“You never have enough time and you never have enough money."
Advice from 25 Years Ago Still Resonates for Indie Film
I was fortunate to come-of-age journalistically in 1999-2000, which the New York Times’s Wesley Morris reminded us recently was “just about the greatest class of movies there ever was.” I’m not sure I would go that far, but I found myself recently going back to that time to rediscover several interviews I did over that monumental year in movies. And I have to say: I was incredibly fucking lucky. Starting out at Indiewire.com and then the Village Voice, interviewing a wide range of filmmakers, I managed to crash the scene at an incredible time of change, innovation, and creativity in the industry. As Morris wrote, “I was being paid to learn… 1999. Best. Movie. School. Ever.”
Here is a sampling of excerpts from some of my favorite interview subjects from 1999-2000—whose advice, learnings, and reflections still resonate in surprisingly apt ways for an independent film industry that continues to be in flux.
Daniel Myrick (Season of the Witch, July 19, 1999)
“We’re all friends first, filmmakers second. That’s a very secure feeling when you’re working with a group of people that are like family to you, that you implicitly trust and you never have to worry about them screwing you over. It’s just a matter of keeping all the egos under control and not taking any of this crap seriously, you know what I’m saying? You can’t. It’s just a film.”
Steven Soderbergh (Out of Place: Dislocated with Steven Soderbergh and "The Limey," Oct. 14, 1999)
“That’s sort of your job when you’re shooting, to create a context in which accidents can happen. And make sure that you’re in the right place to capture them, that’s what you live for. Little ones happen every day and you hope that you get them. That’s what feels like life.”
Charlie Kaufman (Charlie Kaufman, the Man behind "Malkovich" October 27, 1999)
“I think about things a lot. I write notes to myself, I take long walks and write things down on a little pad in my pocket, which is there now. And then I get frustrated and I think about it, and then I start writing. Then maybe I’ll outline and I’ll get bored with it and it’ll be lifeless. It’s like without a safety net, it makes it more interesting, because you can fail.”
John Frankenheimer (John Frankenheimer Keeps Playing Games, February 25, 2000)
“You never have enough time and you never have enough money. Any director who's ever told you he has enough time and enough money is not to be trusted.”
Adrienne Shelly (Sudden Success? Adrienne Shelly Waits to "Take You There" With Sophomore Feature, April 12, 2000)
“It's very important to me to have a good time. It's the only thing I can actually offer, when you're going to make a film and you've no money to pay anybody. I like to create an environment on set where people feel good about being there and really appreciated for their work and where they know it's important to me and that they feel that I need them. And I tell them.”
Mary Harron (9-Months Pregnant and Delivering “American Psycho,” April 14, 2000)
“I would just say, in general terms, that it is a terrible situation right now, that the director has so little freedom in casting. People are so afraid of taking chances…. It doesn't make me jaded. I think I was naive, because I hadn't those kinds of problems on my first film. I wasn't prepared for it. Now, I'd be more looking out for it. It's just undercutting you so badly, the thought of making a movie with a lead actor that you didn't want is horrifying to me. So I'd rather work with a lower budget and have the actors I want, if that's what it takes.”
Mike Figgis (Our New Digital God, How He Did it and Why, April 28, 2000)
“I made a decision a couple years ago that I’d start inventing my own golden rules. One is that all film is science fiction, all film is black comedy, and character is plot. And the over-emphasis on plot is a waste of time. Because at the end of the day, people don’t really give a fuck about plot. They want it to work, they want to believe that it’s believable, but outside of that, what they really want to identify with is character.”
John Waters (John Waters, Demented Forever, August 9, 2000)
“Going to the movies is political, and how you watch them is political, and why you like them is political, and how they are distributed is political… Another thing, like where 20 years ago you had to read Variety to know what the grosses were, now my mother knows what the second biggest film in the country is. Which is meaningless because it doesn’t tell you how many theaters it’s playing in or how much they spent to advertise it.”
Steven Soderbergh (Man of the Year, Steven Soderbergh Traffics in Success, December 3, 2000)
“You have to, at some point, acknowledge what your capabilities are and what your limitations are. And if I turn out to be somebody who’s better suited to making the kinds of films I’ve been making lately than art-house movies, then whatever. If you can’t hit the 3-point shot, you should stop shooting 3-point shots, and learn how to drive the lane. So I’m just trying to play to my strengths. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to make stuff like ‘The Limey’ or ‘Son of Schizopolis,’ it just means I’m playing to my strengths.”
these are all amazing. this is a good opportunity, Anthony, to say thank you. I think we need your voice now more than ever.
That John Waters observation is golden. I’ll throw it out when someone spouts off box office success of “low budget” horror. 😜