“When I did Hospital, I wanted the feeling that the audience was peeking around the corner. So I did a lot of it handheld. I kept saying to the operators on certain shots, ‘Messy good, messy good.’ Which is very hard for the operator to hear. They’re trained to be good and they can’t be messy. Then you’d say, ‘But I want that.’ Deep down the camera operators were afraid that other operators would look at it and say, ‘You’re messy.’ So I’d have to create shots that they couldn’t do well, or I’d go handheld. And a lot of it is done that way.”
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"If you love films and care about filmmakers, you'll have a hard time putting this book down. These lively conversations reveal just how much one generation of filmmakers influences the next - and how a single movie can change the course of a young person's life and career."
-Leonard Maltin, author of Leanord Martin's Movie Guide -
"A great and provocative read. Elder begins with a simple question and leads a wide variety of filmmakers down all sorts of unexpected paths. Why do we respond so passionately, even irrationally, to the movies that change our lives? The wonderful thing about being a critic or a lifelong movie lover is that life changes all the time in relation to the spells being cast on the screen. Elder's book honors that alchemic relationship many times over. It's addictive."
-Michael Phillips, film critic, Chicago Tribune