Hey, Filmmakers!
What was the movie that made you want to make movies?
For me, there have been many films and series over the years that inspired me and left me buzzing to create. However, my mom always said that the first time I declared that I wanted to make movies was when I was 5-years-old after I first watched the 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella. I was going through an INTENSE musical phase and my parents were desperate to get something else in the mix to break up the constant rotation of My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, and Annie. So they recorded the new Cinderella off of ABC Family on VHS. But when I saw Bernadette Peters as the wicked stepmother, I had a small breakdown because I didn't understand how the mean lady from Annie was also in Cinderella. My mom had to sit me down and explain that movies weren't real, they were stories that people created and brought to life with actors. I was mind-blown and then all I would talk about was making movies someday.
What about you? Where did it all begin?
7 people like this
Hi all! My lifelong passion for fantasy/horror began at age five with the soap opera "Dark Shadows." Vampire Barnabas Collins captivated me, and the show's unique blend of horror, drama, romance, and mystery sparked my imagination.
Inspired, I embarked on a journey of writing short stories to explore fantastical worlds. Decades later, I still create tales of heroes, heroines, and things that go bump in the night.
In 2020, I took a leap and adapted my first book into a fantasy TV series, bringing my words to life on screen.
6 people like this
Great question Ashley Renee Smith! and great answer Donna Woods! For me it started with JAWS when i saw it a way too young an age, then i watched Apocalypse Now a few years later and I was just hooked into the world of movies.
3 people like this
My inspiration to create comes from various movies and television shows. I loved Dark Shadows, Donna. Wow! Your comment brought back memories of that fascinating television series. In addition, a fil course during my undergrad, sparked my curiosity in looking at films in a different way…I began to look at how a movie was made along with its messages.
Thanks for the question, Ashley!
Timika
3 people like this
Definitely would have to say it was watching 'Bad Taste' by Peter Jackson. It truly was inspirational how a guy living in a remote area with no big film scene wrote, directed, filmed, edited, built all his own props and even had multiple roles in his own film. Now look at what he's doing.
1 person likes this
I love that, Donna Woods! I was obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the age of four, so I deeply relate. =)
1 person likes this
Those are great ones, Nick Phillips!
1 person likes this
The message and themes are so important, Timika Chambers! Do you have any particular favorites that you rewatch repeatedly?
2 people like this
I can totally see how that would inspire you and the kind of filmmaker that you are, Stephen Folker!
3 people like this
Because I grew up in the business, I don't know if there was a particular movie that began it all BUT I do remember going to the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood when I was very little and getting to see the original Dr. Doolittle, the animals and the fun!! Then year later, same theater I saw Tommy, it was so crazy (at least as a teenager!). But also, traveling with my parents to different locations and getting to visit the sets all over the country, I thought, well, what other job would ever be this cool? Even got to fly in a helicopter to visit my dad on the set of Sorcerer in Dominican Republic jungle. So, think it was in my blood from way back when and just stayed there!
3 people like this
For me, it was the anime series "Death Note," when that first came out in 2006. That show made me want to write my own series.
3 people like this
I'm a little older than you, so it was Eddie Murphy in Vampire in Brooklyn, because I loved BHC III so much I was losing it. The same thing happened with me my parents having to explain it all. Remembering the story also brings me to my action figures and the concept of control. I didn't know how to make a movie, but I felt like my little fight scenes should get filmed/recored a little after that.
3 people like this
The Poseidon Adventure. I was 11 years old and wanted to see it again and again. It was the first movie I got to go see alone and the first time I started to wonder "How did they do that?"
4 people like this
It was more like a book. In my twenties I was on vacation in France when on the radio I heart that Spielberg was looking for his next film project, he would pay a million dollars to the one person who could come up with an idea for his next film. I put down my book "Schindlers List" and was like "what!, This must be bullshit," and it probably was, but the film that got made wasn't. Then it took too long before I started networking on filmsites, later on Stage32, made a few shorts, and now working on other film projects...
2 people like this
Ashley Renee Smith for me it would have been Lawrence of Arabia or 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I saw as a kid with my Dad.
1 person likes this
Clerks!
2 people like this
The pressure of a name... Cinder-fu... never mind that one. Story telling for me was triggered by a two-night WWII film when I was a kid: The Great Escape. Some of the best storytelling of that era, IMO.
2 people like this
Xochi Blymyer, I loved the Cinerama! I'm so glad that I was able to experience movies there before it went away. Growing up on sets must have been magical.
1 person likes this
Steven Gamella, Death Note is awesome! Thats a great one!
1 person likes this
Vincent Turner I also LOVED to stage stories and epic battle scenarios with my action figures! I went through a phase where I took one of my Batman action figures with me everywhere.
1 person likes this
Benjamin Elliott, I'm also a HUGE Kevin Smith fan! Dogma is my favorite View Askew film, but I love Clerks too.
1 person likes this
I love a disaster flick, Bill Albert!
1 person likes this
Schindlers List is a masterpiece, Rutger Oosterhoff! I've never read the book, but I can see how that would make a huge impact.
3 people like this
Two of the best, Geoff Hall!
4 people like this
My husband and I both LOVE The Great Escape, Matthew Kelcourse!! We were just lecturing my little sister the other night because she's never seen it!
3 people like this
Xochi Blymyer it sounds like your early years were kind of made up of halcyon days, Xochi! Thanks for sharing those memories.
2 people like this
Oh man, I think I've wanted to write in one form or another my whole life, but Titanic was the movie that made me want to make movies. I remember watching a behind the scenes special on TV where James Cameron walked you through building the sets and his study of the ship and how that first scene they had to shoot everything backwards. I started doing video book reports instead of written ones because I'd been bitten so hard by that bug.
2 people like this
Titanic is amazing, Rachel Troche! It still manages to make me cry despite the fact that I've probably watched it 100 times or more. And I also was known for doing video essays in school instead of written ones. At least whenever the teacher would let me get away with it. Lol!
3 people like this
Ashley Renee Smith SAME! no matter how many times I watched it, I always think maybe this time the ship won't sink
2 people like this
I love being able to rewatch movies that make me feel like that though, Rachel Troche. It's like transporting myself back in time to re-experience something special.
3 people like this
It started when I watched The Spund of Music. I was mesmerized by it, I wanted to be an actor but things evolve and now I am more interested in production.
3 people like this
The Jerk. haha! I like how he went from rags to riches because he had an idea that made him wealthy. Then he was poor again...lesson learned but had a great family that supported him. It's been a while since I've seen it but it was what prompted me to pursue a dream. Sounds corny in a way but I was very young.
4 people like this
Maybe not make but write! I used to run to the movie house on rainy days. A dime in my pocket. That's all it cost in those days on a Saturday afternoon. The movie that played was "To Sir With Love." I cried when they sang the going away song at the end. I said to myself, " I can write something like that." I became a welder but when I retired, I had the time to write and been doing it ever since. I wish I could go and watch one of my own, but God didn't shine a light on me. I wonder why?
5 people like this
One of my earliest happy/amazed/'I want to do that someday" film memories was watching "10,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Its a Mad, mad, Mad, Mad World" but my parents took us every weekend to the "pictures" and so it was a thing. (Went to the openings of Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, The Exorcist, Jaws, The Sting, and Star Wars at Graumens Chinese in Hwd) At 6, I stayed up late one night with dad to watch Yul Brynner in "Taras Bulba" and always when "The Great Race" would come on for years....but the one film that started me acting was Kathryn Hepburn in "Philadelphia Story" and wanting to be a director was "Rear Window" and "Cool Hand Luke." "Little Big Man" and "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid" influenced my early writing of Westerns. (When I was the whopping age of 10). Films have been a big part of my life!
3 people like this
This is a great conversation Ashley Renee Smith ! For me, it was Star Wars, and specifically The Empire Strikes Back. There was a lot of BTS content released on TV and that was the first time I saw footage of the making of a movie. It made me want to be both behind and in front of the camera. Plus, with Empire, there was a TV special on the VFX and that definitely sealed it for me!