Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan discusses production management rules and how he protects his creative process while running his company.
Insight
Shyamalan: A filmmaker's blind spots and quirks are their greatest commercial strengths
“Don't copy me or anybody else, or even try to round off the things that are not great about you. Your blind spots are your strengths. That is why you're not doing this, and you're looking at that, that's part of what makes you so beautiful. To concentrate on t…”
Opinion
Shyamalan criticizes Warner Bros for unilaterally moving 2021 film releases to streaming
“It should have been filmmaker by filmmaker's decision of how to handle this here. If they wanted to put it out that way, great, everybody comes to decision, or if they wanted to wait, and if the studio could handle that financial burden of waiting for a beat, …”
Insight
Shyamalan: Artists Must Wrestle with Internal Demons Every Single Day
“My, both my older daughters are artists, and I said, that is your plight. You're going to wrestle with your demons every single day of your life.”
Insight
Shyamalan: Box Office, Critics, and External Validation Are Irrelevant
“So all this other stuff, to be honest, I've learned is irrelevant. How many people did come on the weekend, and what did the New York Times think, and what did that fan think, and oh, that other guy made that much, or did that, or oh, the cover, they offered y…”
Insight
Shyamalan: Early success introduces distractions that lead to poor decision-making
“When you have nothing, you become really clear about what's important and what are your values. You're very clear about them, and then you get up and you start to have success, and there's this accretion of good decision making that gets you here, and then you…”
Insight
Shyamalan: Daily writing time without output still drives creative compounding
“Spend those two hours. And even if I sat there for two hours wondering what happens to him after he hits his head, five different iterations of things came and went that were incorrect. Right. It feels like I didn't do anything, but I did. And then the next da…”