"But I also think that the more you reason collectively about what the project should be at the beginning of the process, the more you can improvise later"
About this Quote
Walter Salles is smuggling a radical defense of structure into a sentence that sounds like a permission slip for spontaneity. As a director, he’s pushing back on the romantic myth that improvisation is pure freedom - a genius lightning bolt captured on set. His point is almost managerial, but it lands because it’s emotionally true for artists: the safest place to take risks is inside a shared plan.
The intent is practical: invest early in collective reasoning - the unglamorous meetings, arguments, and conceptual alignment about what you’re making and why - so that later, when reality inevitably derails the plan (weather, budget, a performance suddenly cracking open, a location offering an unexpected truth), the team can pivot without panic. The subtext is about trust. “Reason collectively” isn’t just brainstorming; it’s building a common language so improvisation doesn’t become chaos or ego. When everyone understands the project’s spine, departures feel like discoveries rather than mistakes.
Contextually, this fits Salles’s reputation for human-scale, place-sensitive filmmaking, where environments and non-actors can reshape scenes, and where emotion often emerges from what wasn’t storyboarded. He’s describing a paradox at the heart of directing: control is not the enemy of freedom; it’s the precondition for it. The more rigor you front-load, the more alive the work can be when the cameras roll - because you’re not improvising your values, only your tactics.
The intent is practical: invest early in collective reasoning - the unglamorous meetings, arguments, and conceptual alignment about what you’re making and why - so that later, when reality inevitably derails the plan (weather, budget, a performance suddenly cracking open, a location offering an unexpected truth), the team can pivot without panic. The subtext is about trust. “Reason collectively” isn’t just brainstorming; it’s building a common language so improvisation doesn’t become chaos or ego. When everyone understands the project’s spine, departures feel like discoveries rather than mistakes.
Contextually, this fits Salles’s reputation for human-scale, place-sensitive filmmaking, where environments and non-actors can reshape scenes, and where emotion often emerges from what wasn’t storyboarded. He’s describing a paradox at the heart of directing: control is not the enemy of freedom; it’s the precondition for it. The more rigor you front-load, the more alive the work can be when the cameras roll - because you’re not improvising your values, only your tactics.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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