So you have your script or concept and you’re now ready to make your first film. These inspirational quotes from master film directors will guide you in the right direction and help motivate you to get started.
When you’re doing films, just with friends, with no money, on a shoestring. You have to be able to do all the jobs… And it’s a wonderful way to learn everything.
Christopher Nolan
Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you’re a director. Everything after that you’re just negotiating your budget and your fee.
James Cameron
If you wait until the right time to have a child you’ll die childless, and I think film making is very much the same thing. You just have to take the plunge and just start shooting something even if it’s bad.
James Cameron
I started late. I didn’t make my first movie until I was 40.
Ridley Scott
The best education in film is to make one. I would advise any neophyte director to try to make a film by himself. A three-minute short will teach him a lot. I know that all the things I did at the beginning were, in microcosm, the things I’m doing now as a director and producer. There are a lot of non-creative aspects to filmmaking which have to be overcome, and you will experience them all when you make even the simplest film. It is rare to be able to have uncluttered artistic environment when you make a film, and being able to accept this is essential. The point to stress is that anyone seriously interested in making a film should find as much money as he can as quickly as he can and go out and do it. And this is no longer as difficult as it once was.
Stanley Kubrick
My first fifteen or twenty short video movies were unwatchable, but I learned a lot from them and I kept making them because I enjoyed the process more than the result. The more experience you give yourself, the better prepared you are for the next project. If you want to be a rock star, do you go to rock star school and expect to come out like Jimi Hendrix after a few short classes? Of course not. Don’t be lazy, you know the drill. You have to lock yourself in your garage and practice till your fingers bleed.
Robert Rodriguez
It’s the same thing of how you get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice. (laughs) Also, I’d say get a hold of a video camera and just shoot as much as you can, of anything. If you have a script, get a couple actors together and shoot two pages from the script, then edit the footage on a really basic video editing program. It takes as long to develop a prose style on film as it does a prose style in writing, so it’s crucial to practice whenever and however you can.
John McTiernan
That’s all any of us are – amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.
Charlie Chaplin
Imagination means nothing without doing.
Charlie Chaplin
For anyone who wants to direct but hasn’t made a first movie yet, there is no decision to make. Whatever the movie, whatever the auspices, whatever the problems, if there’s a chance to direct, takeit! Period. Exclamation point! The first movie is its own justification, because it’s the first movie.
Sidney Lumet
I always say to people when I’m trying to get something going, bringing on other producers or other directors, “You can think of 95 reasons why not to make a movie. You’ve got to address why you want to make the movie and get it done. Just do it.” I tend to live by that rule.
Ridley Scott
There are many talented people who haven’t fulfilled their dreams because they over thought it, or they were too cautious, and were unwilling to make the leap of faith.
James Cameron
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney
First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare.
Walt Disney
What’s Your Favorite Quote on Making your First Film?
If you’ve enjoyed the article, then we would be grateful if you could share on social media and your own blogs.
Finally, don’t forget to bookmark the page and keep checking back for new filmmaking quotes from the masters of cinema.
Related articles:
Zero Budget Filmmaking Quotes
Writing the Screenplay Quotes
Directing the Movie Quotes