We like to collaborate on everything, so we have no formal divisions on where we each like to focus, and we like to put our brains together on every aspect of a project. We just have a nonstop dialogue.
What Joe and I get excited by, creatively, is exploring all of the different forms of filmmaking.
For us, since we entered the MCU as storytellers, and we picked up the story with 'Winter Soldier,' we've been carrying a thread forward from that point, a narrative thread.
Our experience making 'Pieces,' all it did was confirm our passion for film making to ourselves. We were having the time of our lives, and we were in love with what we were doing.
The thing I always loved about the movie business is it is really a cowboy industry in the sense that there's no prescribed road into it or through it.
We knew people in Cleveland who had been making movies for 20 years that nobody sees. Every couple of years, they make a little small movie on their own, and it goes to some minor festivals, and that's it. Four years later, they do it again. That's a fulfilling life for some filmmakers, and they're happy to work that way.
It's hard to give specific advice because there's so many different types of animals. In making movies, you just have to figure out what type of animal you are and then find the road.
In general, just as a framing, we always thought about 'Winter Soldier' very specifically as a political thriller.
I think that's part of the fun for us: we love looking at movies through the filter of a specific character - characters who aren't the lead - and figuring out the film from their point of view.
Marvel is never more happy than when filmmakers start doing things they didn't expect. That's when they know they're in a good place.
We're big fans of balance in storytelling, and we like movies that hit every emotion.
There's a writing adage that says, 'Write yourself into a corner.' My brother and I have always loved that adage.
We like movies that are going to have a great sense of fun and thrill to them while at the same time remain very grounded in relatable human emotions and conflicts that the audiences can get behind and root for and empathise with.
The fact we got to become a part of the Marvel family and find our own expression within that is a real joy for my brother and I.
We have a lot of respect for the fact that you can't make movies without money and that when money comes to the table, that money deserves to have a place in the process as much as anything else in the film-making equation.
The second we started talking about doing the 'Civil War' storyline with Marvel, we brought up Spider-Man. Right away, Kevin Feige hinted to us there might be a possibility of them being able to work that out, and that's all we needed - he was in the movie the second we heard that.
There is no single voice in fandom; there is a multitude of voices, so you listen to them all because there are some good ideas coming from everywhere, but at the end of the day, we have to use our own instincts as a guide.
Yes, DVDs are gone, but there is this wonderful Internet platform out there called YouTube.
Even if you have the best intentions, there may sometimes be a price or a cost or a pushback against what you're doing.
We basically got a call from our agent that said we were on the list of directors that Marvel was interested in talking to about 'Captain America 2.' First of all, that was thrilling, having not lobbied for the job.
