Samuel Fuller on Establishing Shots

I just hate a shot that shows a city or a street, and nothing happens. I don’t mind an establishing shot—even of a mountain, I don’t care, that’s a beautiful shot, snow, beautiful—if in that shot you pull back and there’s a little lovely lady, and she says to her son, “Isn’t this lovely? It’s Switzerland,” and he blows her head off, “Yes.” Something has to happen for me to have that full shot is what I’m talking about.

- Samuel Fuller