I'm drawn to making movies about contemporary life. The reason I choose institutions is because they provide a limit, a boundary.
Frederick WisemanI don't really know what I want, other than good sequences, whatever that means. What I find is always a matter of chance, judgment, and luck.
Frederick WisemanIt's rare in a documentary film that you have a repetitive act. So when you do, you can shoot it in different ways so that you have more choices when you're sitting down to edit that sequence six months later.
Frederick WisemanI think I have an obligation, to the people who have consented to be in the film, to make a film that is fair to their experience. The editing of my films is a long and selective process. I do feel that when I cut a sequence, I have an obligation to the people who are in it, to cut it so that it fairly represents what I felt was going on at the time, in the original event. I don't try and cut it to meet the standards of a producer or a network or a television show.
Frederick Wiseman