I guess every director has had one movie in specific that kick-started their interest in the industry.
Mine would have to be "The Dark Knight". I went into this a little avid comic fan in search of action- back then, my favorite film was "Star Wars" - but when I walked out, I was....changed? The "camera movement, really booming loud music and fast cuts", as my noob self put it, had made me interested in how the hell they made it! So I waited till December and anxiously watched all the featurettes, and bam. I wanted to do that.
Subsequently, I saw 2001 (and most of Kubrick's films for that sake), Scorsese's films and a few Godard works on YouTube and was just in total awe of it all.
Back To the Future was the movie that made things "click" in my head. I was 13 when it came out and already a HUGE movie fan, with Raiders of the Lost Ark topping my list of favorites (it still does...)
But BTTF made me say to myself, "I could do that!"
So I started taking theater the next year when I got to high school, and quickly discovered that I enjoyed directing a lot more than being onstage or in front of the camera.
I still prefer the movies that came out in the 70's and 80's to what they're making now. I call that period the "Second Golden Age of Hollywood." When blockbusters stayed in theaters for MONTHS as the #1 movie. And they were blockbusters because they were GOOD movies with well written plots and rich characters. The acting was good and the movie wasn't just filled with giant robots beating the shit out each other for 2 hours...
Sorry for the rant, but movies were just "better" back then...
I don't think it was any one movie for me. From a young age I wanted to be an actor and was involved in community and school theatre and took acting classes.
My plan after leaving high school was to get a massage therapy license since it pays well and is flexible, then I wanted to go on to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and finally the LA Film School so I could, at least this was my plan, circumvent the audition process and make my own projects to act in.
My hero was(is?) Anne Bancroft (and also I was a big fan of Mel Brooks) so I would watch all the director's commentaries and featurettes of those movies. Somewhere in there I started to be more interested in the filmmaking than the acting. I remember the commentary for 'Keeping the Faith' with Edward Norton and his co-writer Stuart Blumberg really making it feel like something I could do and would really enjoy doing. It was Norton's first time as a director and the things he talked about resonated and were on a level that a novice like me found approachable.
Also I fell in love with massage so I kind of forgot about my creative side for a year or so after finishing school. Eventually not expressing myself started to really get to me so I bought a camera and here I am now.
</life story>
Thank you folks, I'll be here all week. Tip your waitress.
Tons of influence, but one that stands out in my mind is Legend. As a kid (and as an adult) I loved fantasy films, but when this came out it just kind of "clicked" with me. I grew older, got into folklore and archetypes and understood why, but at the time, it was just a great movie. I watched and rewatched it, and at some point, I realized that my love of Tangerine Dream's score was a big part of that.
Growing up with Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I of course had noticed film music before, but at that moment, the relationship between the images and the sound just clicked for me. I made my own soundtrack tape (by recording onto audio tape from my tv) before I learned you could buy things like that (and eventually, of course, did).
Fast forward a few years, I teach myself to blame guitar (I blame Zappa, Gilmour and Robert Smith for that). I start doing music just for fun, but really got HOOKED. In and out of bands over the years, but listen to almost as many scores as regular albums (being an Oingo Boingo fan certainly helped keep it in my blood).
Having had done some scores to student films for my friends, eventually I decided to pursue that. The Legend score, as well as the Susperia score (by Goblin) remains one of my biggest influences. It's not to everyone's taste (as the film isn't), but it just connected with me so deeply, I hope to one day be able to create something that connects to someone else half as well.
My inspiration didn't come from a movie; it came from a documentary - "Empire of Dreams" by Lucasfilm, about how George Lucas created his empire. I also read this Forbes article, which got me thinking.
As a coda, I'd say that Robert Rodriguez's book, Rebel Without a Crew gave me the most inspiration over the past 5 or so years to finally get out there and actually make films...
For me, it was the Twin Peaks television series that intially got me into the thought about writing and then it was Kids that actually made me realize that great movies can be done with little money and lots of imagination
I still prefer the movies that came out in the 70's and 80's to what they're making now. I call that period the "Second Golden Age of Hollywood."....
....Sorry for the rant, but movies were just "better" back then...
That's not even debatable, man. Mean Streets, Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, BOTH Godfather films, Barry Lyndon, Star Wars, Raging Bull, Full Metal Jacket.....pure excellent. A Renaissance of sorts.
For me it was the 80's cartoon mysterious cities of gold. When they stopped showing that I started writing little stories about the show and decided that one day I would make a movie of it. Now that was while ago
Since then I got a little lost along the way, went to university and done a degree in graphic design, while there I started writing again and been doing it ever since. Hoping to get something made this year. Hell I've been on this forum long enough without making anything. beginging to feel like the black sheep of the family
Bad movies. Crap foisted on the public. Siskel and Ebert unloading on gee-whiz multi-million dollar films that were made without thought to a story solely for the purpose of separating people's money from their pocketbooks.
That is what inspired me to make more entertaining films than the Hollywood big boys were doing.
Movie that made you want to make films?
- but when I walked out, I was....changed? The "camera movement, really booming loud music and fast cuts", as my noob self put it, had made me interested in how the hell they made it! So I waited till December and anxiously watched all the featurettes, and bam. I wanted to do that.
Linear Mode
