Influential Films

Ok so I'm bad at keeping up with my blog, the truth is I don't feel that I have a lot to write about. A quick Kenya update, as promised, I'm hoping to leave in the early fall, I right now am nearing the 1/2 way point of being fully funded. But you my dear blog readers want something with some substance yes? Well here's an email I just wrote to my favorite podcast Filmspotting. I have no idea if they'll be interested in this or will have time to incorporate it into the show so I'm posting here to make sure all my long blabbing and writting doesn't go completely to waste. So with out further ado...

Hey Adam and Matty,Love the show, and just wanted to try and make a small contribution on the programming side. I had an idea for a top five that I think you may enjoy, it's "the top 5 movies that got you into your profession." What I mean is that these are the movies that influenced you to study film in school or showed you how to look beyond dazzling effects to see a story and to analyze how well that story is told, or whatever criteria you require. An example of what I'm talking about is the olympic sprinter for team USA who is a former "Lost Boy of Sudan." The first thing he ever saw on TV was Michael Johnson sprinting in the Olympics in 1996 and he decided he wanted to be fast like that. Now he is representing USA in the same events. Obviously this is a TV influence and not film but it was a good current example.Now I can not make this suggestion with out giving my own top five influences so here they are...As a set up, I have done these pretty much in order of when I first saw them and they impacted my life so #5 is the most recent and #1 is the oldest. This seemed like a logical order as each new film built upon the influence laid down by those before it. Also I should note that I am a videographer, working mostly with Churches and missionaries to help them tell stories of their various ministries.1) Three way tie, sort of, the entire Star Wars Classic Trilogy. I know the original is in the pantheon but that was the movie that made me love movies. Jedi kept me coming back to the series, as a kid I loved the Ewoks and now the face off between Luke and Vader is my favorite moment in the series. But of course what is Jedi with out Empire? The drama of Luke standing up to his Father is nothing if you don't know that relationship. In my mind these 3 films are just one big mother film and can't be split up.

2)Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & TMNT2; The Secret of the Ooze. Probably I'm the first person to mention these in any relation to Filmspotting, but as a second and third grader I was introduced to the Heros in a Half Shell in the TV cartoons, Video Games, and the films. Having lived most of my life to that point and beyond until 2001 on a missionary station in Kenya this was the first chance my brother and I had to really collect action figures. For the rest of my grade school years the Ninja Turtles were my favorite toys and eventually our love of the turtles led us to getting out dad's VHS camera and shooting full films. The influence of the movies is most obviously seen in the repeated plot device that we always had a few characters kidnapped by The Shredder. As for enjoying the films in themselves, I still love the TMNT characters and the stories, the second one doesn't quite hold up anymore which is sad because as a kid that was my favorite, but I still get siked to hear Vanilla Ice sing "Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!"

3) The God's Must Be Crazy; again I'm probably the first to mention this cult classic South African comedy on Filmspotting but it has a 2 fold purpose in my life. First this film along with National Geographic specials opened my eyes to the beauty that surrouded me growing up in Kenya. Wildlife, the plains, and the great African rains were things I took for granted until I started really looking at it through the eyes of the film makers. These came along for me just at the time I was beginning to take pictures myself with my parents cameras and even my first camera. They inspired me to want to take the best pictures I could. The other roll that the God's Must Be Crazy filled was less influential, but it's my introduction to slap-stick comedy out side of cartoons like Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner. This movie was the first time in live action I saw someone fall down repeatedly and I laugh my face off to it to this day!

4) A Few Good Men; I can't remember how old I was when I first saw this movie, but definitely too young to understand 1/2 of what was going on. It was probably the first courtroom drama I ever saw and is still probably my favorite. What got me about this movie even at my early age was the story. 2 guys on trial for murder because they were doing what they were told, will they make it out alive. Unlike most of my favorite movies to that point this movie had no action besides the actual murder scene at the beginning. For the first time in my life I knew how a movie could be good with out any swords or hand to hand combat or guns.

5) Schindler's List; Was way too young to see this when it came out in '93, and finally got my first chance to see it some time in '97 I think as a 9th grader. I remember I had reservations about this movie becuase I had heard it was in black and white, but it didn't take long for me to forget that the color was missing. This film sucked me right in. I remember the first time I saw it it was also a severly re-edited version cut down by staff members at my missionary boarding school. But even with all the nudity and some of the violence cut out the movie knocked me over with the story and my first understanding of the atrocities committed by the Nazis. This was the movie that made me want my future film (now video) projects and this in conjunction with Saving Private Ryan had me saying I wanted to be Steven Spielberg when I graduated high school.

Obviously my asperations have changed somewhat as I no longer plan to really move into film and just want to make great small video projects, but the influences of these films still sticks with me.