Make Your Movie

Chapter 3

It’s a Small World After All

IF IT’S ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW AND YOU DON’T KNOW ANYBODY, WHAT DO YOU DO?

You have probably studied film and seen as many significant films as possible. You have also gone to the library or bookstore and read the books and plays and history upon which some of those films are based. (If you haven’t, now is the time to do that.) If you see an interview with a filmmaker whose work you admire and he or she mentions a book, a film, or a piece of art, you should check it out. Most filmmakers—directors and writers especially—feel that in addition to knowing about film you must also know about art, history, philosophy, psychology, literature, politics. The days of someone making a film that is purely an homage to other ...