En 404 a Cinematic Quest

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Donald FordEN 404

4/4/08

A Cinematic Quest

Before Movies

Before movies I used to draw. From an early age I loved drawing. Drawing was a

way for me to explore my imagination. TV shows, movies, history and family road trips

became my inspiration.

I remember being in the back seat of our mini van and seeing all the big trucks

and construction equipment. I loved the site of them, they where big and powerful and I

thought it would be neat to drive a truck and travel the country. I loved cars too and I

could name almost every make and model that I saw out the window. I always had a

sketchpad with me and I would draw things I remembered seeing out the window. I

would draw trucks, cars, plains and trains. Many times I created a scene on the paper. It

could be of a truck driving through traffic or a police car pulling over a speeder. My

drawings looked a little like landscapes but there was a lot of action happening in them. I



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would make the scenes more interesting than they where in real life. You could probably

find a narrative in some of them. Many times I would combine things I saw together. If I

saw a hawk flying in the air or a forest of pine trees, or a lake I would often create scenes

with all of them in it together.

I loved to watch movies with my Mom and Dad. I remember my Dad’s movies

the best because those are the ones I seemed to gravitate towards. He liked action movies.

Most of them where from the 1960’s and 1970’s. One of my favorites to this day is

“Bullitt”. What captivated me was the car chase. I already loved cars but seeing that car

chase excited me. I began to draw car chase scenes and cars in action, most of the scenes

where inspired by my favorite movies. I made several drawings inspired by “Bullitt”.

"I'm out of the Midwest. It was a good place to come from. It givesyou a sense of right or wrong and fairness, which is lacking in oursociety."-Steve McQueen



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Movies

“Bullitt” “Dirty Harry” “The French Connection” Sergio Leone Clint Eastwood “No

Country For Old Men”

My Films

“A good director creates an environment, which gives the actor theencouragement to fly.”- Kevin Bacon

“Gnome” and “Gnome Origins” Emulation and spoof

The “Gnome” movies where the first movies I ever made. They where my first

collaborative experience and the first time I ever wrote a script. They where the start and

we pretty much tried to emulate how we thought movies where made, because we didn’t

know anything about how real movies where made.

My senior English class had a final assignment. We could choose from several

options and one of them was to write a story and make a short film based on it. I quickly

teamed up with my friends, some not even in the class, to begin our first filmmaking

experience. After some initial drama deciding on our idea we finally agreed to do a spoof

on the 1980’s Arnold Schwarzenegger action film “Predator”. I quickly wrote a script and



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away we went. The end result was “Gnome”. It like “Predator” had a group of

commandos searching for a sci-fi creature, only in ours it was a lawn gnome. We were

ecstatic about it and very proud of our movie. We where shocked when we only got a B

on it. Looking back it was really bad. None of use actually knew any film techniques, we

pretty much imitated what we thought was how to make a movie. Funny enough it has

become well known around various college campuses and high schools. My friends and

their friends have been showing it. Youtube also helps. That was my first filmmaking

experience in a collaborative sense.

“The Vacation” Videos: Making the Ordinary Cinematic

My family bought me a camera so I decided to make documentaries of our family

vacations. I didn’t want them to be like every other family vacation so my goal was to

make them cinematic. I wanted them to feel like a movie with characters and episodes.



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Family members got together and bought me a little Canon handy cam for my

birthday. It quickly became my view to the world. My first project was converting the

boring family vacation video into an actual adventure. I didn’t want my home video to be

like a home video. I wanted it to be cinematic. My first attempt was our 2004 Iowa

camping trip with my Dad and his old college buddies. I didn’t have to do any casting

because my Dad and his buddies are already characters. My brother also kept things

moving with bad jokes and his general goofiness. I edited it together with music and

stupid transition effects and it came out quite well. It is a great and fun document of one

of our vacations. I didn’t stop there. Quickly following was our Hayward fishing trip.

This one I wanted to be more epic. I had intro titles and I documented the road trip. It

gave the movie a road movie feel. Then I added montages and formatted the trip in

segment fashion. I introduced characters and all in all it was more epic. I really enjoyed

making these videos. The editing was where I really found my calling. I liked the entire

process but the editing was where I took this generic family video footage and tried to

make more out of it. I used these videos in my portfolio to get my scholarship to MIAD.

Those three experiences really got the ball rolling. I knew that I wanted to continue to

make movies.



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“The Double Cross” Telling a Story

The was my first narrative film effort after completing a film history class. I wanted to

make a throwback film that was inspired by 1940’s film noir movies. The main goal was

to tell a good story and overall complete the best movie we could with what we had

learned.

The MIAD films

“All I know is, I don't do a lot of analysis. I know those words haveto move me. I rely on the author. I don't want actors reasoning withme about 'motivation' and all that bull. All I want 'em to do is learnthe goddamn lines and don't bump into each other.”- Jason Robards

Coming to MIAD I was never quite sure If I would fit in. I didn’t see myself as a

fine artist. I liked mainstream films, and I didn’t have tattoos or piercings. I felt like an

outsider surrounded by people who all looked the same but called themselves outsiders. I



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promised my Dad that I’d give it a shot and I’m glad I did. Through the lack of

development of the MIAD Time Based Media program I was able to blaze my own path.

I’ve made movies that I wanted to make and I’ve done it in an environment that is more

about fine art. In tern I have actually gained respect for choosing to do what I am truly

passionate about and not conform to some of the MIAD conventions. Some of MIAD has

certainly rubbed off on me. I feel like I fit in more. I see myself as a visual artist and can

speak with animators, painters, drawers as well as designers and fine artists.

“Utopia By Fire” Bonding

Filmmaking is unique in that it’s very collaborative. I made some close friends working

on this movie. I began to really find a love of the bonding aspect of making movies.

“An Urban Wilderness: The Schlitz Audubon Nature Center”: A Taste of Freelance

This was my first business like experience. For the first time I got to create something

that was going to be useful as a tool to help an organization. I think I started noticing my

love of collaboration and enjoyed working in a more professional manner.



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“A Fistful of Dollar” A new inspiration

I have always loved comedy but I did not know much about Charlie Chaplin. After taking

a course at MIAD I had a new inspiration for films. I had never made a silent film and

being a comedy it let me go back to my roots of parody. I combined two of my favorite

genres, the comedy and the western.



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“Blue Lines” Making an Independent

“Basically, we are a whole world of people desperately trying tofigure out what is the dark side of our natures and how much canwe explore without becoming something else.”

-William Petersen

This is my thesis film and it was truly an amazing experience. I had to take on

Professional practices of Producing, which I knew very little about. I also had my first

experience with working with professional actors.



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Push Forward

“I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the wayyou want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.”- Clint Eastwood

My goal on every film is to make it better then the last. I sometimes find it hard to let an

old project go that I’m proud of. Sometimes I feel intimidated because I feel doubt in

topping what I’ve already done.

Collaboration

“My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into thelimelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness.”

- Al Pacino

This is why I really love making movies. Working with people on a common goal. It feels

really good. I am a bit of a loner and an independent spirit but I love working with

people. I am fairly shy but when surrounded by other creative people all working

together I become much more confidant and my shyness tends to go away during those

times. Because of my collaborations I have become less shy. I would attribute a lot of it to

the environment of MIAD.

En 404 a Cinematic Quest

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