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Letters
Letter of the Month: John Would Have
Dear MovieMaker,
As of this writing, I am a little over a month away from doing my second feature. My first, Miner, that I did in South Africa and was subtitled into English, won an audience award at FESPACO, but the critics hated it. "It's too long," they said. "There's no plot." "This young man shouldn't make films," one even said. I came back to the U.S. in 1994 and was living in a residential hotel when I decided that I didn't care what the critics said-I was going to make another film. I began writing the script for the film I'll be shooting next month (March '98) and finished it in two weeks. I sent it off to my script consultant (The brilliant Rick Schmidt, author of Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices). Several weeks went by and I didn't hear from him. Finally, he wrote and said he really enjoyed what I had done. He liked the way I dealt with the characters and the messy lives that they had. His letter was really inspiring, but along with it he sent a note that a man I had not heard of wrote about the script. The man was Ray Carney, and the note in brief read, "Strong script." Then he added, "Cassavetes would have been proud." Well, I don't know if my mentor in spirit would have been proud or not, but there's one thing I do know. Every time I get frustrated with a project, or with the decline of American cinema, or discouraged that the indie movement produces so much mediocrity...every time I don't think I can pursue my dreams anymore, I pull that Carney note out and read it, and I say to myself, "Keep going. John would have."
—Christopher Brown, San Francisco, CA via email: cbrown@designmedia.com
The Work Gets You In
Dear MovieMaker,
I'm a senior at Colorado Christian University and have been trying to decide which direction to take after graduation. I've often considered going into film, but it seems like the only way to get your foot in the door is through connections. I was inspired by the interview with James Mangold (MM #26) where he said that it's the work that gets you in. I'm confident in my ability to tell stories, and what I really want in life is to look back and say it was not about the money, it was about the work; it was about developing small, personal ideas and seeing them come to life. I don't want to see my energy wasted; I never want to settle for less then what I might become. My question is-how do I start? I'm getting my Bachelor of Arts degree soon, but I don't know the weight it pulls because I'll be the first art major to graduate through this program. Thanks for your time-any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
—Jeff Eppard, Lakewood, CO via email: jeppard@ccu.edu
Tolerate Truth-telling
Dear MovieMaker,
Just received the new issue. It looks great. What I love the most is the edge to many of the pieces that seems fresh and brave: the questions about Scorsese and the Film Foundation, the mention of Bogdanovich's sink-the-Titanic ego, the Kubrick review. It's wonderful and almost unprecedented in the flack-happy world of Hollywood shilling: the suck up journalistic universe ruled by Premiere and Movieline would never tolerate such truth-telling. Bravo and keep it up. There's lots of dirty laundry to be aired, if truth be told.
—Ray Carney, Boston University, Boston, MA
Nuts and Bolts
Dear MovieMaker,
I am writing you in the hope that you will consider adding an element to the editorial content of your excellent magazine for us independent filmmakers out here trying desperately to scrape together as much information as possible while making our first independent features. Basically, I'd love to see more hands-on, nuts-and-bolts stuff.
Along with your "How They Did it" stories, advice on distribution, interviews, etc., I'd like to see more about the ins and outs of various cameras, for instance. Why should I choose an Aaton over an Arri or a Bolex? I want to see discussions on lenses and mikes. I want to see do-it-yourself SFX. How about notes on casting? Editing? Sound recording? Obtaining locations, permits, etc. In short-teach me how to do it!
When MovieMaker first came out I was excited about it because I thought it was headed in this direction. As a subscriber I'm trying to nudge you this way because I believe that what indie filmmakers want most is hardcore, independent-style filmmaking information they can use out there in the trenches.
—Kenneth Bearden, Houston, TX
Dear Kenneth-Thanks for the letter. I'm a moviemaker myself and I know how valuable the info you want is to independents. As I said last issue in MM notebook, we're committed to bringing you more and better hands-on content in the future. Along with articles like "desktop moviemaking" in #27, we'll be taking entire issues to focus on the disciplines of screenwriting, cinematography, directing, producing and acting. Look for our special cinematography issue in May, where we'll get those camera comparison questions answered for you.-T.R.
Don't Get into a Fine Mess
Dear MovieMaker,
Flipping through your January issue, I was surprised at Mr. Hollywood's claim that "everyone looks the other way when you are only a short." I think the nice folks at ASCAP and BMI would disagree. The music police will fine your butt faster than you can say "intellectual property." There are lots of sources out there for decent music at reasonable prices. It would be self-serving of me to send you to http://www-.promusic-inc.com, but what the heck? Commercialism makes the world go 'round. You can also take a look at a Hollywood Reporter Blu-book or any number of industry resources. I think you'll find lots of music libraries and clearance companies out there.
—Mike Spitz, Boca Raton, FL, via email: promuse@aol.com
Subscribers: Call MovieMaker toll-free: 1-888-MAKE MOVies or email subscribe@moviemaker.com to change your mailing address or if you have any questions about your subscription. Please allow 4-6 weeks for address changes to take effect.
Omit Nothing
Last issue we pubished photographs of Orphans of
the Storm and The Celeste Bartos Film Preser- vation Center in
our film preservation article "Dust to Dust: The Politics
of Film Preservation." The photos were courtesy of the Museum
of Modern Art, but were uncredited. MovieMaker regrets the omission. MM
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- Comment by شات الحب on 3/21/11 at 5:43 am
This story was published in the April 1998 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
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