Which Movie Made You Decide To Become A Filmmaker?

I always wanted to be a writer or to do something with movies, so I decided to become screenwriter. But the movie that gave me inspiration to start writing screenplays is Epic movie. While I was watching it, I was like: man, if someone can write such a bad movie, why I don't give it a shot. :D
 
these are radically different films, but i had strong emotional responses to both and helped me decide to become a filmmaker...

The Shining
Chronicles of Narnia

haha random i know!!
 
Probably a lot for me, since I've been watching a larger variety of films in the last 6-12 months than before, everything from Bergman to Saw to Repo! to Blair Witch.
But for me, the big one would probably be David Lynch's "Eraserhead", I'd been a Lynch fan after getting Mulholland Drive on DVD and then the Twin Peaks box set. The main thing with "Eraserhead" was that it seemed so minimalist, so doable, not an A or even B list cast, not huge special effects, fight scenes or giant monsters.
 
Since I could remember at a very young age, I just thought of stories in mind, different images.

One of the first movies that I actually loved, was The Blues Brothers. I would say that's the movie that got me into film.
 
i should say star wars, but that was the film that got me hooked on films. the films that make me want to be a film-maker are things like rob zombies halloween and tim burton's alice. because they both take things i loved and crapped all over them. so essentially i make my films for me cos i'm sick of that crap.
 
LastSunsetFilms said:
i should say star wars, but that was the film that got me hooked on films. the films that make me want to be a film-maker are things like rob zombies halloween and tim burton's alice. because they both take things i loved and crapped all over them. so essentially i make my films for me cos i'm sick of that crap.
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LOL! When I first read Rob Zombie, I was like, "oh no", but then I read your complete thought and I love it. Yeah, I've kinda lost faith in Burton.
 
Anim8 said:
A L I E N and The Thing.... and of course Star Wars.
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I love those films. Are you planning on sci-fi/horror stuff?

A couple I forgot of mine was George Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' and John Carpenter's 'Halloween'.
NotLD is just so brilliantly made and pivotal on a very small budget, and Halloween showed how a boring premise (i.e. a slasher movie) could be well made and very tense.

And, quaintly bringing both of those directors together is a quote from Carpenter: "Anyone who's ever made a low budget movie was influenced by Night of the Living Dead".
 
I am just finding this thread!

I think that maybe it was different degrees of different films for me. By that I mean:

Daughters of the Dust was the "clutch the pearls, intake of breath" moment for me. It was low-tech, it was a rich story that I had never seen before, it was a story I could relate to on different levels. And it was so beautiful that I was just had to figure out how to be able to go into film even though I was going into television production.
For me, this film was what Clerks is to many people. No effects or explosions, but great storytelling and dialogue which is why the two films work on many levels.

Hollywood Shuffle is when I figured out that almost anyone could do it. Robert Townsend was the first time I ever heard of anyone maxing out the credit card to make a film. At the time I was in college learning how to run a studio camera and do basic 3-point lighting.

Harlan County, USA was a film I also saw in college. Here's a person who in the process of making her film was shot at by people who were trying to cross the picket line of Virginia coal miners. Barbara Koppel is part of the reason I LOVE documentaries and want to do them, Penelope Spheeris (sp) is why I want to do music docs.


-- spinner :cool:
 
The movie that led me to want to become a filmmaker is the movie Terminator and its starring actor Arnold.
Ever since seeing that movie and the way James Cameron focused the vision of the Terminator being unstoppable and indestructible. Showing how insane but possible as such an event like machines taking over the world could be. Plus simply how awesome it was seeing this big musclebound dude just going around on a harley and just shooting its victims in the face. Even going as far to kill its target inspite of being punched, stabbed, shot, bombed, burned, legs blown, and finally going as far as getting itself crushed...but still wanting to go until its core was completely flattened under another machine!
After seeing all of that and the other movies after it. It just hit me and made me think "I so gotta get involved" lol.
 
SladeRogue said:
The movie that led me to want to become a filmmaker is the movie Terminator and its starring actor Arnold.
Ever since seeing that movie and the way James Cameron focused the vision of the Terminator being unstoppable and indestructible. Showing how insane but possible as such an event like machines taking over the world could be. Plus simply how awesome it was seeing this big musclebound dude just going around on a harley and just shooting its victims in the face. Even going as far to kill its target inspite of being punched, stabbed, shot, bombed, burned, legs blown, and finally going as far as getting itself crushed...but still wanting to go until its core was completely flattened under another machine!
After seeing all of that and the other movies after it. It just hit me and made me think "I so gotta get involved" lol.
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I wonder how much of Cameron's inspiration came from Westworld.
 
For me it's definitely Clerks. Up till then I was into Art, drawing and painting. When I first saw Clerks it made me want to get into writing in general and film making later. Even tried doing some public access stuff but of course friends are not a very dependable cast and crew so nothing happened there. Took some time away but back on the ball again working towards making some of my stories finally.

I've always loved movies but for some reason none of them quite gave me that itch to write/direct till Clerks.
 
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