no devil lived on

Working Progress

I'm about 100 pages or so into Rebel now, and the book is actually a good read. Robert talks about his childhood and how he began by making home movies, first on film, and then on VHS tape because it was much more flexible and less expensive. I've been through his trials and tribulations getting into film school, getting the idea for Mariachi, doing a month-long drug study to fund it, shoot it, edit it, and pitch it to the Spanish straight-to-video market. We're still sort of in the middle of the pitch process, but now Robert has landed two agents at ICM (International Creative Management), one of the largest management firms in the world. They're instructing him on how to sell El Mariachi and how to posture himself to enter the studio system. Still at this point he's also in school at UT-Austin, but took a month-long trip to LA to pitch his movie.

It's an interesting story ... at least it is for me. It's given me some insight as to how one shoots a movie in two weeks with no budget. I still can't believe he got this done for $7,000, the film stock alone was half his budget. He did, however, transfer the 16mm film to video so that he could do his editing without having to make a positive print of the 16mm. Credit to Robert, he had a plan and he made it work. I can't wait to finish the book and get to his comments in "10-Minute Film School."

I think my parents have gotten the hint that they're going to have another starving artist on their hands. My brother, who has an $80,000 chemistry degree from one of the toughest programs in the nation and a near perfect score on the MCAT, chose to forego med school for the life of a Rock n' Roll guitarist. My family has seen me recently toting my books around, which is highly suspicious because I hardly ever read anything, seeing $30 Film School in my hand is a pretty good indicator that it's not politics that's going to be in my immediate future. So, one family, two sons, one BA, one BS, both prefer a creative occupation as opposed to the one they studied for four (and in my case five) years. I could hear my folks' eyes roll when they asked me what I was planning on doing after next semester. I told them that I was kicking around the idea of working at a television station as a part of the production staff. They did their best to discourage me by mentioning that it's not the best paying job in the world. It kills me that they're unsupportive, but they've been through this once already and have done their best to discourage me from doing the same. No dice.

One of the things that I've liked about Rebel Without A Crew was the introduction, an excerpt from the first appendix "10-Minute Film School":

"So you want to be a filmmaker? First step to being a filmmaker is to stop saying that you want to be a filmmaker. It took me forever to be able to tell anyone I was a filmmaker and keep a straight face until I was well on my way. But the truth was, I had been a filmmaker ever since the day I closed my eyes and pictured myself making movies. The rest was inevitable. So you don't want to be a filmmaker, you are a filmmaker. Go make yourself a business card."

I think that bit is always going to stick with me. Every time I feel discouraged, I just have to think about how many times someone like Robert had been nay-sayed to death. Both before he made El Mariachi all the way until he sold it. Also, there is encouragement in the front of $30 Film School, when Mike Dean (the author) mentions that unless you work for a studio, or are already well known and/or connected, you shouldn't plan on making any money from your films. He said, "If you want to make money, go into real estate." Which is true. I don't plan on supporting myself by my filmmaking alone. I plan on having a job that funds my basement/garage/bedroom production company and offers me some experience with a camera and editing equipment. That's why I want a job as production staff at a television station. Most everything they shoot on nowadays is on DV. I can learn shooting, editing and possibly lighting over the course of a year or two, and pump my disposable income straight into my passion. If the job pays 18 grand a year, I'd be ecstatic. If the job doesn't pay as well as I hope, then maybe I'll look into retail.

I was thinking television station (with a news broadcast) for a variety of reasons:

1. The experience with a camera and editing equipment.
2. The availability of television stations in the area.
3. The ability to find a similar position elsewhere should I decide to move.
4. The possibility of advancement and pay raises.

If all of that fails, then I'll be back where I started, but at least I'll have the experience and the money it afforded me. It's a plan. It's the first REAL plan that I've had for my life. I've kicked around a lot of ideas, but never wanted to commit myself to them because I wasn't sure if I wanted to follow through on them: law school, politics, etc. All of them just an answer to give whilst I try to figure out what it is that I really wanted to do. I've got that done, and now I just need to find another good smoke screen to keep them off my back for a few more years. I'm going to give myself five years to get this done, so if nothing looks like it's going to pan out by the time I'm 28, then I suppose it will be time to go back to school or find another career. Not exactly what my parents had in mind, but this is my life and I'm going to do what makes ME happy.

posted by bumbletbw @ 5:26 AM