Silencing the Naysayers - putting words into action
After years of stifled creativity, always telling people that I wanted to make movies but without anything to proof it, besides this one finished short film from the past How to Not Make a Movie Part 1 - An Unforgettable Christmas (2002), I decided that enough was enough.
When I got fired from one - of two - part time jobs and was left with one that I didn't particularly enjoy (and that I would be fired from a couple of months later, around Christmas), I felt I should focus on the positives, on where my heart was. Losing this job wasn't really losing anything (besides some income), it was good riddance, an opportunity. It gave me more time to focus on - and finally go for - the stuff that was really important to me; FILMMAKING. It had opened up three days per week for me. Three days that I could either waste - feeling sorry for myself - or that I could fill with creativity and filmmaking.
Make Your Own Damn Movie!
Around the same time, I was living in Amsterdam. One day, during the Summer of 2010, I found out about a visit of B Movie legend Lloyd Kaufman to Amsterdam. The man is a director, producer (and so on and so on) on an incredible amount of independent movies. The crazy mastermind behind the so called 'Troma' Movies. There would be two days of multiple screenings of his work. And, if I remember it well, a talk by him about microbudget filmmaking.
Let's Get Inspired
I had very little money at that time, so I had to skip the filmmaking class, but I felt I had to go to that event no matter what. I managed to get a ticket to watch about 5 or 6 of his films. I watched them all in one day, which is quite an accomplishment.
After paying for the screening and a beer or two, I hadn't enough cash left to buy some of his movies on DVD. In those days, I still bought movies (on DVD). In fact, I had just about enough remaining funds to buy a poster of that weekend's event. The poster had an image of one of his most notorious films (and series): The Toxic Avenger.
More importantly, it contained the following text:
"Make Your Own Damn Movie!"
In short, that is the message that Lloyd Kaufman was and is trying to spread for ages now. Go indie! Skip the studios. Do it yourself. Make movies outside the system. And, besides that, just do it, no matter what, no matter the quality!
I bought the mentioned poster, walked up to Lloyd, who was standing in the middle of a tiny room. In that room, the bar was located. There was also a table or two with DVD's and other merch. I started talking to the man, who must have been in his mid 60s back then, kind of small and nerdy looking. I was a 31 year old wannabe filmmaker and a huge film fan. Believe me, the guy is very approachable and has no inflated Ego at all. I told him about my burning desire to really focus on filmmaking and asked him if he please wanted to sign the poster that I had bought?
I don't remember the exact words that he used but this should come pretty close:
Vincent,
Go Make Your Own Damn Movie :)
xoxo LLoyd Kaufman
This was just the boost that I needed. The much needed kick behind the butt, to start filmmaking again. This, combined with all the Trom Movies that I had seen that day - they give you the feeling that filmmaking can be fun and that anybody can make a movie, was the formula.
I was Inspired Again
I remember going home with renewed energy, hanging the poster on the inside of my brother's bathroom door. Due to lack of money and losing my job, I had to leave Amsterdam not long after meeting Lloyd Kaufman and I ended up living with my brother, in Utrecht, for a while. Every day, every single time that I used the bathroom, I stared at the poster and - believe me - it helped immensely.
Back to the writing table
I started focusing on writing again. Jotting down ideas for possible short films. I realized I didn't have any filmmaking equipment so – as I had done in 2005 – I put an ad on the Internet. By now, I was part of a club of Dutch TV and Film producers. I was an inactive filmmaker, but I visited some of this club's evenings and now I could use their message board to find me some people who could make my film ideas come true. I had tried networking on these events but without luck so far but this might work...
Finding a Skeleton Crew
I can tell you one thing, which is necessarily how to do it (but that isn't the intention of this series anyway). It is, though, how I - and many microbudget filmmakers - do things. If you want to make movies with a so called skeleton crew (which doesn't mean dead people but as few people as possible), you try to go for a two (wo)man crew. Usually one of those two is writer / director (and sometimes even editor) and the other takes care of camera / sound and editing.
The above book is a great and inspiring read, but I am not as rebellious as Robert Rodriguez was when he started out - and I wasn't planning to do everything by myself - so I posted an ad for a camera/ editing person.
I mentioned that I had been wanting to make movies for a long time. That I was always full of ideas and it was about time to put these ideas, these words into action. I was looking for someone who might not have the ideas, but wanted to be part of a film project and had camera and editing equipment.
My story was a long one. The reply was extremely short:
I have a camera and laptop to edit on. I would like to make movies. Perhaps we can have a beer together?
Fuji
Great name for a camera guy, don't you think? It must have been the name, mixed with the fact that opposites attract. Soon after, we met up and had a beer together. We appeared to have a similar taste in movies, we were almost the same age, we connected.
I didn't know it then, but it would be the start of a collaboration that lasted for almost two and a half years and would lead to 10 short films.
TO BE CONTINUED
This post was supposed to be about our first collaboration, a film that I/ we worked on for 8 months. It ended up being more like an intro but I felt like sharing this part of the story too, as it was a very important time for me. A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I would share this short film with you. So, I decided to end today's post with a link to this film.
Patience is Key though
It's up to you, whether you want to watch it now - or - if you can wait for the rest of my story about this film's production. I pinky promise that I will continue this series very soon. As is often the case when you meet me, it's all about patience. But, I always do my utmost best to make the journey worthwhile.
In the follow up to this post I will continue telling you about the production of our short film: Zeespiegel' I hope to catch you there
oh - and before I forget - if you're into filmmaking, you might wanna read both Make Your Own Damn Movie and Rebel Without a Crew.
Image sources: A still from my short film, Make Your Own Damn Movie , The Toxic Avenger , Rebel Without a Crew
