Stephen and I were born at the wrong time, I think. I should have been born a long time before. Perhaps several hundred years. Stephen should have been born later. Today's technology would suit him well.
Stephen wanted to make movies. He made a couple, but only one was any good. That was Fate. I worked with him on one real movie and two other films. But I was not able to corral Stephen's need to "just do it". When Stephen made Fate he was not officially in command. Aaron, who was already making some very good films with his brother, had been brought in to help, and Aaron kept the crew focused. Aaron made Stephen work with a script that actually had a plot.
I was only able to get Stephen to compromise when we made Falcon Man. We had a script. And we had a plot. But it didn't work well.
I think Stephen would love how easy it is for amateurs to make movies now. Video cameras are reasonably inexpensive and digital film means instant knowledge of whether a scene worked or not.
The year after we graduated from high school Stephen was at my apartment and saw one of those shields with the crossed swords behind it hanging on my wall. Being Stephen, he couldn't just leave it alone and he discovered one of the swords actually came out easily. Within minutes both swords came out. Now he wanted to make a film.
We dressed in some of our more rustic clothes and headed to the local dam. It was a small thing, spanning a small river. Still dangerous if one got too close, but we went to the low water side where Stephen knew of a wooded area. Randy was the camera man. That was what Randy liked doing best.
The idea was that Stephen and I would be medieval warriors engaged in a duel to the death.
We waded across the river, the water came up to Stephen's neck but only my chest. Randy had to walk holding the camera above his head.
Once on the island we did some choreography and rehearsals. Now we were ready. Randy started filming. Stephen came at me. He swung his sword and I blocked it. Now I swung mine and he raised his sword to block it. His sword broke in half. That thin aluminum just wasn't meant for stuff like this.
So much for our film.
I wonder what kind of films we would be making today were Stephen still here. With our track record I have to believe they wouldn't make it to either Cannes or Sundance. But we would have fun.
5 comments:
This reminds me of the film Son of Rambow
I never saw that, but if it was about incompetence it was pretty close to the mark.
OK, now we MUST see pictures! I'm glad you had fun.
That sounds like so much fun! Who knows how far it might have gone if you guys had stayed with it. That's just how Stephen Spielberg started out.
I do not have the film. In fact, I'm not sure if Stephen or Randy kept it. In either case it is gone to me. I do not know how to contact Stephen's widow or daughter, and I do not even know if Randy is still living. For all I know the film no longer exists.
It wasn't long after this that I lost contact with Stephen for more than fifteen years. We kind of went in different directions. Then he hunted me down and had five more years.
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