Films that made you believe you could make a feature film

L

lambert

Well-known member
I saw La Jette ( not a feature) in high school at a local university and I realized that film might be technically possible for someone far away from big cities to make.
 
The Blair Witch Project.

Grabbed my Sony Hi8 and ran into the woods...then got scared and ran back out.
 
Jack jules esther and me.

A crappy indy I AD'd for an exploitative a-hole director 8 years ago. I realized I should be helming sets instead of him and that there was no special requirement to do so
 
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stranger than paradise - worked at a theatre where it was showing. watched it many times. thought - one shot, locked off, no coverage. wow. awesome. let me try.
 
Tangerine (which is probably a bit of a cliché).

I didn't necessarily think I could make a feature, but it was my first real exposure to low-budget filmmaking—or at least the first time I became aware of the fact that the economics of filmmaking were within reach to a much wider group than before.
 
Wow, I never bothered to check who made some of my favorite Jean-Claude Van Damme movies...that dude worked on a lot of films.

EDIT --> Actually it appears he just made one JCVD movie, ha.
 
Cyborg was the film that a stuntman lost an eye. Stunt crew wouldn’t work with the person responsible after that.
 
I always think about how dangerous a lot of the stunts are or could have been in the older movies I watch. Just a different mindset back then.

The one in LW4 is pretty insane:

 
I think after the films I worked on he shot a film in the Philippines and a bunch overseas . The Cyborg accident was completely preventable, the star of the film insisted on rehearsing with real knives, after the accident the lead actor wasn’t used and most of the ending was shot from far away with a double because stunt crew was rightly furious. Still isn’t perfect but much safer today in the USA than in the past. I’m so thankful that I didn’t fall asleep driving home on some productions.
 
My folks used to bring us a couple of times a year to travelogues. It would be a couple who took home movies and had a whole presentation with recorded music and commentary on Acapulco, Greek isles or Austrian castles. My dad was a member of the organization that brought them in so I knew they were paid and it didn’t seem out of reach to make one of these movies. The 70s and 80s were so different for entertainment.
 
Filmmaking was more magical back then all the way up until 2010-ish.

Then the world [naturally] started becoming too complicated.
 
To this day i don’t think i can make a film.

I rely heavily on a director or writer to push the narrative.
 
...Though there are films and film makers that made me feel compelled to make films and docs.

- The work of Mark Lapore

- My Flesh and Blood (2003) - documentary

And ones that reminded me of the timeless nature of films:
- Lawrence of Arabia

And the work of James Longely was an inspiration in not letting tools dictate the quality of your work. While am undecided a out th cntnt of his films, his visual craft is fantstic.
- Iraq in Fragments (documentary) shot on minidv but looks better than most things shot on fancy cameras.


Then there are the more usual suspects, and plenty of masterfully done films. Also, Robert Rodriguez made film making seem Even more accessible than it is today. But i suppose i felt he caught lightning in a bottle with success and so i feel he was an influence, but only to a point.


I’d say most of my influences go much further back, but i got involved in video later on.
 
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