There is something to be said for one vision and following one vision through. I do think it's something TV will catch up to at some point and realize, 'Wow, we're in the Golden Age of Television right now; we've taken television to another level, but now let's take it to an even higher level where it is one vision throughout a whole season.'
— Reed Morano
Most of the people I know in the film business here in New York, the moms and the dads, just take different turns working. So everybody's a working parent, and nobody bats an eyelash at it.
As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.
Don't think of your gender as a handicap.
I don't want to just make the safe, easy commercial films.
In America, we tend to be very sheltered, and I'm speaking from personal experience because I feel sheltered.
I've DP'd so many films for first-time directors, and I know the trauma, the heartbreak, the vulnerability, how much you have to believe in the story.
My family lives on Long Island.
I don't want to step on the DP's toes. That's the first lesson I learned when I started directing with other cinematographers.
We moved around every winter. I don't know. Maybe my dad was, like, on the run from the law.
In everything I do, the aesthetics are driven by the emotion. However I can do that with a camera, whether it's a long lens or a wide lens, I'll do.
In TV, you are much more likely to see the episode closer to the script as written - in terms of the order of the scenes - than you would in a movie, and here's why: you don't have as many days to edit. You have 10 to 12 weeks or more to edit a feature, and you have four days to edit TV. That's a huge difference.
I really hate having to put 'female' in front of any title, because it puts us in some kind of weird category for handicapped people or something.
A sad truth I learned as a DP starting out was that it doesn't matter how beautiful I make it if the story and performance are not there. That should be number one.
My father passed away when I was 18. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but it is not like that all the time. Not every moment is dark.
I think it's a common misconception that because you're a woman, you can't command a set and have people respect you, and for some reason, Hollywood is really far behind every other industry. It's getting better; it's just slow.
I have been lucky in getting a lot of the projects I've wanted, maybe because I'm really, really driven. But there is a stigma that women can't direct big studio films. Not that I want to do that, but it is a topic that comes up a lot.
I think I subconsciously knew you needed life experience to direct, and the best films are directed by people who have really lived, with exceptions like Orson Welles, who just burst out of the gate. There are prodigies like that, but for me, personally, I thought I needed life experience.
The instant feeling I had after I gave birth was you couldn't get that baby in my hands fast enough.
No, I'm not doing 'Star Wars.'
A lot of male cinematographers stick a pillow to their stomachs so they have somewhere to rest their elbows while shooting.
The interesting thing about 'The Handmaid's Tale' is that everything that happens in it has happened or is happening somewhere in the world.
What's the hardest thing about making a show like 'Vinyl' or 'Handmaid's Tale' is they are expecting movie-level cinematic quality in every way - from the performances to the visuals and the shots - especially on a show where you are doing Scorsese style.
When I read 'Meadowland,' I could see the potential for a very internal, quiet story that could be powerful and emotional but also disturbing and dark.
It can be insulting to an actor when the director comes out, and they have no notes on the performance, and all they care about is that the camera has to do this one technical thing.
I want to make the movies that move people in a way they've never been moved before.
I feel like directing is more about who the individual is rather than if they're a man or a woman. It's kind of hard to generalize and group all of us female filmmakers into one group, like we're all going provide you with the same thing, because we're not. We're all individuals.
Women have to compensate more in the personality department in order to get the things that men get. And they don't have as much leeway for being divas or jerks.
When it was time to go to college, I was going to apply to Boston University for journalism, and dad said, 'Why not apply to NYU film school, because you love telling stories and taking pictures?' And I thought, 'Oh, I can do that for a job? Cool!'
I know how a cinematographer wants to be treated by their director, and so I already have a leg up in that department, and I know what would be insulting to say to a DP because I've been one for so long.
Whenever a woman wields a gun in a film, it ends up looking like they're trying to be sexy rather than they actually know what they're doing.
I always like to do sound design, and in movies, you have more leeway with that, but I don't really notice that sound design is being used in TV other than just location sound.
