Robert Wise
Robert Wise
Robert Earl Wisewas an American film director, producer and editor. He won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for both West Side Storyand The Sound of Music. He was also nominated for Best Film Editing for Citizen Kaneand directed and produced The Sand Pebbles, which was nominated for Best Picture...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth10 September 1914
CityWinchester, IN
CountryUnited States of America
Ordinarily, I don't like to start shooting on a Monday. I prefer to begin in the middle of the week, if I can. On the first day, everyone's a little nervous and anxious, so you have a couple of days' shooting and then the weekend to get re-grouped and catch your breath.
It blows my mind every time I think about the fact that he's out there with us. He's always telling us about how tough his practices were at Ohio State, and it kind of gives us something to live up to. There are no practices when we don't finish breathing hard.
Lugosi was not well. I had to coach him through some scenes, and I was very pleased when Karloff came on the scene and was very sensitive in coaching him through the sequences. Lugosi was one of the finest actors I ever worked with.
I've often wondered if maybe I tried to tell too many stories in The Sand Pebbles.
You know, people always think if you start out as a film editor, you shoot less footage. Actually, just the opposite is true. I tend to grab as much coverage as I can because as a former editor I know how important it is to have those few frames.
Citizen Kane was a marvelous film to work on--well planned and well-shot,
I don't know that I had any particular "influence," but when I came into the business my idols were people like John Ford and Willy Wyler and Howard Hawkes, later on Joseph Mankiewicz and others like that. But I don't know that I picked up, necessarily, anything. Of course Orson was a big influence.
My three Ps: passion, patience, perseverance. You have to do this if you've got to be a filmmaker.
As I've always said, preproduction is so important. When you cast the actors, you've done much of the work. Now, you may need to guide them a little, take it up or down, have them go faster or slower, but the casting process is crucial.
The Sand Pebbles has always been one of my favorite films, I suppose because its the most difficult film - from a physical and logistical standpoint - that I've ever made.
A reflection of my feelings about the space program is found in a quotation from Charles A. Lindbergh's "Autobiography of Values." It reads, "Whether outwardly or inwardly, whether in space or time, the farther we penetrate the unknown, the vaster and more marvelous it becomes."