A Quote by Boots Riley

You can't get much done by yourself. Speaking as someone who made a movie - and it took hundreds of people to make it happen - I can say that. — © Boots Riley
You can't get much done by yourself. Speaking as someone who made a movie - and it took hundreds of people to make it happen - I can say that.
It really has been a blessing because you can go and look at our other movies we've done in a studio system. We didn't get to make the movie that we wanted to make. We made the movie that someone else wanted us to make. That can be a little disheartening, a lot disheartening. While there have been struggles, it doesn't matter which table you're at because you're going to have obstacles, but I kind of like being able to make the movie that you want to make.
I just find the people I want to work with and put it all together, and it's a lot of hard work, and all kinds of catastrophes happen, but I don't really get too much resistance. But when you make a movie, it seems like there's nothing but resistance. It's kind of a miracle that any movie ever gets made.
You don't get many chances in life to make a movie, and if someone says they don't like it, I say, 'I do'. I've made records before, and if someone said it sucked, it bummed me out.
Even though it took forever to release a movie, and even though it's a small indie release, the fact that in five years someone will be skipping through Netflix, or Amazon, or whatever and say, "Wow, that was a really cool movie. That was a really great story. Or I was really creeped out, or intrigued by that." You almost kind of forget what it took to get there, or was it in the theaters or not. So that's kind of exciting as a filmmaker. That it doesn't really matter as much the release platform, as much as how can I see it?
I always say to people when I'm trying to get something going, bringing on other producers or other directors, "You can think of 95 reasons why not to make a movie. You've got to address why you want to make the movie and get it done. Just do it." I tend to live by that rule.
When the doubters tell you it can't be done and all kind of tragedies will come your way, I say nonsense. If you can get to the very root of who you are and make something happen from it, my sense tells me you are going to surprise yourself.
You get to a point where you have to start planning, when you cross that line where you have enough value to get someone's movie made if you attach yourself to it, you have to be very thoughtful and have to plan.
Abolition didn't just happen - people made it happen. Women's suffrage didn't just happen - people made it happen. Civil Rights legislation didn't just happen - people made it happen. And marriage equality didn't just happen, either - people made it happen.
An effective found footage movie is much harder to make than an effective traditionally shot movie. A crappy one is much easier to make because you take your camera, and you shoot the scene, and you're done. But to make it effective, they're actually much trickier.
You get to a point where you have to start planning, when you cross that line where you have enough value to get someone's movie made if you attach yourself to it, you have to be very thoughtful and have to plan. When you're starting out, you're willing to do anything.
Ninety percent of the time, you're going to hear no. It took me seven years to make 'Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored.' Nobody wanted to see the movie made. I got the movie made.
Working at Pixar you learn the really honest, hard way of making a great movie, which is to surround yourself with people who are much smarter than you, much more talented than you, and incite constructive criticism; you'll get a much better movie out of it.
There is some pleasure in doing a movie and problem solving on a specific movie and getting a movie made, but once they are done, we don't look at them again, much less relate one to another.
I think every time a movie gets made, it's a miracle. I would love to get to a point where it became easier and it wasn't so much of a struggle to get it done or finished.
To me, Hollywood seems a little bipolar. Things happen; things don't happen. Someone's in a movie; someone's not in a movie. I've learned not to build my expectations.
As much as I enjoy doing Resident Evil - and I'm so grateful that this movie, fourth in the franchise, has done better than any of the ones before - the fact that I can get movies made that I wanna make...it gives me the opportunity to do things like Dirty Girl.
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