"There's a certain freedom in Goodfellas, as it's mostly medium shots, where the actors have room to move. But that's the world these characters live in. It's not a world of close-ups. They have people around them all the time, and what they do always affects the world around them. So you have to shoot it in medium shots.
It's important not to restrict actors. But, on the other hand, I cannot let actors give me something that I don't want. On a film like Casino, there was a lot of improvisation, which is fine. If an actor feels really comfortable playing that character in that world, I let him improvise within a given scene, and I cover it in a pretty straightforward manner: medium shots, close-ups... When you do that, the world is pretty much created by the actors. I place them in the frame, and the set around them is part of their life, but they bring the life to it. When that happens, and when it goes in the direction you wanted, it can be incredibly rewarding."
- Martin Scorsese, Moviemaker's Master Class by Laurent Tirard