Rebel Without a Crew

Since I was a kid, I’ve been in love with the idea of making movies. I read everything I could on the subject. From the history of Universal monster movies to the making of Star Wars. I also watched as many movies as I could, foreign flicks, samurai movies, westerns anything that would hold my interest and that I could learn from. I would also spend hours making music video clips, by putting my favorite scenes from movies to song.  I loved playing with video cameras, but even though I had one in the house, my access to it was limited, I was just not allowed any where near it, for the simple reason I was a kid. Kids today are lucky. They have cameras on their mp3 players, game systems and cell phones. 

I had to shoulder the weight of a monster sized camera similar to this one:

And it used full size VHS tapes. (the one pictured is a betamax version)

So your movie can come straight from the camera into the VCR no problem.

If I heard there was a film being shot nearby, i would make it my mission to see what I could. I visited shooting locations for Miami Vice episodes, the movie set of the Specialist hoping to catch a glimpse of Stallone, I even got to meet Bill Murray on a shooting location for Wild Things at the federal courthouse in Miami.

But what do you do with this love of cinema, achieve this dream realistically without any money or support from family. Film school isn’t free, and even if you graduate there weren’t many career opportunities in South Florida at the time. It was an unachievable goal in my mind. Something my mother scoffed at and my stepfather ridiculed.

I didn’t live in Los Angeles so I couldn’t network connections and start at some low level entry gofer position. I didn’t have anything to sell to finance my film project. The days of the independent theatre owners were coming to an end, so finding financing for your film was becoming an impossibility. Basically all I had was a dream.  A dream taunted by the successes of Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith. None of these guys had gone to film school, each found their success in  different ways. And made hugely popular and successful films on a very limited budget. They made it seem so easy and attainable. I was a frequent poster at Kevin Smith’s old WWWBoard and I realized he wasn’t so much as a great filmmaker, as he was a good writer who took a shot. Threw something out there that had caught one single solitary persons eye, who then passed it on the Weinstein’s at Miramax.  Moviemaking seemed almost like a shot in the dark, But you first had to be willing to pull the trigger.

But where do you start? I had no fucking clue still. Until I found this book.

 

 

It’s a fantastic read and I recommend it to anyone, whether they are interested in filmmaking or not. It changed my life. Or at least my way of thinking. Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi for the Mexican film market with no intention of it ever being released in the US. He spent 7,000 to make the film and made it look like he had spent several hundred thousand. It became an indie sensation. I personally always thought It was a cheesy Mexican melodrama, but I speak Spanish and therefore realized how awful the acting was. But now Robert Rodriguez had gone on to make Desperado and From Dusk Til Dawn. He had become a major Hollywood player like his book said. The most important lessons he imparts is to not waste any money on Film School. If you want to be a filmmaker, stop saying you want to be one and say “You Are a filmmaker”. And get out there and shoot. It doesn’t matter if its a documentary or some little movie you made in your basement with friends. Just keep making films.

So that was the new plan. Get out there and shoot. But I still lacked confidence and a camera. I felt I needed help. I would soon learn that my best friend Leonard had a similar dream.