the days are long and short

The Library: Frederick Wiseman Interview Highlights →

My girlfriend runs a blog for NW Documentary a nonprofit organization that aims to help filmmakers learn about and create their work. She just posted some advice from filmmaker Frederick Wiseman and I can’t help but want to make a documentary after reading it.

I’ve been fascinated by the process of going out and gathering a million different pieces and seeing what sort of picture you can make by fitting them all together. Although normally I think in terms of doing some sort of radio show using documentary audio, hearing people talking about documentary filmmaking still gets me excited.

I do very little research – only one or two days on site. I don’t like seeing something interesting happening and not being able to film it. My approach to filmmaking is very similar to Las Vegas. You roll the dice and hope for the best. My films are a combination of luck, instinct, and judgment.