There are so many effects and so many things that are done digitally now that it's so hard for the director to really control the process, because there are more and more experts that come in.
I sought Ben Affleck because I needed an everyman for this role. Ben appeals to men and women. He gives you a sense of intelligence, the notion of a guy who can think on his feet.
Then I usually leave the choice of the second assistant director and any other assistant directors to the first assistant director, who will choose because he or she is responsible for the conduct and the efficiency of the second assistant directors.
The first thing is that we're being attacked by both the Writers Guild and the Producers Guild. Both of these groups are trying to diminish the importance and strength of the director. They're trying to do it through both frontal and side attacks.
To do that I try and keep myself in pretty good shape physically and I try to lead my life in such a way that I'll be able to be as strong at the end of the movie as I am in the beginning.
The whole thing of this business is to retain your enthusiasm and in a sense retain your innocence and try and practice as much humility as you can.
Snow - it is what it is. You just work through it. And you take advantage of it when you have it, make it work for you and for the picture.
But I don't have any great secrets for anybody, you know, I really don't. I don't do anything that lots of other people don't do.
The first assistant director runs the set. The whole mood of the movie, the whole tenor of the set comes off that person, and it's just a critical choice.
You have to really work with someone who you think is going to be a collaborator, who you think understands what you want to do with this movie and how you want to do it.