Education Quote by David R. Ellis

Ellis is doing something quietly strategic here: praising the canon without kneeling to it. Name-dropping Soderbergh, Spielberg, and Lucas isn’t just a fan’s roll call; it’s a map of the commercial film ecosystem he worked inside. Those three directors cover a useful spectrum - Soderbergh as the agile craftsman who can pivot between indie texture and studio machinery, Spielberg as the gold standard of classical storytelling and emotional engineering, Lucas as the architect of franchise logic and technical world-building. By bundling them, Ellis signals a practical belief that “taste” and “trade” don’t have to be enemies.

The key phrase is “if you’re a fan of films.” He’s reframing apprenticeship as fandom, which lowers the ego temperature. Instead of claiming auteur status, he positions himself as a working director still studying the playbook. That humility reads sincere, but it also functions as cultural permission: loving blockbuster grammar is not a guilty pleasure; it’s homework. For a filmmaker often associated with tightly engineered genre rides, the subtext is clear: spectacle can be intelligent, and craft shows up in pacing, clarity, and logistics as much as in personal confession.

Context matters: Ellis came up through stunt work and second-unit direction, disciplines built on solving problems and serving the moment. “Look at that stuff and learn from them” is less about reverence than about technique - how to stage action, control tone, keep an audience oriented. It’s an ethic of competency in an industry that romanticizes genius: watch the masters, steal the moves, make it work.