I want a script to affect me in some way. I am usually drawn to character studies, scripts about real people and the world we live in not some fantasy.

Someone said to me, early on in film school... if you can photograph the human face you can photograph anything, because that is the most difficult and most interesting thing to photograph.

I don't really believe in the mystery of cinematography - what happens in the camera is what the cinematographers create and all that nonsense.

When you move the camera, or you do a shot like the crane down (in Shawshank) with them standing on the edge of the roof, then it's got to mean something. You've got to know why you're doing it; it's got to be for a reason within the story, and to further the story.

I never really considered film as a career, but I knew I didn't want to be a builder. So I went to art college, and it just gradually happened.

Maybe that sounds a bit pretentious, but I think life experience is always more important than technical knowledge.

I want a script to affect me in some way. I am usually drawn to character studies, scripts about real people and the world we live in not some fantasy.