Please contact us
with corrections
or breaking news
Rejection Does Not Dissuade Filmmaker by Matthew Ragsdale
This is a video-rich article, featuring Matthew Ragsdale's aggressive and provocative, as well as feminist, four-minute film, "Mass", 2015, about a cult of goddess worshipers.
Courtney Cipriani (lft) and Stefani Potter from Matthew Ragsdale's provocative and well-made 'Mass" about a goddess worshipers attacked by fundamentalists. photo: courtesy M. Ragsdale
I'M AT THE OAKLAND UNDERGROUND
Film Festival in September, standing with another director during the Q and A—BUT I'm not being asked any questions. The audience has just seen my four minute short, “Mass”, about a cult of women worshipers of a female god which gets ambushed by crazed religious fundamentalists, leaving it to god herself to save the day.
The audience is more interested in the other director's film, which has a far bigger budget, an actor from HBO’s “True Blood” and 1960s period clothing, props and sets.
Since I wasn’t asked any questions, when the festival director, Kahlil Karn, finally gives me the opportunity to speak, I decide to talk about the importance of creating art no matter how dopey your ideas may be.
Then I start ranting on and on: about how not to let anyone get in the way of your artistic endeavors; how to demolish the gatekeepers who tell you you’re not good enough to be a filmmaker, musician, painter, etc.
The words come easily because I am telling the audience what I tell myself almost every day.
In fact, what I was telling them were not even my own words. Yes, like any good filmmaker, I steal from those who have done it better before me—even when it comes to my own Q and A rant!
Everything I said was stolen from Director Kevin Smith, who, in turn, likes to borrow a quote from hockey player Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
While Gretzky was speaking literally, Smith uses it as a metaphor for everyday life and particularly artistic endeavors. I think it works beautifully, see Smith's rant here.
Ragsdale (2nd from right), not getting asked any questions at the Oakland Underground Film Festival, with his star, Courtney Cipriani. photo: D. Blair
Living in Modesto, CA, it can take a lot of effort to stay on track when making a movie. There’s so much self-hatred here, it's almost impossible to even attempt to try and make a difference in the art scene.
People hate that they live here and not in a big city, but they don’t bother to support those who are trying to bring more art to the region. It’s sad because there’s a diverse and large film community here, including many Hispanic film makers.
No one understands what we’re trying to do; that these short films or indie features we’re are trying to make or, sometimes, are actually making, we take very seriously. It’s hard enough to explain to somebody that you want to be a filmmaker in a small town; it’s even harder explaining that you don’t want to move to Hollywood to do so.
Our world continues to shrink thanks to the Internet but it amazes me how small-minded some people can still be in regards to film. Everyone still thinks that in order to “make it” in the film industry you have to live in LA. That is not true.
Directors Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith and Christopher Nolan are my biggest influences when it comes to approaching a no-budget project. All three directors’ debut feature films share similarities but not in story, plot or characters.
All three directors shot their first features with “non-professional” actors and crew members, or in Robert Rodriguez’s case no crew members. All three films were shot outside of LA (Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, Leonardo, New Jersey, and London, England).
All three were driven solely by their passion and didn’t wait around for someone to tell them when they were “allowed” to make art. They used their own money to shoot their films.
Kevin Smith, Ragsdale's mentor in sticking to your art guns, conducting a Q&A from his special 'Burn in Hell' (2012). photo: courtesy K. Smith
In this current Kickstarter age, I see more artists unwilling to spend their own money on their own art. I’m not completely against Kickstarter or other fund raising websites; I’ve contributed to plenty and I’m well aware that Christopher Nolan currently isn’t putting up $200 million dollars of his own money to make “Intersellar.”
What I’m shocked to see are people who are unwilling to put in the sacrifice needed to create art when they’re still an unknown entity. Actors will send me an email in regards to an audition where the first line asks how much the part pays.
The arrogance of these people is astounding. They haven’t even auditioned, which means I don’t know if they’re a good actor or not, and yet they deem my film unworthy because there’s little to no-pay being offered.
These same actors send me their acting reels online and they are often terrible, so I’m actually happy they've excluded themselves early. What we have here is starving artists demanding cold cash from other starving artists. It’s madness.
I see filmmakers spending $5,000 on their five-minute short film—that’s almost the entire budget for Rodriguez’s “El Mariachi” (1992). Then these same filmmakers go online asking for more money to make a feature; even though they just showed us they don’t know how to manage their money. I don’t understand this type of thinking.
When Rodriguez, Smith and Nolan made their films, they were fully aware of their budget constraints and knew what they could and could not pull off. Christopher Nolan speaks about not wanting to use a gun in “Following” because he didn’t have the money for a professional prop/blank gun. Hence, he decided to use a hammer instead as the main weapon.
Scene from 'Following' (1998), by Christopher Nolan, another one of Ragsdale's no-budget filmmaker heroes. photo: courtesy C. Nolan
Kevin Smith shot almost his entire film at the convenience store he worked at so he didn’t have to pay for a shooting permit while making “Clerks.” Robert Rodriguez didn’t have a crew, so he knew he had to shoot very specific lines with specific camera angles in one take in order to give the illusion he did and was able to do different camera set-ups.
All three filmmakers shot on actual film and edited using only straight cuts. They couldn’t afford to do something AS SIMPLE AS a cross-dissolve; Nolan used it only once at the end of “Following.” This type of meticulous filmmaking ethos seems to have vanished.
Although I’ve been mentioning these three filmmakers over and over and it may appear I’m just a “fanboy,” that’s not entirely true. I don’t like every film produced by these three but that doesn’t stop me from being deeply influenced by their work and philosophy.
To not like a film is a pathetic excuse to brush off the potential knowledge you can gain from it. You have to respect where they came from and where they are now in their careers.
A personal example of not liking a film, but still being influenced by it is the movie “Dead Hooker in a Trunk” (2009) by Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska. I personally don’t like that film. I don’t like the story, the acting or the characters, but I’m now citing the Soska Sisters as one of my no-budget influences because they made a film that no one else would ever make and I did like one of their later films, "American Mary" (2012),
The Soska Sisters (Jen, left, and Sylvia), creators of 'Dead Hooker in a Trunk' (2009) and 'See No Evil 2' (2014). photo: courtesy Soska Sisters
They took a DIY (do it yourself) approach to filmmaking, made it as cheap as possible ($3,000), made their film they way they wanted to and just put it out to world not knowing what to expect.
The film ended up being distributed by IFC Midnight and they are currently working on their fourth feature, an adaptation of the comic book character “Painkiller Jane.”
I know the Soska Sisters aren’t a household name like the filmmakers I mentioned earlier, but they have kept true to their independent spirit while currently working in the system.
These twins from Canada have “made it” because they believed in their vision and their passion was felt by the right audience (the horror community) and that’s fucking awesome. I hope to have that one day too.
After my screening at the Oakland Underground Film Festival I felt deflated. I’m a natural pessimist and nothing easy ever comes my way. I sat back down and watched the rest of the horror program, although, just like at every film I attend, I’m not only watching the film but also the audience.
I will never pander to an audience but I love watching them react to a film and trying to figure out why. All the while I’m there sitting there, however, the words running through my head are: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
The Oakland Underground Film Festival was still fun and I was only there because I took the shot. Hopefully, the next shot I take will be my first feature and it will be worth it.
Matthew Ragsdale is a no-budget writer, director and editor from Modesto, California: see his site here, or FaceBook here or reach him .