Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Macromedia's Flash Player. Click here to get the latest flash player.
A Joey Ernand Film's Interests
General
For a more "in depth" look at my personal life and my interests, check out http://www.myspace.com/joey_e
Music
FILM COMPOSERS
John Williams, Hans Zimmer, James Horner, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schifrin, Bernard Herrmann, Bill Conti, Thomas Newman, Randy Edelman, Alan Silvestri, Jerry Goldsmith, Michael Kamen, Trevor Jones, Philip Glass, Shirley Walker, Alan Menken, Elmer Bernstein, Basil Poledouris, Michael Giacchino
Music is an intergral part of any movie. It provides your film's emotional backbone. It would be an immense honor to have the score of one of my films be assimilated into pop culture, like most of Mr. Williams' work.
Movies
TIED FOR FIRST
Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Star Wars Saga, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Braveheart, The Lion King
SERIES / TRILOGIES
Godfather Trilogy, Die Hard Trilogy, Back to the Future Trilogy, Lethal Weapon Series, Rocky Series, Rambo Trilogy, The Colors Trilogy (Blue-White-Red), Jack Ryan Series, Scream Trilogy, Harry Potter Series, El Mariachi Trilogy, The Dollars Trilogy, Star Trek Series, James Bond Series, Mission:Impossible series, Mad Max Trilogy, Samurai Trilogy, Lone Wolf and Cub series, The Pink Panther series, The Vacation Trilogy, The Pusher Trilogy, The Yakuza Papers series
SPIELBERG
Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Empire of the Sun, Always, Hook, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, Munich
ANIMATION
Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Spirited Away, The Iron Giant, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., A Bug's Life, Cars, Ratatouille, The Land Before Time, An American Tail, All Dogs Go To Heaven, The Secret of Nihm, The Prince of Egypt, Bambi, Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmations, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Sword in the Stone, Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, The Emperor's New Groove, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Chicken Run, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker, Batman and Superman: World's Finest, Batman: Sub-Zero, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Monster House
FOREIGN
The Killer, Hard Boiled, Cinema Paradiso, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, Seven Samurai, Dreams, The Sword of Doom, The Twilight Samurai, Samurai Assassin, Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Devil's Backbone, Life is Beautiful, Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, City of God, Il Postino, The Terrorist, M, Fanny and Alexander, Run Lola Run, Downfall, When the Last Sword is Drawn, Tsotsi, Hara Kiri, Cache, After Life, I'm Not Scared, Duck Season, Infernal Affairs, Pan's Labyrinth, After the Wedding, Chronicle of an Escape, Memories of a Murder, The Host
MARTIAL ARTS
Kill Bill, Drunken Master, Legend of Drunken Master, Project A, Police Story, Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, Ong Bak: Thai Warrior, The Protector (2006), Born to Fight, Once Upon A Time In China, Iron Monkey, Enter the Dragon, Chinese Connection, Unleashed, Fearless
MUSICALS
Moulin Rouge!, Singin' in the Rain, Little Shop of Horrors, Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, The King and I, Camelot, Grease, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
WESTERN
Once Upon A Time in the West, Unforgiven, The Good the Bad and The Ugly, Open Range, Tombstone, The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, High Noon, Dances With Wolves, The Quick and the Dead, The Proposition, 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
WAR
Apocalypse Now, Glory, Paths of Glory, The Patriot, The Last Samurai, Platoon, Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, The Longest Day, Bridge on the River Kwai, Tigerland, Three Kings, Casualties of War, Jarhead, The Thin Red Line, Hell in the Pacific, The Dirty Dozen, Patton, Kingdom of Heaven, Letters from Iwo Jima
COMIC BOOK / SUPERHERO
Batman Begins, Batman(1989), X-Men, X2: X-Men United, Spiderman 2, Superman: The Movie, Superman II: The Donner Cut, Superman Returns, Blade, Blade 2, The Rocketeer, Dick Tracy, Constantine, Hellboy, The Crow, Sin City, Hulk, Unbreakable, A History of Violence, Road to Perdition, V For Vendetta, 300
ROMANCE
Casablanca, Ghost, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Jerry Maguire, Say Anything, Titanic, Meet Joe Black, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Punch Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, What Dreams May Come, Vanilla Sky, Lost in Translation, Ladyhawke, Truly Madly Deeply, Shakespeare in Love, Chasing Amy, Garden State, Great Expectations (1998), Return to Me, Chocolat, Love Actually, High Fidelity, Legends of the Fall, It Happened One Night, As Good As It Gets, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Pride and Prejudice (2005), LA Story, Shopgirl, Brokeback Mountain, Conversations With Other Women
SCI - FI
The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Total Recall, Robocop, Dark City, 12 Monkeys, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Abyss, Alien, Aliens, Equilibrium, Strange Days, Serenity, Demolition Man, The War of the Worlds (1953), Inner Space, Solaris (2002), Starship Troopers, The Day the Earth Stood Still, THX-1138, Children of Men
FANTASY
Edward Scissorhands, Big Trouble in Little China, King Kong (1933), King Kong (2005), Legend, The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan (2003), Secondhand Lions, *batteries not included, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Shaggy Dog (1959), Pleasantville, Mirrormask, The Dark Crystal, Excalibur, Jumanji, Zathura, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Dragonslayer, Highlander, Young Sherlock Holmes, Masters of the Universe, Being John Malkovich, Big Fish, Beetlejuice, Frequency, Disney's The Kid, Harry and the Hendersons, Lady in the Water, Stranger Than Fiction, Stardust
HORROR
Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Wolf Man (1941), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), The Others, An American Werewolf in London, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Exorcist, Exorcist 3, The Omen (1976), Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), The Devil's Advocate, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Army of Darkness, Shaun of the Dead, Bubba Ho-tep, The Ring, Dead Alive, The Frighteners, Session 9, John Carpenter's The Thing, The Shining, Psycho, The Birds, Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Sleepy Hollow, Frailty, Lady in White, The Fly (1986), Tremors, What Lies Beneath, Interview with the Vampire, Dog Soldiers, The Descent, The Hills Have Eyes (2006), The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Demon Knight, From Dusk Till Dawn
SUSPENSE / THRILLER
Signs, The Sixth Sense, Collateral, Cape Fear (1991), The Ghost and the Darkness, Wait Until Dark, 3 Days of the Condor, Marathon Man, No Way Out (1987), Sneakers, Joy Ride, Judgment Night, Ransom, Frantic, Spartan, Breakdown, The Gift, Ronin, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Crimson Tide, Ice Station Zebra, Dead Calm, Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Rope, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Cavite, The Prestige
ACTION / ADVENTURE
True Lies, Conan the Barbarian, Predator, Predator 2, Commando, The Fugitive, Dirty Harry, The Last of the Mohicans, Gladiator, Black Rain, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Three Musketeers (1993), Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Last Boy Scout, The Rock, Face Off, The Great Escape, Speed, Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, The Mark of Zorro, The Mask of Zorro, Beverly Hills Cop, Beverly Hills Cop 2, 48 Hours, The French Connection, Cutthroat Island, The Crimson Pirate, The Black Swan, Gunga Din, The Count of Monte Cristo, The 13th Warrior, Air Force One, Executive Decision, Leon: The Professional, Con Air, Miami Vice, The Peacemaker
CRIME / GANGSTER / NOIR
The Asphalt Jungle, The Maltese Falcon, LA Confidential, The Untouchables, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Memento, Following, Insomnia, The Usual Suspects, The Setup, Heist, Miller's Crossing, Carlito's Way, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Seven, Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, Bugsy, Hard Eight, Fight Club, Heat, The Way of the Gun, A Bronx Tale, Snatch, Out of Sight, Ocean's Eleven, Narc, Blood Simple, Red Rock West, Devil in a Blue Dress, Layer Cake, Chinatown, Double Indemnity, One False Move, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Sting, A Simple Plan, Croupier, Training Day, The Salton Sea, A Perfect World, The Roaring Twenties, State of Grace, The Score, The Long Good Friday, The Hard Word, Inside Man, Brick, Match Point, Matchstick Men, Dark Passage, Fresh, Last Man Standing, To Die For, The Machinist, Once Upon A Time In America, Sexy Beast, The Good German
COMEDY
Airplane, Zoolander, Ghostbusters, Raising Arizona, The Kentucky Fried Movie, Spaceballs, The Simpsons Movie, South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut, Weird Science, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, American Graffiti, Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Napoleon Dynamite, Tommy Boy, Billy Madison, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Swingers, Go, Made, Clerks, Dogma, The Addams Family, Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, Meet the Parents, Flirting With Disaster, Home Alone, Adventures in Babysitting, The Great Outdoors, Happy Gilmore, American Pie, Wet Hot American Summer, The Naked Gun, Top Secret!, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Old School, Blades of Glory, One Crazy Summer, Better Off Dead, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Coming to America, The Golden Child, Bad Santa, Three O'Clock High, Election, Sideways, About Schmidt, Kindergarten Cop, Hot Shots, Hot Shots Part Deux, The Birdcage, Groundhog Day, Scrooged, A Christmas Story, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, Wayne's World, Wayne's World 2, Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Roger Dodger, big, Bachelor Party, Half Baked, Office Space, The Three Amigos, Team America: World Police, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, Private Parts, That Thing You Do!, Annie Hall, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, This is Spinal Tap!, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, Can't Hardly Wait, Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights, Nobody's Fool, Galaxy Quest, The Weather Man, A League of Their Own, Biloxi Blues, A Fish Called Wanda, Dazed and Confused, Wag the Dog, Waking Ned Devine, The Dish, School of Rock, Nacho Libre, Eddie Murphy: Delirious, Eddie Murphy: Raw, Bill Cosby: Himself, Wonder Boys
DRAMA
Good Will Hunting, Forrest Gump, The Green Mile, To Kill A Mockingbird, Rudy, The Shawshank Redemption, The Breakfast Club, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, The Truman Show, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Tape, 25th Hour, Alive, Lawrence of Arabia, Almost Famous, Scent of a Woman, In America, Castaway, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Few Good Men, Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Sling Blade, 21 Grams, The Cider House Rules, Twelve Angry Men, Raging Bull, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, The Passion of the Christ, Billy Elliot, Network, Any Given Sunday, American History X, American Splendor, Malcolm X, Quiz Show, It's A Wonderful Life, Gone With the Wind, Ben Hur, Citizen Kane, Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, Dead Poet's Society, Field of Dreams, The Lion in Winter, Old Yeller, Nine Lives, Everything is Illuminated, Radio Flyer, Bloody Sunday, United 93, Hustle and Flow, Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana, Capote, Backdraft, Cinderella Man, Apollo 13, The Constant Gardener, Dead Man Walking, Hoosiers, Awakenings, The Aviator, Bringing Out The Dead, In the Bedroom, A River Runs Through It, Philadelphia, The Good Shepherd, Richard III (1995), George Washington
NOSTALGIA
The Monster Squad, The Goonies, Gremlins, Willow, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Princess Bride, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, Snoopy Come Home, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Newsies, Teen Wolf, Flight of the Navigator, Stand By Me, The Lost Boys, License to Drive, The Boy Who Could Fly, The Chipmunk Adventure, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mannequin, The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, The Karate Kid, The Karate Kid Part 2, Toy Soldiers, The Sandlot, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Popeye, Swiss Family Robinson, GI Joe the Movie
Television
THE SIMPSONS is the best thing on TV, and the best show that has ever existed. I have watched every episode since it first aired in 1989. I love it, because it completely encapsulates my sense of humor. Homer Simpson is the best character ever. And, I would marry this show if I could. Then I would make sweet, sweet love to it by the fire, and slap it in the face after drinking too much.
What?
I am a sucker for well-written, broadly conceived, heavily serialized shows, i.e. shows that introduce and explore several story arcs over the course of a season, with every episode being firmly connected. More importantly, the TV shows I watch tend to be very cinematic in terms of their scripting and execution. No reality shows need apply, thank you very much.
More animation:
Futurama, South Park, Family Guy, Ren and Stimpy, The Critic, Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Gargoyles, Samurai Jack, Duck Tales, Animaniacs, The Venture Brothers
Live action - COMEDY:
Arrested Development, The Office, Saturday Night Live, Friends, Seinfeld, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Sports Night, Entourage, Saved by the Bell, The Brady Bunch, along with many more cheesy-yet-great sitcoms from my youth.
Live action - DRAMA:
Lost, Alias, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, Rome, The Wire, Carnivale, The Wonder Years, 24
Heroes
"I just wanna thank the movies."
-Sidney Lumet, 77th Annual Academy Awards
DIRECTORS (besides Spielberg)
Peter Jackson
James Cameron
Alfred Hitchcock
Quentin Tarantino
Ridley Scott
Akira Kurosawa
Francis Ford Coppola
Martin Scorcese
The Coen Brothers
Tim Burton
John Woo
Wes Anderson
M. Night Shyamalan
George Lucas
Guillermo Del Toro
Robert Rodriguez
WRITERS
Charlie Kauffman
Cameron Crowe
John Hughes
The Coen Brothers
Wes Anderson
M. Night Shyamalan
Frank Darabont
Christopher Nolan
J.J. Abrams
David Simon
Aaron Sorkin
ACTORS
Sean Connery
Arnold Scwarzenegger
Anthony Hopkins
Robert Deniro
Al Pacino
Marlon Brando
Toshiro Mifune
Humphrey Bogart
Tom Hanks
Johnny Depp
ACTRESSES
Audrey Hepburn
Meryl Streep
Judi Dench
Cate Blanchett
Julianne Moore
Kate Winslet
Jessica Tandy
CINEMATOGRAPHERS
Conrad Hall
Robert Richardson
Janusz Kaminski
Wally Pfister
Andrew Lesnie
Christopher Doyle
Roger Deakins
PRODUCERS
Jerry Bruckheimer
David O. Selznick
Lawrence Bender
Frank Marshall
MAGIC MAKERS
Industrial Light and Magic
Pixar
Weta Workshop
Ray Harryhausen
Stan Winston
Rick Baker
Jim Henson
Walt Disney
I will be willing to work in any position right now. My specialties lie in the creative side of the field. One day, I hope to be a writer/producer/director.
My dream is to become Steven Spielberg. Yes, to actually possess his body and become him, and I'll run around, drooling and cackling evilly, doing many un-Spielberg like things, like making a sequel to "House of the Dead," or a sequel to "E.T." called "E.T. 2: Die Harder," and "Schindler's List :It Was All A Dream," just so I can ruin the man's career.
What I REALLY mean is that I want to end up where he is now, the world's most successful critical, financial, personal and commercial director who is also the co-head of his own studio, so that I can have the power he has and the freedom to make any movie I want.
But you know why he's the best person in the film business? Cause he is humble, and still seems to be genuinely excited and grateful to be doing what he does for a living, and you can't ask for more than that. How awesome would that be, to get what you want out of life but still recognize how lucky you are and to retain your identity and humility? That's my ultimate goal.
The three movies I have in my head that I want to make MOST are: EPIC, a fantasy "Lord of the Rings" type thing; a love story based on personal experience; and a Batman movie. I mentioned my dream projects just so you can get a sense of my diverse taste in movies. And, you can further evaluate said diverse movie taste by looking at the ridiculously long column to your left. You will see that I like both the big and the small.
- DIGRESSION -
Every one of my movies will include an EXCLAMATION POINT in the title, followed by the words "THE MOVIE." Example: EPIC! The Movie. I don't really know why...it just makes everything seem so exciting!
I also plan to end all my movies like so:
The main character will ALWAYS somehow find time to include the title of the film in his closing sentence. Example: For the movie Superman, Clark Kent would say: "Well, he certainly was a 'SUPER- MAN!' " Everyone would laugh, they would exit the room, and Clark Kent would conveniently be the last one out. As he's exiting, he would stop in the doorway, and slowly turn around. He would be sporting GLOWING YELLOW EYES, like at the end of the "Thriller" video. Then he would start laughing, and that truly frightening image would FREEZE. Then, the words "THE END......?" would pop onscreen. GENIUS! Every movie should end that way...always leave them wanting more!!!
- DIGRESSION NOW OVER -
So yeah, movies are my passion. I am deeply, insanely in love with film. If you ask me anything about any movie, odds are I'll prolly know it cause I'm addicted to the stuff. However, I learn something new about movies everyday, and I have an infinte list of "must sees." It saddens me to know that I will never be able to see every cool movie I read about. There are just too many flicks, and too little time. It's torturous. But that doesn't mean I can't try to see them all! =)
- RULES TO FILM BY -
Billy Wilder's Screenwriting Tips
(As told to Cameron Crowe):
1. The audience is fickle.
2. Grab 'em by the throat and never let 'em go.
3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
4. Know where you’re going.
5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They'll love you forever.
8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’'e seeing.
9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then -- that's it. Don’t hang around.
- MY TWO CENTS -
No bad movie is too short. No good movie is too long.
There's nothing they can teach you in school that the movies can't teach you in two hours or less, with a few car chases and good music thrown in to boot.
Film is like any other language that we share as human beings... it grows from the use of it. The more filmmakers exchange ideas and try out different styles and experiment with the vocabulary of action or comedy or romance, the richer film language becomes.
You can tell a lot about a person based on the movies they like.
Comic books always have and always will be great morality plays, lessons wrapped in entertaining metaphor – just as early mythology and fables were. And to get it right when translating it to the screen, one need not stick to the facts, but rather to the soul, of what you’re adapting.
If you can't bring something new to the table or improve upon the original in some way, then what's the point of doing a remake?
Develop your characters. Don't be afraid to just let them talk to each other. Most of real life is comprised of conversations...emulate that, and your audience will believe in the people on screen.
I will never stop going to the theaters, no matter how pricey it gets or how annoying the crowds get.
I will never buy or download a bootleg movie, because they are usually of very crappy quality, and the artists involved never meant their creation to be seen that way. I will always respect that, because I know exactly where they are coming from.
I will always try to watch a movie for the first time in theaters. Why? Because movies were born on the big screen, and in honor of the starting point of my life's passion, I will always go to the movies. Nothing compares to sitting in the dark, with those larger than life dreams unfolding on the huge canvas before you. Kick-ass home theater systems are nice, but they will never compare to the majesty of the silver screen.
A great movie crowd makes a great movie even better.
Having an extensive and varied DVD library is a way to keep film history on hand...a way to be able to pull everything I might reference, everything I think is worthwhile. It also serves as a map of who I am, as both a burgeoning filmmaker and a person.
Watch as many movies as you can. It can be great, good, mediocre, or terrible...it can be from any year, and any genre...do not discriminate, do not be overly selective. Watch EVERYTHING, it doesn't matter what it is. The good ones will stick with you forever, and the bad ones will teach you what NOT to do when making your own films (and if it's really bad, you can treat it as a comedy, and then everybody wins).
What you bring to the table (personality, personal experience, sense of humor, empathy, sympathy), emotion, and geeky coolness matter WAY more than shot selection or logic or following the three act rule. In short, how a movie makes you feel is more important than how it stacks up against what you learned in film school.
Watch a movie with an open mind, so you can learn from it, both intellectually and techincally. Watch a movie with an open heart, so you can feel from it. Combine the two, and you'll direct the best films ever made.
BABY STEPS...
Who I'd like to meet:
"Once a month the sky falls on my head, I come to, and I see another movie I want to make."
"I'd rather direct than produce. Any day. And twice on Sunday."
"I'm too nostalgic to make my movies digitally. I'm the last person in Hollywood who cuts his film on film. I still love cutting on film. The greatest films ever made in our history were cut on film and I'm tenaciously hanging on to the process. I just love going into an editing room and smelling the photochemistry and seeing my editor wearing mini-strands of film around his neck. It's a choice. I feel like I should call myself 'handmade productions.' "
"...I really believe that the average home system is far inferior to a movie house. And a lot of it is the social magic of going out to the movies, seeing it with a lot of people you have never met and sharing an experience. I feel there is no substitute for going out to the movies. There is nothing like it."
"I only paint on the one size sheet of paper. I always make my movies for a movie theater that has, like, 500 seats, and I like to imagine how big that screen is and feel confident the audience can see a central character a hundred yards away in the lower right hand corner of that screen. But I also realize on a laptop on an airplane, or even at worst on an ipod, they are never going to see that character, and an element of the story will be lost. I would never want the audience to be able to touch a couple of buttons and move an arrow key and suddenly recut my film to be able to see the background better on a smaller screen. If it's an interactive movie that allows the audience complete control, that's not my business. But I am not in favor of movies that I make being so malleable in the hands of an audience, where they are able to kind of recut it and redo it and remake it."
"I always like to think of the audience when I am directing. Because I am the audience."
"...When you have a story that is very commercial and simple, you have to find the art. You have to take the other elements of the film, and make them as good as possible, and doing that will uplift the film."
"I'm as guilty as anyone, because I helped to herald the digital era with Jurassic Park. But the danger is that it can be abused to the point where nothing is eye-popping any more. The difference between making Jaws 31 years ago and War of the Worlds is that today, anything I can imagine, I can realize on film. Then, when my mechanical shark was being repaired and I had to shoot something, I had to make the water scary. I relied on the audience's imagination, aided by where I put the camera. Today, it would be a digital shark. It would cost a hell of a lot more, but never break down. As a result, I probably would have used it four times as much, which would have made the film four times less scary. Jaws is scary because of what you don't see, not because of what you do. We need to bring the audience back into partnership with storytelling. "
"Being a movie-maker means you get to live many, many lifetimes. It's the same reason audiences go to movies, I think. When my daughter Sasha was 5 years old, we would be watching something on TV and she'd point to a character on screen and say, "Daddy, that's me." Ten minutes later a new character would come on screen and she'd say, "No, Daddy. That's me." Throughout the movie she would pick different people to become. I think that's what we all do. We just don't say it as sweetly."
"After a scary movie about the world almost ending, we can walk into the sunlight and say, "Wow, everything's still here. I'm OK!" We like to tease ourselves. Human beings have a need to get close to the edge, and when filmmakers or writers can take them to the edge, it feels like a dream where you're falling, but you wake up just before you hit the ground."
" Once the hard work of researching and writing is done...
once the roles are cast...once the crucial question,
'What is this movie about?'
has been asked and answered...
there comes the most urgent question of all:
'How then will I tell this story?' "
"The older I get, the more I look at movies as a moving miracle."
"A movie is experiential. A movie happens in a way that has always been cathartic...the personal, human catharsis of an audience in Holy Communion with an experience up on the screen. That's why I'm in the middle of this magic, and I always will be."
hey Joey how you been I am sure you are looking forward to Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight! I am so super psyched for this film, as are you, i'm sure. Its going to be my favorite film of all time as much as I love Batman Begins I do know that The Dark Knight is going to top Begins! RIP Heath Ledger
INDIANA JONES FAN CELEBRATION...an internet podcast event...this Wednesday, May 14 at 10pm ET! Featuring exclusive live interviews, fan interaction and an advanced look at 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"!
SPREAD THE WORD! We want to hear from the fans tonight!
Hey Joey I wish you and your friends the best of luck with your MOVIES! the TV show project I subscribed to your MOVIES! the TV show youtube page! By the way I like the MOVIES! the TV show Intro!
