Francis Ford Coppola Instagram – Advice for aspiring filmmakers: I don’t think there’s any artist of any value who does not doubt what they’re doing. I was a young father of two children with a third on the way, and I was already in debt due to my dream of being an independent filmmaker of small art films. George Lucas, my cofounder of our struggling company, American Zoetrope, emphatically told me, “You have to accept this job. We have no money and the sheriff is coming to chain up the front door.” And so I accepted the offer to direct “The Godfather,” which surprisingly had been turned down by the best directors of the time, including Elia Kazan—probably the best director of acting in the entire history of cinema. I’d recommend reading Kazan’s chapter in “Directors on Directing” by Toby Cole. Regarding casting, I never make detailed notes, because the type of person who “sticks in your mind” has that unique ingredient, which also sticks in the audience’s mind.