Camera Work Quotes

#1. I realized that my camera work could help me in a lot of ways to put the audience in the driver's seat, so to speak, to get them in there with the action, and to get them as close and be as intimate with what was going on on-screen as possible.

James Wan

#2. The writer must be a participant in the scene ... like a film director who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work, and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least the main character.

Hunter S. Thompson

#3. Really, voice-over is great. If it paid as much as on camera work, it's all I'd ever do.

Diedrich Bader

#4. 'Donnie Darko' was my first audition ever! It opened my eyes to the possibilities within camera work.

Jolene Purdy

#5. One of the things about working for an old school studio like Warner Bros. is that there is an institutional culture and institutional memory, in terms of production design, camera work, and directors who understand how to do this kind of thing.

Bruno Heller

#6. Sitcoms are like summer stock. You put it up in three days, and then you do it in front of an audience, so it's a really great transition from theatre into camera work.

Susan Egan

#7. A lot of movies try to set up a world with cool sets, costumes, camera work. In Brick, the world is born from the words.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

#8. I like anything with a live audience. I love sitcom work. I hope it comes back in fashion because I really love it. I love single-camera work, too, but in a different way than that live-audience thing, which is really exciting.

Ana Gasteyer

#9. There's a subtleness to camera work. You can really create intimate moments on camera, and sometimes that requires a little more precision from an actor because you have to pull people in as opposed to throwing it to them.

Corey Reynolds

#10. The first time I saw 'Private Practice,' I was hooked. The camera work is captivating, the acting is the-best-of-the-best amazing, and each storyline is so interesting and different.

Rachel G. Fox

#11. I like to do the camera work myself because I kind of feel it, you know, I don't articulate it, I feel it. It's the same with editing.

Nina Menkes

#12. In all my documentaries I did all the camera work, but in fiction I didn't want to do it myself. I think the machinery is so heavy and demanding that you would leave the actors alone for a long time.

Pirjo Honkasalo

#13. I think the theater work and the on-camera work feed off each other. My theater work has become more simple, and my on-camera work has become more energized or more spontaneous.

Michael Stuhlbarg

#14. I'm kind of a tech geek. With the camera work, I chose to shoot super 16, which has a real tactile feel. I feel it's as authentic as possible; I love the way the grain feels.

Ryan Coogler

#15. I had prepared myself for the second half of my life [to be] filled with other passions that don't include being in front of the camera. And then all of a sudden I got more work and more work and more work. And I went, "Well maybe things have shifted." And I think they have.

Sandra Bullock

#16. People who have never done theatre before, and have only worked in front of a camera, would find it very difficult, I think, to know how to command a stage and work with the logistics of being on stage. They're very different. The theatre is quite tricky, actually.

David Wenham

#17. I'd have conversations with the camera crew about what was going on in the scene, so that they were prepared to shoot it. I love the fact that when you work, you create this tribe.

Susan Sarandon

#18. Sometimes we work so fast that we don't really understand what's going on in front of the camera. We just kind of sense that, 'Oh my God, it's significant!' and photograph impulsively while trying to get the exposure right. Exposure occupies my mind while intuition frames the images.

Minor White

#19. To be a series regular for two seasons taught me so much about what it takes to be on a TV schedule and work those kind of hours and just work in front of a camera in general.

Megan Hilty

#20. If I or any other black can deliver at the box office, I'll get a lot of work. Too many young actors, regardless of their color, try to play an attitude on camera and fail to remember their job is to fit into an entertainment.

Mario Van Peebles

#21. The camera can capture thought in a way that's quite surprising and shocking. You can become very simple and minimal in your work and communicate a lot with just a finger or an eyebrow, or a look, or a glance.

Leonard Nimoy

#22. When I first moved to New York I had been trying to work on anything and everything I could. From extra work and commercials to short and student films so I could learn in front of a camera.

Pawel Szajda

#23. Most actors are lucky to ever get a job, period. I never forget that, because I have so many actor friends in L.A., and most of us barely ever work. And those of us that do, it's still only 60 days out of the year that we're actually on camera. It's an absurdly low number.

Emile Hirsch

#24. I know there's been a lot that's been said about animated voice work, as though it's 'you can do this in your jeans and there's no camera and no pressure there. It's no big deal. It's easy.' The truth is, it's really a great test: how deep is your ability is to access your imagination?

Nicolas Cage

#25. The whole thrust in my life right now is spinning my assignments around and making them work in a more personal way ( ... ) I wanted to go back and do the original thing: one camera, one lens, one film. You really have to put yourself in a position of danger to be creative.

David Alan Harvey

#26. I'm a very private person. I don't go out much. I'm home with kids. I go to work. I don't really like being the focus of attention, which is why I like being behind the camera more.

Angelina Jolie

#27. Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures.

Susan Sontag

#28. I love the work, I love being in front of the camera and working with actors and directors and creating something. For me, it's like learning everyday.

Estella Warren

#29. Rachel showed Ulani how to work the camera. Jason explained that the device would capture and preserve the image, along with their souls.

Brandon Mull

#30. In terms of Cube I think he's very conscious of the technical aspect of the business whereas when you're just hired as an actor, you're not really secure in that part of your work and you're not really paying attention to where the camera.

Nia Long

#31. I took myself out of the business to study film at NYU and the School of Visual Arts. I grew up on movie sets and was fascinated with the camera and behind-the-scenes work. I felt it would help my career as an actor if I knew all aspects of film.

Devin Ratray

#32. It's usually so fraught when you're taking a picture. I work with an 8-by-10 view camera and there's a, you know, hood that I put over my head, and it's tricky and complicated.

Sally Mann

#33. Being on stage was all about the palpable energy of a rapt audience hopefully buying into a life onstage. The immediate connection with the audience was the best part for me. The camera is not as fun, but your work is preserved forever. There's immortality to it.

David Walton

#34. The fruit flies we work with have the equivalent of about a 25 by 25 pixel camera. But that camera is very, very fast, about 10 times faster than the human visual system.

Michael Dickinson

#35. If the guy behind the camera is not good, the pictures are bad. It's still you, and it's the same lines and everything, but it doesn't work.

Vincent Cassel

#36. I was in the movies. I danced, I sang, I learned to work in front of a camera. It was like being in a repertory company.

Robert Wagner

#37. I admire people who can step out on their own and work alone - that takes a lot of guts. But I'd rather have the camaraderie on and off camera of working as a part of a group.

Sarah Baker

#38. If you can shoot well, all you need is a disposable, toy camera or a camera phone to create great work. If you're not talented, it doesn't matter if you buy a Nikon D3X or Leica; your work will still be uninspired.

Ken Rockwell

#39. Acting time is like flight time: You can work on a simulator, you can rehearse, but unless you're really in front of the camera or on a stage - that's when you really learn how to work it.

John Kapelos

#40. I like to work my camera as if it were a musical instrument.

Mike Figgis

#41. I love being on stage or in front of the camera. My work brings me a lot of joy. It helps me figure out who I am. I'm really lucky that I get to make a living at acting.

Dana Delany

#42. Usually for cartoons, I record them in the mornings from 9 A.M. to noon, then I have the rest of the day to do on camera. It actually gives me time to work on my own projects.

Greg Cipes

#43. Film was something that I didn't see as a step up from music videos, though obviously, music videos, the fact that you work with a crew and a film camera, are the closest to film I've ever been. That is the only schooling I've ever had.

Anton Corbijn

#44. I'm involved in music and fashion a lot more than I used to be, so my style has definitely changed - for the better, of course. It's given me greater insight into what colours work, what looks good on camera, and what I feel comfortable in.

Olly Murs

#45. The truth is, working on single camera, show or film, you have no life. You work 60-80 hours a week. You're up before your kid gets up, and you're home when they go to sleep.

Jaime Pressly

#46. As a model, I am at the mercy of everybody else. It's much more of a situation where I go to work, put the clothes on, get in front of the camera, and then go home. But in that process, I never really have control over any of it.

Karen Elson

#47. When I have hiring power, I try to work with women in my camera crew as much as possible.

Elle Schneider

#48. I would still encourage somebody, if they wanted to make a movie, to just go take a movie camera. That's clearly been shown to work.

Nicole Holofcener

#49. Audrey was a princess, so natural, the camera really loved her ... James and I kept each other company during all the rejections. We used to meet, have a cup of coffee and went from office to office to get work and never got work.

Ben Gazzara

#50. Women that can work a camera with ease often work men just as effortlessly for both require the same commitment to vanity and manipulation.

Tiffany Madison

#51. I thought that it would be easier to learn that if I worked in motion pictures. So I went to work with one motion picture producer who was developing a color system. This didn't do to me much good. All I did was pick filters for the camera.

John Hench

#52. Kissing in the movies is a real art - figuring out where to put your heads so it looks good on camera. I have had other co-stars who couldn't work that out, which made it a lot harder for me.

Drew Barrymore

#53. A lot of people think theatre must be much harder work than film, but anything histrionic or superfluous gets seen on camera so you have to work to distil it into a complete sense of what's true.

Eddie Redmayne

#54. Pick up a camera and start shooting. You need to wade in in order to figure out how to move forward and do something concrete. I firmly believe that a lot dynamic and revolutionary work flows from those who summon all of their personal energy and just go out and make something.

Andrew Neel

#55. Screen work always boils down to that moment between the camera and the actor or the actors. It always boils down to that, ultimately. You serve the camera.

Alfred Molina

#56. I just want to do more work. Every time I step in front of a camera I feel young again. I really do. It keeps your mind active and it keeps you going.

Ernest Borgnine

#57. Sometimes I feel ashamed at my lack of interest in all the new techniques of modern filmmaking, but I prefer to work with as little equipment as possible. If I have a good lens and a steady camera, that's all I need.

Sven Nykvist

#58. I was hoping, actually, that being on the other side of the camera in a scary movie, see how it's filmed and maybe you won't be as scared next time you watch one ... didn't really work out! Because I know it's fake, but I just get so into it.

Taissa Farmiga

#59. The best way to describe my work is comedy in a very, very real way. I'm not scared to look silly on camera. I take everyday situations we all go through and put a very real twist on it - things people can relate to.

Lilly Singh

#60. My role, or anyone's role in network news, is to make the person on camera look good. You don't do that, you don't work there.

Lowell Bergman

#61. I would love to work with Adam Sandler. Because then all I'd have to do is just turn the camera on and off.

David Zucker

#62. I feel that doing theater does give you a good grounding to work on camera. The audience is the lens.

Julian Ovenden

#63. I think that I need to work on being comfortable at being normal, everyday-ish on camera.

Christina Ricci

#64. We were using a hand-held camera to film the scene when Morse collapses. The camera wouldn't start. Three times they said action and it still wouldn't work. To this day, they still don't know what was wrong.

John Thaw

#65. So when I became interested in photography and further being inspired by the work that I saw of Ansel and others, it was a natural extension to go back to these places that I knew as a kid and explore them with my camera.

John Sexton

#66. I get that same queasy, nervous, thrilling feeling every time I go to work. That's never worn off since I was 12 years-old with my dad's 8-millimeter movie camera.

Steven Spielberg

#67. I remember thinking, I want to work for the camera.

Brendan Fraser

#68. I think at this point, I'd eventually like to work behind the camera. That's not to say I would never act again, I'm not quite sure to be honest.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas

#69. When I do work, I get so much done in such a concentrated time that once I'm through a series, I'm so drained I don't want to get near the camera.

Cindy Sherman

#70. When I was starting, I was very much influenced by the straight up, eyes to camera style of August Sander. He is really the only one. Had I known then the work of people like Ken Russell, Vivian Maier, Helen Levitt, and Steven Berkoff, they would undoubtedly have influenced me too.

Derek Ridgers

#71. Photojournalism has its tremendous rewards and it's wonderful work. In what other work can you wander aimlessly with a camera around your neck, armed only with your personal interest and your eyes?

Larry Towell

#72. I don't like to work with assistants. I'm already one too many; the camera alone would be enough.

Alfred Eisenstaedt

#73. When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment's notice.

Clint Eastwood

#74. In the the late seventies and early eighties, I played background roles in thirty movies ... Woody Allen movies, Scorsese films, you name it. Whatever was being shot in New York, I was doing stand-in and background work because I wanted to be close to the camera; I wanted to see what was going on.

Tobin Bell

#75. Making a film of a work you've played for six weeks gives you intimate knowledge of the character. By the time you go in front of the camera you've worked out the behavior and life of a character.

Linda Lavin

#76. I am a big fan of photography, more of being behind the camera - so when I get the opportunity to work with such great photographers, I always try and learn from their technique.

Penelope Cruz

#77. My background is a small town with no movie theater. So ... I always pictured myself onstage. I went to acting school and learned all the skills. I left early because I did my first movie and discovered that I really loved the minimalistic work with the camera.

Franka Potente

#78. When I work, I really try to get absorbed in the character. Unless I want to do something playful with the camera, I'm not too worried about where the camera is or positions.

Nicolas Cage

#79. It's fun to watch a true-blue movie star at work. They're really unbelievably charismatic. They understand camera angles ...

Ana Gasteyer

#80. Where I think the most work needs to be done is behind the camera, not in front of it.

Denzel Washington

#81. It's great to get insight into the era of 80's rock-n-roll via a treasure trove
of photographs skillfully captured in front of Mark Weiss' camera lens. This
event is the perfect time capsule for Mark's work finally being released
upon the masses in 2012.

Phil Collen

#82. I don't want to direct music videos at all. Any work I do with a camera I'd like to be for a film.

Giuseppe Andrews

#83. Stunt work offers a diversity of roles and, while I'm used to anonymity, I really like showing off and performing in front of camera, though I know my limitations.

Joel Edgerton

#84. Usually I work with a digital camera and compose my works digitally or give them a finish on the computer, in order to make them meet my ideas perfectly.

Loretta Lux

#85. Click! In other words, I'm in a very controlling position, and I can bring ... and I've already ... if the camera's on you, your face is very concentrated. You're listening. You don't know what I'm going to say next, and now you're smiling. All these things are the things I work with.

Richard Avedon

#86. When you are a photographer, you work all the time, because your eye is the first camera.

Patrick Demarchelier

#87. I used to hate getting dressed, getting in front of the camera and walking down the red carpet. It bothered me because I felt like I couldn't be what they wanted me to be. Now it's still not my favorite thing, but I get through it a lot easier because I know that my work brings value to who I am.

America Ferrera

#88. What I remember most about working on 'Sesame Street' is having fun in the green room with the other kids while waiting for my time to go on camera to work with the puppets.

Tyler James Williams

#89. I like telling stories, I like movies, and I want to work on films. I think I would feel safer behind the camera.

Suraj Sharma

#90. In films people basically work for the camera, you know, and that's why actors can hate each other and not be speaking to each other and still look as if they're in love because really they're loving the camera loving them.

Francesca Annis

#91. It really is a pleasure to work with someone who you admire. Whatever you do in front of the camera, and I don't know what it is, but actors have this thing that you recognize someone that makes you better. When you do that, it's a great feeling.

Benicio Del Toro

#92. In the old days, before there was such a thing as film schools, directors learned the camera by watching other directors, and learning from their own dailies, and listening to the cameraman, and seeing what would work. Some of those guys could cut their movies in their head.

Don Ameche

#93. I want to continue working in Mexico, but I'd also like to work in other countries eventually, too. Working behind the camera is interesting for me, too.

Stephanie Sigman

#94. For an actor working in television or film, I think it's important to understand how the medium works - how the camera and lenses work and how the sound and the editing works.

Simon Baker

#95. The key to my work is that I stopped, physically, to observe something. I raised my camera and recorded my observations.

Julius Shulman

#96. Life is like a camera. Focus on what's important. Capture the good times. And if things don't work out, just take another shot.

Ziad K. Abdelnour

#97. My heroes are the camera crew and the electricians. They work such long hours.

Adam Baldwin

#98. With the work that I do as a director, I've got dialogue, camera movement, and character blocking to help create a tone to the piece. In photography, those elements are somewhat void so that tone becomes a bit more subtle but still equally important.

Aaron Ruell

#99. Blur trying to shy away from the camera. I listen to her advice and on my way to and from work I concentrate on the other

Junot Diaz

#100. You can get a bit 'head in the clouds' - well, I do - and full of myself if I stick in front of the camera for too long. I forget there is hard work that needs to be done.

Tom Goodman-Hill