With directing, your day is done. When you hit seven o'clock, it's "Cut." That's what it is. For better or worse, that's what you've got and you have to make that work, and there's something incredibly liberating about that because you can't torture yourself. You have to focus on the moment, and you have to embrace every second and opportunity and maximize that, whereas with writing, there's no imperative there. You just amble along.
Dan MazerI think actors like to be directed. Actors like to know where they're headed and what they want, so I'm very encouraging.
Dan MazerI like to foster an atmosphere on set of collaboration and openness and risk taking. The beauty is when you have such brilliantly talented people as I did in my cast, you definitely don't want to fetter them in any sense. You want them to be able to go out there and do their thing and feel confident in doing their thing, because ultimately I'm the person who gets the credit which is great.
Dan MazerI think improvisation is really crucial in terms of making things feel real and authentic.
Dan MazerTo me, there was an interesting movie to be made about two people who had been on that whirlwind romance and what happens after the fairy tale wedding. And this thought coincided or coalesced when I was at a wedding of a friend who got married to somebody that literally everybody in the congregation thought that you definitely should not get married to. This was the worst idea either of you have ever had.
Dan MazerIt's tough to make funny films. And the truth is, with this process, especially if you write your own movie, then you're giving three years of your life to it. And so, I just have to be sure that when I embark on it that I'm happy to think that in three years' time I'm going to be sitting in a room on the tenth floor of an odd office building at Ginsberg Libby talking about it. So I'm keen not to jump into it too quickly and just make sure it's something that I really want.
Dan MazerYou sit down in the morning on your own to write something. You get to the end of the day and it's not like you've cracked it and it's finished and it's done, because it can always be improved. It can always be changed. There is no right answer, so you can drive yourself crazy with just the expanse of infinite possibilities when it comes to writing.
Dan Mazer