Obviously, 'Twilight' had its own alchemy that was amazing, just phenomenal. Nobody thought it was going to make any money. Paramount wouldn't make the movie. Fox wouldn't make it. Nobody wanted to do it.
I'll literally pay three Hollywood readers who don't know me to read my scripts under the radar and give cold comments. And at the early screenings of my movies, I'll hand out questionnaires that can be filled out anonymously so people can be brutally honest because, to your face, they won't be.
I try to learn on each project, try to really feel what the characters are feeling.
I don't like to watch a movie where it's just kind of like all one note, dee-dee-dee-dee. I want spikes of adrenaline and highs and lows and exciting tension release.
As a director, you've got to have quite a few projects going because you never know which one will actually come together with the financing and get the green light.
Starting with 'Thirteen,' my known technique is to cast the lead, then find someone with whom they have incredible chemistry.
When I talk to film students, I always say, 'Buy the DVDs and listen to the commentaries, look at the making of, look at the behind-the-scenes,' because that's such a great learning tool.
Sometimes, you don't realize that something is actually a sidetrack for the story, or it takes the tension out of a scene.
As a filmmaker and film student, I think it's really interesting to hear what a director did and how they figured out how to do things.
I still like the idea of having an intimate experience with a movie, but I love watching stuff on my iPad. It's close, and I feel like I'm a part of it, so maybe that makes more sense in some cases.
My first movie, 'Thirteen,' and it was very real - almost too real. It was very gritty, with raw human emotion. I'd love to do something like that again.
I was always trying to do architectural jam sessions. But it's not quite as easy as singing or playing a guitar, so I would always see wonderful live musicians and just envy them that I wasn't in that medium.
When I read the 'Twilight' book, I didn't see it as fantasy. I saw it as a love story.
Nowadays, to get a movie greenlit, you have to make an incredible effort.
Back in medieval times, Victorian repression hadn't come in yet. People were bawdy and wild and more in touch with their true natures. If you look at the Bosch paintings or Bruegel, you see, when people are dancing, they're totally cutting loose.
Every filmmaker's just going to keep trying to make it the best you can make it: make it as potent and interesting and entertaining and exciting and tough and sexy as you can.
There's so many versions of 'Red Riding Hood.' It goes back 700 years.
People love to talk, so let them have fun talking.
You don't pay the same price for a Ferrari as you do for a Honda Accord. But for some reason, for movie tickets, you're asked to pay the same price for 'Avatar' as you are for some $2 million movie, which is kind of a weird thing when you think about it.
I'm immature.
