Enjoy a scene from MORGAN'S CAKE (84min., B&W/Color, ©1988) a film Written, Directed, Shot, Edited and Produced by Rick Schmidt.
My book (SEE BELOW) from my Kindle edition (also paperback, hardcover available), entitled,, "THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CAKE – PRODUCTION SECRETS OF A $15,000 IMPROV SUNDANCE FEATURE," helps explain the process of shooting a fully-improv feature in nine production days. Here’s excerpt”
“SOMETIMES IT TAKES the constant prodding of another person to actually get moving forward with your dream of making a feature-length movie. In the case of MORGAN'S CAKE, it took the persistent urging of my then 17-year-old son, Morgan, to get me started. Over the course of production of my first three features, A MAN, A WOMAN, AND A KILLER (Morgan was six years old when it was completed), SHOWBOAT 1988-THE REMAKE (Morgan turned nine), and EMERALD CITIES (Morgan at fourteen), Morgan, and his sister, Heather, had seen a lot of the moviemaking process. As little kids they had spent considerable time in my little cubby-hole editing room at the now-defunct Palmer Films lab in San Francisco, and had sat around patiently for hours while I screened everything from rough footage to the latest fine-cut in the lab's screening room. And they’d been with me after the prints had finally been struck and were locally screened in all their 16mm glory, at San Francisco theaters like the Larkin, Electric, and the cavernous Strand on Market street.
“At the Larkin premiere, where SHOWBOAT 1988 had toured as one of the winners of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, a telling “Morgan” incident occurred. At some point during the screening, the theatre manager approached me and complained that a little boy was bothering people, running all over the theatre, up and down the aisles, tapping people on the shoulder and describing in detail what scenes were coming up next: "The nun takes her clothes off after she dances with her dog...and then a guy jumps over flaming swords." At nine years old, Morgan, a veteran of countless screenings, had inadvertently memorized the order of the assembly and wanted to share his discoveries.
“Morgan (14), and Heather (16,) had also attended Strand Theatre's San Francisco premiere of my post-punk rock extravaganza, EMERALD CITIES where bands FLIPPER and THE MUTANTS performed live after the screening. Their music and performances were featured extensively in the soundtrack (members of both bands were friends of mine from art school days). It was a star-studded affair, with hundreds of punks there to see the movie and hear the two bands shouting their undecipherable song lyrics over the super-powered A-2 speakers. In the movie, the songs have subtitles, but these fans knew the lyrics by heart. At any rate, I suppose just attending that one screening would have been enough to convince Morgan that moviemaking was a thrill-ride worth taking."
PS. And Morgan DID catch the moviemaking bug! Check out his Slamdance 'must see' doc (says Moviemaker magazine) ; ON HER OWN––more at his website: www.filmsight.com
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REVIEWS
“Schmidt’s Morgan’s Cake is a deadpan, unpretentious delight. The title character, played by the film maker’s son, Morgan Schmidt-Feng, is no less comically out of sync with the world around him than the gorilla-suited David Warner character in the 1966 movie for which Morgan was named. Morgan’s Cake adopts his point of view and reflects his bewilderment in sly, fresh, unexpectedly comic ways. One of the most promising films of this year’s New Directors/New Films series.” –– JANET MASLIN (THE NEW YORK TIMES, March, 1989).
"To capture real life on film, Schmidt fashions a creative weave out of the threads of narrative, documentary, and docu-drama film forms. His actors draw on their own experience enabling him to create a unique blend of fact and fiction. In the end, Schmidt makes art and life intermingle and imitate each other." — Vic Skolnick, CINEMA ARTS CENTER
“At last there’s a film about adolescence that resounds with truth and humor.” — DENVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
“This is Schmidt’s personal attempt to answer his son’s and other young people’s questions: to understand what these kids really want out of life and what motivates them.” — BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
“Rick Schmidt’s approach to independent filmmaking doesn’t aim to beat down the doors to Hollywood. His latest “no-budget” film (Morgan’s Cake) has a refreshingly personal point of view and captures sympathetically and with quiet humor the life of a late-’80s California teenager.” — Lawrence Smith, SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL———-
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