Imagine that we are sitting in an ordinary room. Suddenly we are told that there is a corpse behind the door. In an instant the room we are sitting in is completely altered; everything in it has taken on another look; the light, the atmosphere have changed, though they are physically the same. This is because we have changed and the objects are as we conceive them. That is the effect I want to get in my film.
Interpretation
Our perception alters reality, transforming how we perceive our surroundings.
In this quote, Carl Theodor Dreyer illustrates the profound impact that knowledge and perception have on our experience of reality. The idea that merely being informed of a hidden corpse can change our perception of an ordinary room highlights how our minds shape the significance of objects and environments around us, which is a vital principle in filmmaking and storytelling.
In practice
A filmmaker might reference this quote when discussing the importance of atmosphere in creating tension.
Nothing in the world can be compared to the human face. It is a land one can never tire of exploring. There is no greater experience in a studio than to witness the expression of a sensitive face under the mysterious power of inspiration. To see it animated from inside, and turning into poetry.
There are things that I refuse to deal with except through my music... because I don't trust humanity that much, and I don't know if I trust me that much. But I trust the songs.
Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement.
You must be an artist and a citizen of the world. You must speak to this stuff that's happening. You must do what you can to shine a light on it, help people through it.
I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.
I think a playwright realizes after he finishes working on the script that this is only the beginning. What will happen when it moves into three dimensions?
When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.
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