Or How to Inspire a Generation of Independent Filmmakers.

I’m still working my way through Robert Rodriguez’s book about how he became a Hollywood player after writing, directing, producing, and everything else-ing “El Mariachi”. He sold his body to medical research to help raise the funds for the movie, filmed it all in Spanish in a Mexican border town, and tried to sell it the Spanish-language video market to get practice making movies. He ended up getting signed to a multi-movie deal with Columbia, winning the Sundance Audience Award, and putting out a string of successful films.

His book chronicles the fun and troubles of making a feature length motion picture in a way that clearly demonstrates how incredible the circumstances are. Included is the famous “10-minute Film School” in which Rodriguez gives advice to young filmmakers on how to make their own films.

Now understand, Rodriguez had been making short films with his siblings on video for years. He probably made almost 200 short movies in that time before trying to tackle a full-length movie. These years of practice are what led to him getting signed and getting famous. However, he is right that anyone can make a movie. His years of practice allowed him to make a good movie. So for all you aspiring filmmakers out there (me included). Practice, practice, practice. Find a way to practice making movies until you get better. You’ll make dozens of unwatchable shorts, a few truly bad films, and maybe, eventually, you’ll make a movie that will make Rodriguez take notice of you.

Wow!

I never got dizzy or light-headed, but some of the footage did make my tilt my head to try and figure out what was going on. I never had a desire to see “Blair Witch Project”, but, aside from the handheld camera style, these are two very different movies.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that I thought it was awesome.

As far as giant monster movies go, the good ones are few and far between. The reason is probably that it doesn’t take a whole lot of capital or talent to film a guy in a rubber suit stomping on a miniature of Tokyo. Even the initial trailers for “Cloverfield” made it obvious that this movie had a budget, a good story, some incredible special effects, and at least one really cool monster.

The movie starts out with a couple filming each other in their New York apartment. Because the entire movie is presented as footage found in Central Park after some disaster, the footage quickly jumps around as the camera operators turn on and off the camera to record different things. Soon enough the camera is passed to a friend who films the going away party for the guy we meet in the opening scenes.

It doesn’t take long for ‘something’ to happen that makes everyone rush to get out of the city. The cast starts dropping like flies as the city is torn apart. The tension begins to mount as the camera picks up increasingly disturbing images of the monster that is loose in Manhattan.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the monster. I’m not going to say anything to ruin the movie or spoil the surprise, but that was one cool monster. This is no dude in a rubber suit. The “Cloverfield” monster would be much more at home as a Lovecraftian addition to “The Mist” than the monster of the week fighting Godzilla. And speaking of that matchup: the “Cloverfield” monster would win.

On my personal scale of:

“Avoid it at all costs”
“Good for a laugh”
“Some people will like it”
“Rent it”
“See it in the theater”, and
“Buy it”

I would give it a “See it in the theater.”

Just a quick post about some of the movies that I’d like to rent or buy in the near future

Darkman
Whisper
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
In the Mouth of Madness
Rambo

Some of them I’ve just been meaning to get to but haven’t. Others are new movies, and others are ones that are probably terrible, but I saw something interesting in a commercial or on some website.