When you do a studio picture, all the paperwork and legal stuff is already taken care of!
With an independent movie, it's like, 'Okay I know what I want, and I got to go for it.' I just got to get the A version of this. Occasionally we'll try a B version, but not often. We'll just get what's scripted and try to do that as best we can, so you sort of edit while you shoot an independent movie.
I've learned never to count Vin Diesel out. Just don't do that. And I guess it's because he is a very smart guy. Smarter than people give him credit for.
My hands are already full writing and directing, because that's a full time job. Actually, that's why I don't produce as well, as there's already enough producers.
There's so much diversity of opinion out there, so ultimately you have to listen to it, put it aside, and make what you want to make.
Sometimes, if you leave yourself open, an actor can bring nice nuances to a character.
You do need to edit yourself as you shoot because you have fewer options in a smaller movie. In other words, when I'm shooting a big movie, and I got an 85 day shooting schedule or more, then I'm saying I have enough time to shoot option A and B and C and D for every scene.
There are trappings of science fiction which I kind of embrace, but there are also cliches which I run from.
To come up short when you reach too far is not such a bad thing rather than not to reach at all, right?
In all my science fiction movies, I try to blend the familiar with the futuristic so as not to be too off-putting to the audience. There is always something familiar they can grab onto.
You do a drama, and you are limited by the rules of reality, and in science fiction, you create your own reality. Some people find that daunting; I find it challenging.
I went to Long Beach State, started out as an actor.
I'm always coming back with too much footage. Most filmmakers do, but I'm always surprised that it keeps happening to me.
After I script the movie, I have to storyboard it out, I have to budget it, and I have to understand if I can afford all those visual effects or not.
