My love of independent films goes back to when I worked in a mom & pop video store in Aurora Colorado called Movies on Call from 1986 - 1991. I wasn't familiar with the term "independent films" until I got that job. I'd seen several independent films over the years... just didn't know it.
So many great films like Pink Flamingos, 1969, Papillon, Murder on the Orient Express, Straw Dogs, My Beautiful Launderette, Halloween, Alice, F/X, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Dirty Dancing, The Harrad Experiment, Sweet Alice, anything Andy Warhol or John Waters related, A Boy and His Dog... the list is endless.
We were expected to watch as many movies as we possibly could so we could recommend movies to our customers or answer any questions they had.
I had a major hurdle I had to overcome because I nearly lost that job in the first year. I loved horror movies when I was really young. In 1980, my friend Lisa and I talked my mom into taking us to see Friday the 13th and for some reason that movie just traumatized the hell out of me and from that point on I was scared to watch any horror movie and avoided them like the plague. I could still watch horror movies I'd seen in the 70s, but anything after that, I just couldn't.
One day the owner of the video store told me that I was going to have to get over my fear or she'd have to fire me. Mind you, this woman, who was my boss, is the mother of a girl I had been friends with since the 6th grade and was like a mother to me and here she is threatening to fire me from a job I was doing very well other than not watching horror movies.
She told me she was going to give me a weekend off. We were normally allowed to take home up to 3 movies per day, but she would allow me to take 8 horror movies and watch all of them over the course of the weekend and she would quiz me about it on Monday. This was long before the internet existed so I wasn't able to fake it by looking up the plots in detail.
I hesitantly looked through the horror section and picked some movies out all released after 1980: A Nightmare on Elm St., Graveyard Shift, Waxwork, Day of the Dead, Witchboard, Creepshow, Children of the Corn and My Bloody Valentine.
I was 18 and still living at home with my parents at that time, but they were going out of town with the high school band my mom worked for on a band competition trip so I had the house to myself.
I turned on every light in the house, stayed far away from the basement, set myself up in a chair with blankets and enough food and drinks so I'd only have to get up out of my safety cocoon long enough to change movies, use the restroom and let the dogs outside from time to time. I watched every one of those movies, and as time went on, I didn't have to hold the blanket over my face or peer though my fingers as my hands covered my eyes as much.
I passed my boss' pop quiz on Monday with flying colors and was able to keep my job. I still had to watch horror movies, but at least I was able to pursue the love I had of the independent films by incorporating the independent horror movies into it.
Most of the employees at the store concentrated on catching all of the popular blockbuster releases as they were released, but I preferred the films that most people had never heard of. My doing that came in handy a lot. Customers always came in asking for the new releases, but unless they reserved them, the first week or two it was impossible to get them. At that time we were the only video store for miles so it wasn't like they could just go to the next closest place.
My recommendations of the independent films kept the majority of customers from leaving the store empty handed. I would often give them coupons to get movies at half price because some money was better than no money for the business. Not once did anyone ever say they hated the movies I recommended and in time, many of our regulars started asking for my recommendations.
A Blockbuster Video store did open up across the street from us, and even though they always had more of the new releases, we had built such a bond with our customers, they kept coming to us and the store continued to make good money. Of course we had a porn section and Blockbuster didn't, which helped.
In 1991, the owners of the store were burned out so they decided to sell the store. A man named Randy, who had been one of our customers for years, bought the store. He spent years working for the City of Aurora and had no idea how to run a business. His wife was an elementary school teacher and also had no idea how to run a business.
They jumped in head first and immediately started making major changes to the store instead of taking baby steps so the customers wouldn't notice. They raised the rental rates and started to take steps to get rid of the porn since they were "Christians" (note: when he was a customer, he regularly rented the porn films but apparently his wife didn't know). We would butt heads over that because they were eliminating the two biggest reasons our customers didn't go across the street to Blockbusters.
Finally things came to a head and he ended up firing me and another guy who had been there for a long time on the same day. I told him that day that he would run the business into the ground within the next 3 years. I was right, but it only took him less than 2 years to go out of business. I took great pleasure in going to the store after I heard about that to see the sign on the door that said the property management had locked them out because the rent hadn't been paid.
In 1995, I was living in Houston Texas when an old acquaintance called me out of the blue. She was making a documentary film and was calling everyone she knew to see if they could chip in some money. I was dumbfounded by that. I was completely ignorant in what it took for film makers to produce all of those great independent films I loved so much. For some reason, I thought that films just got made. I mean, it's Hollywood right?
She quickly schooled me on the process on independent film making. First you need an idea. Then you need a script. Then you need a realistic budget. Then you need to find talent. Then you need to find producers with money. Then you need to find locations. Then you need props and wardrobe. Then you need to find a crew, director, sound engineer, music composer (because you likely won't be able to afford the rights to use published music), cinematographer, editor, hair & makeup etc. who can work for what you can afford to pay... if you can afford to pay them... and it's hard to find people who will work for free. Then, it's common for the talent to drop out... and because of that, the investors pull their money out of it... and the whole process starts all over again. Many films take several years of this just to get to the point of real production... and many great scripts never get produced at all because of this.
I had no idea. I did give her some money for her documentary. I couldn't afford much at the time but she was grateful for every penny she got.
I decided then and there I was always going to do everything I could to help out, in any way I am capable of, to help independent film makers... and I would do it for free. If I was capable of doing something for free so the film maker could use the money for post-production where it was most needed, then that's what I do.
For a long time I mainly focused on young, first time film makers who were just trying to get a foot in the door producing their films with almost no money. I did what my old acquaintance did... I would call people asking for money. I constantly had to network and meet new people because you can only ask the same people over and over for money before they start saying no.
Most of the time I stay out of the production process and and leave that to the film maker and their producers. But I always pay attention. In time I learned quite a bit of how things worked and was able to offer a lot of insight, guidance and advice.
Of course when I moved to California into the Los Angeles Country area, there was a lot more going on I could get involved in. I started going to a lot of film screenings and meeting people in the film and television industry. I always ask a lot of questions and always pass what I learn on to the young people.
Sometimes the films make it onto the independent film festival circuit, most don't. Sometimes the films get picked up for distribution, most don't. Sometimes I get "thank you" credits or "producer" credits... sometimes I get no credit... it's up to the film maker depending on how hard they believe I work. I've never done it for the credits. The only demand I had was that I get to see the fished product.
In December 2008, I lost the job I'd had for many years in a mass layoff right in the heart of that horrible recession. Life turned into a 3 year hell doing low paying temp jobs and trying to find full-time steady work that paid enough for me to live on. Life came to a grinding halt. Working on film projects was definitely out of the question since I usually spent some of my own money on them. I spent the majority of those 3 years completely alone and watched all of my savings and the life I'd built for myself draining away. I've still never recovered financially from it and probably never will. Three years in the film industry is a lifetime, and being away from it that long, I was way out of the loop.
During my unemployment, I delved into social media for the first time in the hopes that someone I came across would help me find a job. That never happened, but I did find a lot of independent film makers on Twitter to follow and I kept up with the projects they were doing. I met some of the people who mean the most to me through Twitter.
By the time I was fully employed and able to function again, I started looking for projects to get involved with.
The way film makers raised money for their projects changed dramatically in those 3 years. Gone are the days of calling and talking to people. Now we have crowd funding websites like GoFundMe, Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Film makers start a campaign and promote it on their social media and hopefully people will donate money to them. At first I thought this was a genius thing, but not so much anymore. I'll get back to that in a moment.
I began to stray away from the young first timers and started to get involved with more seasoned film makers. It was a whole new world as everything was now on a different level. The projects were still being produced on a low budget, but they already had established themselves in the industry and had a reputation and a fan following.
I had met many known actors over the years, especially when I went to film screenings. But now I was getting to work with them and it's been a complete honor.
A small handful of the projects I've been involved in are listed on IMDb now, which is pretty cool.
I was not only still working on independent films, I started to get involved in web series, music videos, music production and theater (which I hadn't done since high school). There's just so much to love about it all.
Of course, in this universe, the good has to balance with the bad unfortunately.
I have a tendency to make bad decisions from time to time. I'm far from perfect and am the first to admit it. I make mistakes but I've always had good intentions. I trust and care too much and it has cost me.
Working with the young first time film makers, they're humble, full of dreams, open to ideas and eager to learn. Some of the more seasoned film makers have learned to play games they think they have to play to be successful. It's all about me me me. They learn to say whatever they have to say to get what they want. They want fame and fortune and don't care who they have to use and discard to get it. Some are master manipulators. Some are leeches who will use you just to get to the people you know like the directors and casting directors. Some have forgotten the meaning of gratitude and humility.
The word "friend" gets thrown around way too much without real meaning. You're their best friend as long as you're of some use and when they don't have a use for you anymore, you're history.
I found myself surrounded at one point by people who had absolutely nothing nice to say about others when they weren't around but kissed their asses in person and on social media. The people who publicly claim to be the most "spiritual" are the worst offenders. The pure phoniness became nauseating after a while.
I confronted one person I've worked with a lot about all of that and their response to me was "that's the game you have to play in Hollywood. You have to kiss the asses of people you don't' like to stay relevant". No you don't. Hollywood is a big place and there are many really good and successful people in the film industry who don't do any of that sleazy crap who are pure joy to be around and work with. I'm proud that I was strong enough to realize what was happening and step away from it.
I mentioned before about how great I thought the crowd funding websites were, but I'm not so crazy about them anymore. I have contributed to way too many campaigns where the film maker collected a lot of money but didn't follow through with the project or return the donations. One collected over $30,000 and kept every penny of it without making the film. That should be illegal, but it isn't since the law hasn't caught up with the technology yet. Unfortunately, all of those projects I contribute to have actors in them I know well and really like so I have to pick my battles when creating waves to get money returned as to not damage the relationships with them and it's a horrible situation to be in.
A couple of years ago I made the decision to dial it all back and do less for a while. There are some film makers and actors I would do anything for and will continue to support in any way I can, but I'm going to be very picky as to who I get involved with in the future.
I would love to get back to working with the young first timers again. I know a lot more people in the industry now and have gained a lot more knowledge to share.
While I don't expect everyone to get involved with independent films to the extreme I've been doing, it's my hope that more people will open their minds and at least go see these fantastic movies instead of the big money blockbusters for a change. Support the people who have great stories to tell but don't have millions of dollars to spend doing it. It's worth it!
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