I think a good director can embrace any genre and it's the kind of thing where you always want to do something different. You always want to challenge yourself.

David Ayer

Categorized in : Thinking Directors Challenges

Every movie is different. Every movie requires its own sort of ph... by David Ayer

Every movie is different. Every movie requires its own sort of photographic voice.

voice different

If you want to know somebody, fight 'em. Have a fistfight with th... by David Ayer

If you want to know somebody, fight 'em. Have a fistfight with them.

ems fighting want

You never know what you have until you put it in front of an audience. That's the truth. That's the truth of filmmaking and that's why you make movies, for an audience to, hopefully, enjoy it.

filmmaking audience enjoy

My mantra is "Better is better". by David Ayer

My mantra is "Better is better".

mantras

You make a movie and it's like convincing people to go on an expedition with you. You think you know where it's going to end up, and you're hoping and guessing. But, when people trust you and get involved, based on that trust, it's a really nice feeling to be able to have everything pay off.

nice people thinking

When you talk to people who have been in combat, there's a sensory overload that happens. The color becomes vivid. Sounds become more pronounced. People talk about how, for them, the war was technicolor and real life was black and white after the war.

black-and-white real war

The most terrifying thing in my life is a blank sheet of paper. by David Ayer

The most terrifying thing in my life is a blank sheet of paper.

sheets paper life-is

When I make a movie, it's almost a relief to get shooting 'cause the hell is over, or part of the hell is over.

relief shooting causes

The worst pressure is the pressure I put on myself. by David Ayer

The worst pressure is the pressure I put on myself.

worst pressure

As a writer, you have to be willing to kill your darlings, and I'm a writer first. As a director, I've got no problem cutting the scenes.

cutting directors firsts

You don't want to get too far ahead of the audience and you don't want the audience to be ahead of you. So, that balance is difficult and it takes a lot of work and tuning in the edit, to get the right balance.

tuning balance want

In the writing phase, normally I try not to envisage any particular actors because I like to let the characters sort of reveal themselves in that process.

writing trying character

For me, I like to show what guys are like when no one is looking and how we really are, and that we can be emotional and have these emotional lives. I think it would be great to do a film where we see some females and what's going on there when we're not around.

emotional guy thinking

Stories of friendship are very interesting to me. Artificial families are something I like to explore. Whether it's a bunch of guys or a bunch of ladies, there's something interesting about that.

guy stories interesting

It's important for me to take very famous, well-known people and not have them play themselves and not have them be seen as themselves.

important play people

The worst part of directing is always seeing the first assembly. It's devastating. It really is. It's like going into the delivery room and you can't wait to see your baby, and it's a crocodile.

waiting baby firsts

The hardest thing, as a director, is that it's never right. Nothing you do is ever right. It's never exactly how you envision it. Making a movie is about making it better.

hardest-thing hardest directors

The movie on the screen is always going to be different from the movie in your head. How it makes you feel is what I'm after, what I'm chasing, and what I'm trying to construct.

chasing different trying

I think great acting is about inhabiting a skin and transforming... by David Ayer

I think great acting is about inhabiting a skin and transforming yourself.

acting skins thinking

'Sabotage' was a work for hire. It wasn't my original idea or scr... by David Ayer

'Sabotage' was a work for hire. It wasn't my original idea or script or anything.

original anything sabotage work