In that Robert Rodriguez spirit, I didn't hesitate to pick up the video camera and start shooting the story Emme told me this weekend. I was so moved to just be in the room when her mind started rolling. To literally see her eyes as she created from nothing, and not even from me asking her to tell me a story....
I must admit, I'm not that big of a fan of Robert Rodriguez films. But I've learned a LOT from him. I haven't read his book and I've never seen "El Mariachi" or "Shorts". I wasn't that thrilled by his section of "Sin City" and I think he was outdueled in Grindhouse. I'm not even interested in "Shark Boy and Lava Girl".
But I am so inspired by him.
Why?
It used to be because of his legend. There are rumors that circulate the film community that may or may not be true. There are people who would fight you for having issues with the plot holes in "Desperado", there is an entire race of people that will show up to see his movies no matter what he comes up with (I'm talking about Texans).
I hear he was a drug tester in Austin to make money to buy the film stock for El Mariachi? When it wasn't enough, he sold his future dead body to science. When that wasn't enough he sold his grandmother's to science.
And he made the movie. He shot an action movie by editing in camera. And he kept on making movies.
Creative Screenwriting Magazine's Podcast (download here or check it out on iTunes - it's awesome) featured him on a panel at Comic Con 2009 after a special screening of "Shorts". He had so much energy. So much passion. And most of that was directed towards his family.
He spent most of the time talking about how the people around him were family. How they fed off of eachother and worked and lived together. Then he talked about making movies with his kids. He encouraged everyone to take their kids out in the back yard and start making movies. He joked that it was all he did now, it was just that his back yard was a massive film set.
But he said that his kids have grown up there and that they were used to it. And they could let their creations and imaginations run free. He said how it was the most sophisticated form of expression to create a story and realize it on film. And I believe that fully (And I would know - I'm in Education *I say in my most proper and academia of voices*).
And then he dropped the real bomb on me. He stated that "Shorts" was not from his mind, but from the mind of his children. He wrote down what they said, and kept the order of events and the storylines just as they expressed them. That "Shorts" was an exercise in realizing what it is like to live in a neighborhood where the kids all on the street all have their own stories and they are all happening at the same time and from time to time will intersect. He said that his kids not only created the stories but mentioned how they auditioned for the parts to play themselves. Two of them got parts, one of them got to play him self. But they all got to hang out on set and be apart of the creation and realization. They got to order crew members around.
Then he stated again - get out there and just keep making movies.
It inspires me because it is so easy to NOT make movies. You see, I've studied this stuff exhaustively. You need a cinematographer and a sound guy and then you have to edit. You need crew, you have to feed the crew. You got to coordinate and spend money and settle for less than what was in your head. So then you think you need big money and if that doesn't stop you, that means you need to focus on business, which is just like any other business venture - cut throat.
And suddenly you are further and further away from your passion. From the reason you started making movies in the first place. I can't tell you how long it's been since I filmed a "fight scene". It was the first thing I ever filmed in fact. I did it all in camera, too. No Final Cut Pro. No sound engineer. I couldn't figure out how to expose for Ephraim's skin without whiting out Brandon's. I didn't worry about production value and how long it would take to build the dolly tracks. Ephraim kept dropping his Jamaican accent, and Brandon kept "whining" about being really punched in the nose, and almost breaking his finger... and twisting his ankle off. The fight started at 11am and 2 minutes later the Jamaican villain, Boombostic, was "Finshed: Fatality!" against the setting sun. And it was awesome. And it was thrilling - the making of, I mean. Well, I'm sure the fight scene was thrilling, too.
But I just went and made it. And from that I learned and moved to the next fight scene. There was this momentum. The production value went up. The amount of people chipping in went up. I had people pitching me characters to play and fight against. And because I just got out there and just started making movies - I just kept on making movies.
Even in the middle of making my "epic", I did every homework assignment with video. Anytime a friend came over, we made a movie. Other people around me started making movies. It was crazy.
But somewhere along the lines, someone told me I had to make it perfect. Someone told me I had to have substance and drama. And so I sought after the most meaningful shots and the perfect exchange from actors. I slowed down. I let things slow me down. And the movie making ground to a halt while I kept putting it off until I could make the movie perfectly.
The realization has hit me hard the past couple of years. And yet, Rodriguez has instantly inspired me to move forward. That is, once I put his already inspiring message together with a spent day helping Emme realize her story on screen. Once I just started making a movie.
Emme's story was a good one - just hillarious as she told. I didn't do it justice on screen, but Emme and Cooper saw themselves in a story they created. And that was epic.
And though it's nearly impossible to edit in camera with a 4 and 2 year old, the 6 hours of editing was far from exhausting. It was inspiring. And I've now charged myself with the responsibility of making sure my kids never know the limits of their imaginations, and so, in turn, maybe I will forget the limits of mine. I look back and see my dad was doing that for me when we'd go out "on a mission" into the woods to "shoot some Russians" and get the POW's back (what? it was the 80's). We didn't have the video camera but I'm sure dad would have loved to have the simple luxery of capturing (what was actually his - now looking back) imagination running wild on screen.
Always make movies, people. Expressing you, is how we process. And processing what goes in us and through us, makes us better people. And like me and my friend Robert said, making movies is the highest form of expression. Even if you don't have a four year degree in film, keep on making movies. You don't need no stinking school learnin'. Robert Rodriquez is still taking college classes to earn his film degree. And Hollywood begs him to create for them (note his charge to reboot the Predator series).
INTERESTING NOTE on SERENDIPITOUS CYCLES: I was obsessed with Mortal Kombat (the video game) and the idea that two characters could square off against each other and it could be so riveting without a story - the special powers and outfits said everything. I realized I could film a movie without a story. So the idea was circulating of shooting a bunch of fight scenes. My father took me out one weekend to get away. We saw "Mortal Kombat" in the theater and I was kind of satisfied by seeing the fights I'd imagined realized on film. I think it had honestly quenched my thirst to do it myself. And then we wanted to kill more time, so we walked into "Desperado" (Rodriguez's sequel to "El Mariachi". And I realized a movie didn't have to be perfect, that the story didn't have to be perfect, it just had to be fun. I remember talking to my dad about the movies. I may have really analyzed a film for the first time.
The next weekend I shot the first scenes of Moron Kombat. And some of you know the rest from there.
For anyone else... It's waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too long of a story.
Maybe it's time I read that book of his. Rebel Without a Crew.
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