"FEATURE FILMMAKING AT USED-CAR PRICES...The Movie!" (But who will play me?) Ha!

MOVIE SNEAK PREVIEW: <https://vimeo.com/688517434?share=copy>

Kevin Smith, writer/director of CLERKS, talks about me.

KEVIN spoke to audience from movie theatre screen at Rome Intl. Film Festival, to help surprise me/shock me with a ‘lifetime achievement Award’ in 2006. Friend and noted film consultant Bob Hawk was master of ceremonies. And I suddenly had to make a speech! I said, “Great, now I can quit this crazy ‘business.” But that nervous, impromptu comment urged a woman in audience to say something like, Oh, please don’t. I liked your last year’s Mirage movie! Oh well. Couldn’t ‘escape!’

Made three more IMPROV features in Santa Fe since then (talented people joined in, like Stephen ‘Jules’ Rubin and Barry Norman, and somehow those movies magically appeared! And now I’ve got BREAD MACHINE to cut. Count me lucky.

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View “Used-Car Movie” PREVIEW here:

About me and my book, “FEATURE FILMMAKING AT USED-CAR PRICES” (Viking Penguin, ©1988, 1995, 2000)––the wild and wooly ride!

EditIng AMERICAN ORPHEUS (Port Townsend, WA, 1991), with son Marlon looking on.

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Excerpt (below) is from NEW DARK AGES––How a Punk Movie EMERALD CITIES Got Its IMPROV (continuing “My BookDeal,” story, Chapter 6). Available on amazon

Not Really Writing a Book, but maybe finally learning how

It took a while to realize that transcribing audio tapes/typewriting didn’t mean that a book was actually getting done. But still, at first, typing away every day gave me a nice, fuzzy productive feeling, and got me used to the daily process/grind. Using the basic typing tools of delivering words to a page helped me build some discipline. I grabbed onto this activity like a drowning man would to a life preserver. Fortunately my tape recorder had a stop-start foot pedal, so I just dug in to complete the transcribing job at hand, playin tapes from my Feature Workshop classroom production of THE LAST ROOMMATE, produced with three student over summer sessions at CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, still located in Oakland, California then, in 1985. (“Feature Filmmaking’ book begins with examples of scripting, etc.). When I finally had a good pile of pages stacked in a collection box––the more pages I accumulated the more confidence I got––I decided to also add reviews and articles from the 15 years of my past moviemaking. That helped to fatten the pile, finally a thick, 380 page tome. So, YAY, I had completed a book. Whew!

I made some clean, velo-bound copies—initially, 30-40 page teasers for making partial submissions—selected some famous East Coast publishers and mailed off copies. The full doorstop-sized copy was only sent one place, to the Joyce Cole Agency in Berkeley, on the suggestion of my musician and author friend, Gary Thorp (Sweeping Changes,” author. He also later gifted me the Music Score for my 1988 ‘Sundance’ feature, MORGAN’S CAKE). And then I just waited.

I changed diapers, grocery shopped if wife Julie hadn’t, and occasionally rolled down the Point Richmond, California hill with infant Marlon in his stroller, to grab a delicious burger at Jumbo’s Cafe (cafe appears in Morgan’s. Cake, with actors; son/Morgan Schmidt-Feng and Willie Boy Walker). And weeks slipped by. Finally, the publisher’s rejections began pouring in. Viking Penguin sent a No, on a small 3”x4” scrap of paper with their message––no signature, no mark from a human hand. And other publishers followed. Publishing houses, I soon learned, hardly bothered returning a full 8 1/2” x 11” page to deliver the news of one’s defeat. Oh well. But one day, soon after the first flurry of mail, a letter showed up from the Joyce Cole Agency. It was hand-typed, on agency letterhead, and nicely signed in ink. And what it said was quite positive. The agent there, Jayne Walker, wrote, “This is not a book, but I could see a Trade Paperback with the title, Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices.” Suddenly I was awakened. WOW! I had an avenue, though a little more than vague, as yet, toward bringing in revenue for my family, and ultimately for my survival as an artist. In any case, I was suddenly alert(!), determined to make Ms. Walker’s vision real.

2000 edition of FEATURE FILMMAKING AT USED-CAR PRICES.

So what were the odds that an agent at a professional literary agency would bother writing this kind of letter, especially when it was obvious the author was a novice? I would later discover that Ms. Walker had decided to begin her own agency, the Jayne Walker Agency, which partially explained her impulse to rein in any publishable books for her new venture.

It’s almost hard to admit to that it took someone else’s intervention for me to proceed to the next step, because I’ve always wanted to believe that I and I alone was in charge of my destiny. But the actual fact is that without Jayne’s belief in my book, nothing important would have happened. But, of course, there was still a steep hill remaining, to deliver on that fateful letter. In my return phone call, JAYNE GAVE ME MY FIRST TASK.

“First thing I need you to do, Rick, is to write an Introduction, which covers your moviemaking history. With anecdotes. After I see it we’ll talk again.”

So, suddenly I now had a job (and a boss), albeit a “spec” one! And it wasn’t set in motion on just my own accord. A professional had told me what I needed to do. And that was very powerful. I had a mission and an avenue by which I could start directing all my efforts. And believe me, her words unleashed some energy toward writing that I didn’t know I had. I immediately set upon telling my story. And by the time I felt good about the results (about three weeks later) I had delivered about 120 pages, single-space, and mailed them off. Later, I had to laugh at how the norm of manuscripts is double-spacing, which means I had really sent 240 pages in normal page count. Anyway, to my great relief, Jayne was pleased.

(PS. BUT…MORE BUMPS IN MY ROAD TO ACTUALLY GETTING PUBLISHED COMING UP IN NEXT POST. Like when Jayne realIzed I was seriously lacking in my understanding and usage of basic grammar! The story continues…).

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I still didn’t fully realize that fate was leading me toward the actual successful publication of a ‘mass-market’ Viking Penguin book, one that would affect many thousands of readers, something that would sell over 100,000 copies and remain viable in bookstores online and off 35+ years later, helping some filmmakers become famous writer/directors and even superstars.

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“This is a fun read. How Schmidt overcomes obstacles, physical and mental, is a miracle of inventiveness, imagination, perseverance and determination matter-of-factly remembered and told. New Dark Ages vividly catalogues the everyday efforts required to bring forth his indie film-making odyssey Emerald Cities and in the process (as an aside) also his successful book Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices (Viking/Penguin). Dumb luck or serendipity, call it what you will, his stars were aligning themselves more or less regularly on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

“Most of us would have thrown this baby out the window along with the Smith-Corona and the white-out but not Schmidt. Obstacles are mere bumps in the road, self-doubt is an irritating hurdle to be swept aside, financial disaster and insurmountable debt are a temporary nuisance. And he triumphs against all odds to produce, finance, direct, shoot, edit, launch and distribute his zany movie to international festivals and acclaim. There is an underlying sense of humor here that goes a long way to keep the reader engaged and curious about what comes next, the question we all want answered.”

–– Bibbi Lee, translator, NOTHING GROWS BY MOONLIGHT, PEAKS AND BANDITS, author of A WEEK OF MENUS, Château de Lesvault

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