An impatient producer visited the set of a movie being directed by legendary film director John Ford.
The producer shouted at Ford: “You are two weeks behind schedule!! This is an outrage!”
John Ford picked up the script, ripped out 20 pages, and barked back, “Now we’re two weeks ahead of schedule.”
“My name’s John Ford. I make Westerns.”
Sheila – have you read Roddy Doyle’s latest (Oh Play That Thing)? It ends with the main character meeting John Ford – makes me wonder how big a role Ford will play in the next book.
that’s what I need to do with these stupid design docs I get.
Good, soon, cheap. Pick any two. Applies to film just as it does to job shop steel fabrication.
dan – no, I haven’t read it!!
It’s worth your time although not as good as the first book in the trilogy ‘A Star Called Henry.’ But my opinion is admittedly biased since the first book deals with a chunk of Irish history (the Rising and the subsequent wars) that I find fascinating.
My favorite John Ford anecdote reportedly happened on the set of ‘The Informer’ (1935):
The Associate Producer RKO assigned to supervise the production came onto the set one day, bursting with enthusiasm. He told Ford he’d seen the footage he’d shot the day before and it was just great. Ford stared at him, the story goes, then called for the production manager. Ford told him to find a hole in the schedule; they had to re-shoot all of yesterday’s scenes. And according to the story, that’s exactly what he did.
Probably apochryphal (the sort of story directors of his era liked to tell in their old age), but I like it.