"I think that ability to discover the truth of the scene as you play it is very important. It means the actor's instinct can work, and as a director, that's the most valuable thing you've got - the instinct of the actor."

  - Ken Loach

Ken Loach employs a number of techniques to ensure he can draw out the most natural performances and honest reactions from the actors he works with. He often withholds story information from his leads (an approach that has been used recently another British director associated with 'social realism', Andrea Arnold). Unusually, he shoots his films in sequence: "start at the beginning and go on to the end, so that you film the first scene first and the last scene last. It's not very difficult. But people make it [difficult]. The trouble is, most films are run by accountants, who prioritise their accounting rather than what makes life easier for people who are doing the shooting".