tour constantly from when I was 19 - that I destroyed my arms and shoulders in the process.
How do you say no to doughnuts?
At the risk of saying you should make a self-indulgent film for your first movie: you should make a self-indulgent film for your first movie.
I think that 'Room 104' offered us an organic opportunity to tell all kinds of stories with all kinds of protagonists.
In particular, what I loved about 'Creep' and 'The One I Love' was the combination of naturalism, horror, and comedy that felt kind of new and fun.
Nobody should be working 18 hours a day for a whole year or any period of time.
The only thing darker than 'Overboard' is 'Micki & Maude,' the bigamy comedy from 1984.
When you make a black-and-white movie with two people in it in 2016, you're taking a swing at something.
I selfishly like a lot of first-time directors because they over-prepare, they're super eager, and there's very little ego.
You're taught - consciously or sub-consciously - to make an indie so you can get through that terrible process and get to Hollywood. I realized when I got there, 'Oh, no; I think I'm better over here.'
I consistently go to therapy and work on this one issue. I've devoted an hour every two weeks to ask, 'How do I be a workaholic, do what we love to do, and not die of a heart attack, destroy myself and my family, and keep my friends?'
The realm of making microbudget stuff will always be totally in our control. Most of the time, we just pay for those out of pocket. Then there is stuff that's too expensive for us to pay for, and we want partners on, like 'Togetherness' and 'Animals' and some of our original Netflix movies.
I never thought about branding when we were starting our production company.
The challenge for me as a parent of two girls is to establish enough structure in the house so that things don't go haywire... but at the same time, as a dominant male figure in their life, let them know they can topple the king.
I want 'Like Brothers' to answer young kids who ask, 'How could I possibly become a filmmaker?' This book will step that out for you.
I'm really excited about public libraries that are redefining themselves as free learning centers.
No one can stop you from doing exactly what you want to do. If you can accept that the cavalry won't come, and if you can be the cavalry, it gives you a chance to be happy.Collection: Giving
There's no excuse not to make films on weekends with friends.Collection: Weekend
I feel like, if I'm being honest with myself, my biggest skill set is as a writer 'cause I can do that quickly and I'm really grounded in story structure. Part of my success as an actor, is that I know story well. Part of my success as a director, is how well I know story. Same thing, as a producer. It all begins and ends with me as a story creator. But, I love doing it all.Collection: Skills
Making movies that are really cheap and that can be owned and that you maintain your control of is really exciting.Collection: Exciting
When you're writing a 25-minute episode that can be anything, sometimes you just start with a character, and you let them walk into the room. Then you let your instinct guide you. That's how we made art when we were 15 years old. And that's so fun to us.Collection: Art
I really like Jason Blum a lot. We're friends, and while we make wildly disparate films, we share a philosophy about low-budget filmmaking, about taking chances on young filmmaking, taking risks and obliterating our salary so we can make something cheaply and if it wins everyone wins big.Collection: Philosophy
If we have anything to offer, as filmmakers and as TV makers now, it's this ability to feel as close to a documentary as you can get in a narrative form.Collection: Narrative
Well, I'll be honest with you, sometimes you don't know you're playing a moment that's going to be in a montage. Sometimes it's a scene that didn't work out the way you hoped it would be and ends up in a montage.Collection: Work Out
I really believe in constantly trying to find and support new ways of watching independent art, because the old ways are not working as well.Collection: Art
We've done things that are faster at times, but it's definitely different when we direct all the episodes because it's like we have to write them all, then shoot them all, then edit them all. So we have to just get ahead on those scripts basically.Collection: Writing
Jay [Duplass] and I normally just sit around and people watch, and we talk about things that are happening in our lives, or with people that we've met. That's the soup from which our movies usually come from.Collection: People
We've shot with babies and kids and it was tough. It's not easy. It looks tangential, but it is not.Collection: Baby
I'm a narrative-minded actor. I'm thinking of the story. I'm not worried about whether the camera is on the right side of my face, or where the camera is. I'm just going for the story.Collection: Thinking
Somewhere in Time is in the top-five cheesiest movies ever made. Its super melodrama.Collection: Made
"Repulsion" for me was a really big movie where I was like, "OK, technically there's nothing scary going on here but I'm kind of terrified." Something so tiny was devolving this whole world. I guess I've always been obsessed with what I call the "epically small" in cinema, and that's how one tiny, little weird thing can just explode everything.Collection: Scary
We get to get into the nitty-gritty and the minutiae of the way they relate now, and that's really valuable. We just have to make sure we don't repeat ourselves and we plot this thing so it doesn't dead end too much, and so that's the challenge really. It's like, how do you keep those balls in the air and make it exciting still?Collection: Air