I think a big part of my job is to make an atmosphere on set and have an attitude that it's about experimentation, and you can't do anything wrong. It's not about judgment, it's not about me kicking over a chair and storming onto set and acting stuff out and telling people to copy what I do. That is a style of directing some people have, but I don't understand it.

Ben Wheatley

Categorized in : Thinking Jobs Attitude

If you judge everything by how photographically real it looks, then you're missing out on a lot of what art is about and what communication is. There are ambiguities in life, and that should be reflected in art, cinema, and storytelling, I think.

Ben Wheatley

communication real art

I think CGI is interesting but it's too expensive and limiting in terms of what you can do shot-by-shot.

Ben Wheatley

shots interesting thinking

If I'd been offered 'Spider-Man,' I probably would have done it. I don't think it's bad to go and do those things.

Ben Wheatley

spiders men thinking

People say, "How do you get into the British film industry?" There is no British film industry, there are just people making films and finding their own way. It's not like in the States where there are studios and there's an actual infrastructure to it; there's just nothing here. You make it from scratch a lot of the time.

Ben Wheatley

scratches people way

The only genre I have any problem with is musicals, but that's just my own tastes it's nothing to do with the films.

Ben Wheatley

film problem taste

The reality of any location in Britain being used in a TV program of a film is that something bad is going to happen! That's the nature of drama. Most of the things that get made or basically grisly detective shows about murders, accidents or medical dramas.

Ben Wheatley

detectives drama reality

There's no way you can shoot low-budget stuff on lots of locations. It's just a practicality thing because every time you move, it costs time and money.

Ben Wheatley

cost stuff moving

It's part of developing the whole state of how cinema is; everyone is looking out and engaged rather than it being just a financial thing or sitting back, waiting for scripts to turn up.

Ben Wheatley

cinema sitting waiting

You can muscle your way to the top as long as you're part of the production, which I am. I'm knitted into the money, so it's very hard to extricate me from the decision-making dynamic.

Ben Wheatley

decision long way

The things that inspire people to think are what keeps a film alive.

Ben Wheatley

inspire people thinking

Doctor Who is pretty dark, I think. Generally its dark; its always been dark.

Ben Wheatley

doctors dark thinking

I tend to shoot really quick so you don't get the problems you might get on a traditional film where you shoot one way, then another, and it's pissing down with rain and they won't cut together. We shoot so fast we can incorporate the weather into it. The worst weather we had was when they were in the caravan up the mountain and there was no cover. One man's weather is another man's production value. To create the sleet would cost a fortune but we got it for free so we'll just have to go with it.

Ben Wheatley

cutting together rain

I genuinely try to make movies I'd want to go and see, movies that are a bit more challenging.

Ben Wheatley

challenges trying

If you make a movie in the UK you've got to embrace the weather with open arms... We got some of the most amazing weather as well. It's maybe why some of these places, like the Lake District, don't get filmed in so much. If you were trying to make it look like some kind of chocolate box image of England you'd be there all year waiting for the sun to come out.

Ben Wheatley

chocolate waiting trying

If an actor commits properly to a role, they do a bit mad during a shoot. If they're going to do that, they should balance themselves by doing a role as a yoga teacher.

Ben Wheatley

mad yoga teacher

Lots of crime films are about work. Free Fire could have been about a company of plumbers doing pipe-fixing and stuff. But the plumbing film is not so exciting.

Ben Wheatley

crime film exciting

I like that confusion when people are speaking in the same language but still can't understand each other. It's also usually my experience of being in America - when I speak no one can understand what I'm saying.

Ben Wheatley

confusion language people

I've had pretty much the same crew for all the films that I've made, and I've managed to have really nice, calm, funny people. That is a big part of it, a family feeling of warmth and finding something interesting and making a platform for them to perform. It's a very difficult job, acting, in that it's totally counterintuitive to how we are brought up.

Ben Wheatley

nice jobs people

I'm very superstitious about going on other people's sets. You have to ask permission of the director; you shouldn't just turn up and skulk about in the background. It's very rude. You have to ask them personally. It's like a vampire being invited into a house.

Ben Wheatley

rude house people

Film is more of a dream when you're younger. I found it almost impossible to see how you would get into the industry having no connections, nobody in the family being anywhere near it and never meeting anybody that had been on a set.

Ben Wheatley

connections dream impossible