My First Film

I was obsessed with making films when I was a little kid. Especially if it had anything to do with space. Sci fi, technical documentaries, it didn’t matter, I just wanted ot make them. But it was the early 1980s, the concept of a camcorder was also science fiction to me. One of my friends in third grade revealed to me that his parents had a film camera that I could borrow, and I got started making props to create a film about the moon landing.

Soon I learned that to get the camera to work required 1.) buying film, and 2.) getting the film developed, and I was completely dejected. I still remember the feeling of wanting to make something but not having the money, not even knowning how much money I’d need becuase at each step there was another surprise step blocking the goal.

This made me an independent filmmaker. As in, literally making the film itself. I fashioned a strip of film from sandwich bags that I taped together, and a drew scenes of spaceships all along the stretched out feet of plastic.

Then I built a projector out of a shoebox. I cut slots in the top and bottom that I could slide the strip of film through. I made a lens out of a toilet paper tube with a magnifying glass and inserted it into a hole in the end of the shoebox. And for the light source, I took the shade off of my bedside lamp, cut a hole in the back of the box, and inserted the light into the projector.

I dragged the whole rig into the bathroom, turned the lights off, and aimed the projector at the blank white wall. There it was, a vision in red and blue Sharpie, focused on the wall—my creation!

It hung there for a five seconds, then the heat from the lamp melted the film, obliterating it. No one saw it but me, and I was hooked on the feeling of creating—not only the movie, but the architechure underneath the movie. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.