When you start with Super 8, you are everything. You're the DP, the sound man, the effects guy. And what I started understanding, by working for other people, is that the best type of director is someone who rose through the ranks.
Interpretation
Del Toro emphasizes the value of experiencing all roles in filmmaking to become a well-rounded director.
In this quote, Guillermo Del Toro reflects on his early experiences with Super 8 filmmaking, highlighting that being involved in multiple aspects of production—such as cinematography, sound, and special effects—allows a director to gain comprehensive insights into the film-making process. He believes that directors who have worked in various capacities develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for the collaborative nature of filmmaking, ultimately leading to more effective leadership.
In practice
This quote can be used in a lecture about the importance of hands-on experience in creative fields.
I don't try to sanction other people's joy in monsters. I mean, I think the fact is, humor, fantasy - you know, like fear, desire or laughter - create genres of their own: comedy, melodrama, or erotic films or horror films... The boundaries cannot be defined. It's to each his own.
As a director, I design every movie to be true to itself, and damn it if they like it, and damn it if they don't.
If you ask me, I alternate between truly bizarre, what you would call 'Hollywood' movies and truly bizarre, what you would call 'arthouse' movies.
But I think we are seeing a resurgence of the graphic ghost story like The Others, Devil's Backbone and The Sixth Sense. It is a return to more gothic atmospheric ghost storytelling.
The saddest journey in the world is the one that follows a precise itinerary. Then you're not a traveler. You're a f@@king tourist.
The way they control a population is by pointing at somebody else - whether they're gay, Mexican, Jewish, black - and saying, 'They are different than you. They're the reason you're in the shape you're in. You're not responsible.' And when they exonerate you through vilifying and demonizing someone else, they control you.
No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on.
Every action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those present.
We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.
Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, 'What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.' But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.
As president, I was more successful; I had more opportunity than as prime minister. Why? I didn't have the power to give orders, to command, but I had the opportunity to call people to volunteer. In my period of presidency, I never heard the word 'no.'
Pilots learn to use human skills to communicate information and make decisions collectively, which creates a shared sense of responsibility among the team for better outcomes.
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