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A pitfall of making a comedy with a studio-and it's also an American cultural thing-is that I get tired of being encouraged to go always for laughs.

Alexander Payne

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Alexander Payne
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: February 10
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Writer
Omaha
Nebraska
Laughing
Pitfall
Comedy
Pitfalls
American
Laughs
Making
Encouraged
Also
Studio
Thing
Cultural
Always
Studios
Tired

More quotes by Alexander Payne

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A book suggests a whole world and story that I could have never thought of in a million years.
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I don't want all of American cinema to be big cartoons that are just made to be digested by the entire world.
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The worst thing for people to say about your movies is, Yeah, it was pretty good, but it was too damn long..
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A lot of people get stuck, like, Oh, if it's made by a studio, it can't be independent. Often they link it to the source of financing, or how it's distributed, but I don't really know how you can. A filmmaker will take his money from anywhere. It doesn't matter.
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I've always approached screenplays and so forth with, How would it really happen? Not What's the movie version? but What's the real-life version? Then I just follow my nose.
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I think that Peter Jennings is the only decent one of the big three.
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In a general sense, to convert any short story, novel, play, or opera into a movie, you have to re-rig it. Even though they're all narratives over time, they're very different forms.
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Somewhat dramatic things happen, and you don't even always notice them — that's what life is.
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If you have your movies so that everyone understands everything, I think that's probably not a very good movie.
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The actors are the greatest executors of tone in a film. They're the most important cinematic component.
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I'm hoping one day I can make one really good film.
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The biggest fear I have is to die with regrets, and of course that will come true.
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I think a badly crafted, great idea for a new film with a ton of spelling mistakes is just 100 times better than a well-crafted stale script.
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You just never know when you're living in a golden age.
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Marketing has supplanted story as the primary force behind the worthiness of making a film, and that's a very sad thing. It's film only as a function of consumerism rather than as an important component of our culture, and that's everywhere around the world.
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When you're a houseguest and you leave, it's nice to straighten something up or send your hosts a useful gift. And when you leave the planet, it's nice to have made a positive contribution.
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I never wanted money worries to slow me down or make me take a job I didn't want.
Alexander Payne
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Adult movies with any artistic credit are released in the last quarter of the year and expected to gird for battle for Globes and Oscars. So the films aren't being seen just for themselves, but rather in a competitive context.
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I definitely in filmmaking more and more find writing and directing a means to harvest material for editing. It's all about editing.
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My editor and I remain very disciplined. It's just sometimes when you're making a film, you get into the cutting room and you see a scene that's slowing you down in a certain section, but if you remove that scene then, emotionally or story-wise, another scene a half-hour later won't have the same impact. You just get stuck with it.
Alexander Payne