Once you have found the right shot to introduce the scene-written your first declarative sentence-then the rest flows. You've found the key to the whole scene.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the importance of establishing a strong foundation in storytelling before proceeding.
John Huston's quote emphasizes the significance of identifying the perfect starting point for a scene in filmmaking or writing. By crafting a compelling initial sentence, the creator discovers the essence of the narrative, making it easier for the subsequent details to fall into place naturally. This reflects the broader idea that a strong beginning can set the tone and direction for the entire work.
In practice
A filmmaker reflecting on their process during a lecture.
You walk through a series of arches, so to speak, and then, presently, at the end of a corridor, a door opens and you see backward through time, and you feel the flow of time, and realize you are only part of a great nameless procession.
The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world.
Go play with the towns you have built of blocks, The towns where you would have bound me! I sleep in my earth like a tired fox, And my bufdfalo have found me.
That's what's great about the horror genre is that you're getting a load of people together in the cinema at the same place and the same time, having them all experience extreme fear and come out alive at the end. It's an uplifting experience, and there's a sense of elation.
At its best, film should be like a ski jump. It should give the viewer the option of taking flight, while the act of jumping is left up to him.
Much of life becomes background, but it is the province of art to throw buckets of light into the shadows and make life new again.
The poet enjoys the incomparable privilege of being able to be himself and others, as he wishes.
As a cartoonist, I'm a caricaturist. First you find out what somebody really looks like, and then you find out what they 'really' look like.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.