Film is a collaborative process, absolutely, but I am a control freak.

I got a degree in math, from not a good school in Texas, and then I went to work as a software engineer. Just not glamorous at all.

Cinematography was incredibly foreign to me, so I read as much as I could about it. Once I figured out that it was just photography with a set shutter speed, I got some slide film and I just went about storyboarding the script and taking snapshots. I took a ton of time doing it just to make sure I knew exactly what I was doing. By the end of it I knew what the film was going to look like - my exposure and the composition and everything. I wasn't scared of cinematography anymore.

I feel like we want to compartmentalise things and say, 'Well, that's emotional, artistic and subjective, while this is intellectual, objective and measured.' I have difficulty thinking that's the way we experience things.

I've always been anxious about 'Primer.' There's good things about it, but all I've seen for a long time is the flaws.

I never got into 'MacGyver,' but 'All the President's Men' and 'The Conversation' were big for me.

I don't believe that narrative works when it's trying to teach a lesson or speak a factual truth.