FOUR ESSENTIAL BOOKS TO READ FOR ASPIRING FILMMAKERS

As I've said before, I used to work at Barnes & Noble. I didn't go to college really, or attend any formal filmmaking classes or seminars. Instead, I used my employee discount and studied during my half hour lunch break. THE POOR & HUNGRY was written at the Barnes & Noble over on Winchester Avenue, right off to the side of the Cafe. All I needed was a yellow legal pad, a cup of soup, and a scone.

I read everything I could get my hands on: biographies, how-to-books on guerrilla filmmaking, magazines, scripts, etc. And to the best of my ability, I tried to watch three or four movies a week... mostly movies that were made before I was born. Occasionally I'd get into a particular filmmaker and then try to se each and every film that he (or she) ever made. I remember a Robert Altman festival that spanned over a few months. I had read a magazine article with Quentin Tarantino where he talked about his days working at the video store, recommending the films of Éric Rohmer to his customers. I had never heard of him before so I tracked down all the films I could find. I found Pauline At The Beach and fell in love with all the French girls in it. This trailer isn't in English, but who cares. Just watch it.



Me and my sister-in-law, Erin, fell hard for the films of Hal Hartley. We watched any of his films that we could get our hands on. Most of my free time was spent hopping back and forth between different Blockbuster Video stores and searching through their "previously viewed" bins. In Memphis, this proved to be a gold mine, being that indy films and foreign fare wasn't really in demand, so I always cleaned up on the more esoteric titles. I can't tell you the joy I felt when I found Hal Hartley's TRUST for $3.99. Bliss. Martin Donovan is awesome, and the late Adrienne Shelly is just magical.

The canvas of cinema is almost too large to grasp in a lifetime, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't jump in, enjoy it all, and learn. I'm a professional filmmaker and I'm still learning about films and filmmakers. The older you get, the more you cherish surprise and discovery. Last year I came across a fantastic doc called Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession. Most of the films that were chronicled and discussed were films I had not seen. So I tracked down almost all of them (some are out of print) and watched them all. It was an incredible experience. Watch this wonderful montage of all the films used in the documentary.

If I were teaching a filmmaking class I would instruct my students to read four books before they came to class. The first would be John Sayles, Thinking In Pictures, The Making of the Movie Matewan. MATEWAN is one of the greatest movies ever made. Ever. If you haven't seen it, don't waist another day. I would recommend watching the movie first and then read the book. So much of the book deals with Sayles' creative process but you also get a good dose of indy reality. Compromise is something we all have to learn how to love when making a film. I got to have lunch with John Sayles just after Hustle & Flow came out. The man has made some of the most important American movies of all time and he was still struggling to get his next movie made. Let his trials be a lesson to us all. You never stop fighting. My manager, Brad Gross, said something to me that has sustained me through the hard times. He said, "movies get made because someone didn't give up." Sayles would agree.

Just watch this scene and tell me you don't want to see this incredible film. James Earl Jones is a badass. Chris Cooper gives his best, in my opinion.

The second book on my required reading list would be Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It. This movie takes me back. Independent film in the 80s was just so raw and exciting. She's Gotta Have It was funny and sexy. I fell hard for Nola Darling (I also named Taryn Manning's character in Hustle & Flow after her). I loved her bed with the wooden frame behind it covered in candles and candle wax. Mmmm! "Please, baby, please, baby... baby, baby, please." Spike Lee kept a journal while he was trying to get the movie made. It's fascinating. There's this one rant I remember where Spike is talking about how he wants a real dark-skinned woman to be the lead in his movie. "Why can't we ever see a pretty dark-skinned woman? Well, people will in my films. Fuck it." Amen, Spike.

Book number three would be Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without A Crew: Or How A 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became A Hollywood Player. This is essential reading for any and all young filmmakers. Rodriguez essentially sold his body for film. He was penniless and passionate to make a feature film so he checked into a hospital where they performed medical tests on him for cash. He talks about how noisy the 16mm camera they were using was so they couldn't record sound. Rodriguez would then take a tape recorder into his car and record the actors saying their lines. This, of course, resulted in the dialog track going out of sync when he would edit it together. But this problem became the trigger for what is now the Rodriguez style of quick cutting. Whenever an actor's dialog would go out of sync, he would cut to a reaction shot. A simple scene of two people talking would look like an action scene.

Robert is a hero to many of us. His DIY discipline has remained consistent over his entire career. Almost all of his movies have a 10 Minute Film School extra on the DVD. He's generous to share his tricks and one should listen and learn. For my first film, when I was just as poor as he was during El Mariachi, I lit my movie per his instruction, using 250 watt photoflood light bulbs in Home Depot bought clamp lights. I followed his tricks and now I have a movie career, too. I've never met Robert Rodriguez. But I own him a drink. I owe him more than that.

Book number four is perhaps the most important. It may not have the pop and sizzle of Rebel Without A Crew, but it is a great read for film buffs. Sidney Lumet's Making Movies is a must own. He tells so many secrets in this book in relation to his craft. For instance, in the movie 12 Angry Men, he made a choice to shoot the first half of the movie above the eye-line of all his actors, so we are looking down on them most of the time. But as the tension rises, the camera begins to get lower and lower. The final scenes show the ceilings of the jury room, as if it's gonna fall on them any second. Those little stories are gems. There's a story about the big Al Pacino monologue in Dog Day Afternoon that is priceless. You'll never watch the scene the same way again. When Al looks up at the end, I now know he's looking right at Sidney. Then he bursts into tears.

He takes you through all his films, from 12 Angry Men to Dog Day Afternoon, from The Wiz to Network. I highly recommend it. This book would not just have one movie as its companion piece for my class. You would have to watch all of them. Yes, all of Sidney Lumet's movies. You'd thank me later. But for now: