We must throw all our weight behind creating mixed-race movies and our experiences. We must gather together and using the cameras and film/video/DVD make mixed-race movies from a mixed-race perspective! The Beauty of the mixed-race, its faces and emotions and ideas are the shining light of the universe! This article is strongly intended for mixed-race folks who are interested in making films who never gone to film school. Also, for those of mixed-race who went to film school and those who have taken few film classes who like to learns few more tips on making a good mixed-race film.
You don't have to go film school. Film schools are a crap shoot. In my personal
experience, it was mixed bag. It was a badly run and under funded department.
Some of the classes were helpful. Some were overrated. Some were a waste of
time. Since, I was not a graduate student I got the crappier equipment. However,
two advantages I get out of it, is that I meet some serious people committed
want to make and write films. Also, I can get student discounts on software
programs for editing like Avid, Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas. So, it wasn't
a total waste of time and money. Even, if you're not a film major. You can
still buy at student discount at places like Academic Superstore. Have a good
computer that has powerful RAM like 1 Gigabytes. Remember more Gigabytes the
better. A firewire cable and input from your computer or card. Get a hefty
hard drive, about 250 or more Gigabytes that can store plenty of video. DVD
burner that you can burn and your own DVD’s. For sound editing/design
you can buy Pro-Tools or more inexpensive Adobe Audition. For digital effects
you can buy Adobe After Effects, Boris or other programs. For DVD authoring
you can buy Sony Vegas, DVD Studio Pro, or Adobe Encore. There you have it,
your own studio.
With digital video, you can buy digital
camera for a fair price. Soon HD cameras will be more available to consumers,
as well to future up and coming
directors. For instance, this mini-dv camera made by Cannon (on the left)
costs eight-hundred dollars and good on-camera Sennheiser microphone cost only
one-hundred
sixty-nine dollars. It's one-chip CCD camera. It is not ideal for making
low-budget films, short or feature length. You can buy cheap tripod from Bogen
for three-hundred
dollars at places like B&H. However, though one-chip cameras do have
great value for making documentaries and avant-garde films. As for documentaries,
we are in need for serious mixed-race documentaries from a mixed-race perspective.
You can do variety of topics about mixed-race: identity, gender, you named
it. If you don't have the subjects, you can do documentary of yourself. See
how that comes out. If your serious about making short or feature length
film.
I would buy or rent, a three-chip CCD camera. If you buy a prosumer camera,
the range usually goes for couple thousand to several thousand. Research
and compare before you buy. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against celluloid
film.
There is great value in film. In fact, if I had choice I prefer film to video
in making a film. If you have the cash to make the film and the right equipment,
then I say go for it.
Films are about visual communication. Films are about stories. Film school or no film school, study and study! Read production, history, theory, screenplays and analysis of film. Take notes. Jot them down in a notebook. It might come in handy one day. Buy a couple screenplay books and study them and make your own conclusions what works and what doesn't in screenwriting. Purchase a screenwriting program like Movie Magic or Final Draft. From there you can write screenplays, in the typical screenplay format. Besides studying film, study other subjects. As Andrew Horton, the author of Writing the Character Centered Screenplay, points out that the famous FAMU in Prague that made Milos Forman had to study literature and drama. Also, Horton quotes from Kurosawa autobiography: "In order to write scripts you must first study the great novels and dramas of the world. You must consider why they are great. Where does the emotion come from that you feel as you read them?" Unless you want to be a literature major and write long papers I'd say it is not best to enroll literature courses. My advice is just read a lot of literature that you can get your hands on. Read different writers from Homer to Chuck Palahniuk. It’s recommended to take an acting class or two. Read Constantine Stanislavski when you study acting. Study the acting styles of superb actors like Kevin Spacey. If you go a college or university that has a Drama department, make friends with the drama majors and learn from them. Here you can make potential connections.
Filmmaking is an art just like painting or sculpture. With film it is painting
with light. Study art or do some paintings. Study the great works of Dutch
and French paintings from 17th to 19th centuries like Rembrandt, Vermeer, Ingres
and Delacroix. You see, light is key when it comes to painting, photography
and filmmaking. Not only that, but also composition, color, depth, shadows
and shape. Study the connection between color and emotion. Read a couple books
about color theory. If you want to read a book that has connection between
cinematography and art. I suggest you buy Masters of Light: Conversations
with Contemporary Cinematographers by Dennis Schaefer and Larry Salvato, granted
the book over 20 years old. It still has great value. Study great films with
great cinematography. For the black & white ones, watch the old film noir
films of the 40's and 50's like Night and the City, Detour, Out of the
Past, Pickup on South Street, The Killing, The Asphalt Jungle, Laura, The Big
Sleep,
Murder My Sweet and many other noir films. For color films: Se7en,
Amelie, The Conformist, Jacob's Ladder, Scarface, Goya in Bordeaux, Barry Lyndon,
Road
to Perdition, The Godfather and Days of Heaven. Especially, Amelie, buy or
rent the DVD version. After watching the film, put in the special features
DVD and watch it. Plus, watch the great documentary on cinematography, Visions
of Light: The Art of Cinematography.
Go even further. Buy Roland Barthes's Mythologies and Joseph Campbell's Hero
With a Thousand Faces when studying mythology. The latter helped George Lucas
in writing Star Wars. Study political philosophies like (old style) conservatism
and libertarianism. Play with it. Read economics classics by Ludwig von Mises
and Murray Rothbard. Too many directors, both in past and present are ignorant
of economics.
Sadly, they churn out same old anti-capitalist screeds while ironically relying
on capitalism to make their films. If you interested in the directing/producing
angle, you want to read Sun-Tzu's Art of War and Miyamoto Musashi's A
Book of Five Rings. If you are in college, you may want to take a few business and
management courses. If you're a business major that great! That will give you
a great edge in being a producer. You don't have to enroll course like history,
economics, art, ect. You don't have to be in college or university. Just read
a lot and write a lot. That's Stephen King's maxim when comes to writing. Same
applies to screenwriting and filmmaking. If you do that, you will go far. When
creating a mixed-race film. To prevent making a politically correct film that
promotes the stale stereotypes of mixed-race people. Promoting the hypodescent,
white purity, "one drop" like Pinky, Imitation of Life and Queenie.
Do serious research first on the mixed-race experience. Read serious books
and academic articles. For instance, if want to make a movie about mulatto
experience in the antebellum South read The Forgotten Cause of the Civil
War by Lawrence Tenzer and Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro
(sic) in the Antebellum South by Ira Berlin. Another example, if you’re going make
a film about Anglo-Indian experience in colonial India you may want check out
the Anglo-Indian Home Page. Any book that you’re reading for research,
please read the bibliographies. You can find wealth of information.
Never stop working. It's also very important to just practice making movies. It's like drawing or painting. You don't need to be able to afford a camera, you can draw storyboards of what you want to capture. Practice, eternal practice, is vital. Then things will come together like magnets. Talent is developed through hard, barren, practice alone with the simplest of tools. Don't wait for everything to come together. I'd just do it. Even if it's not that great and your equipment is not what you'd ideally hoped for. Just do it, over and over again. Your craft will improve and so will your equipment in a matter of time. Nothing can or will stop you. Make many films and videos as possible. Send it to many film or videos festivals as possible. Find local rural, urban and under-the-radar for distribution. Practice, Practice, Practice is the key. Again, filmmaking is an art like painting or sculpture. You can make it a fine Art, if you use it right. You might be wondering where you are going get the financing to make your film. That is entirely up to you. Find your own strategy in get financing for your film. Filmmaking is also a business. Like any other business, it is business of getting other peoples attention. Getting peoples attention to help finance your project. Getting peoples attention of your creative works when they view it. Skill that is needed to be mastered, in order to be a successful producer and director.
Don't wait for Hollywood to make serious and respectable films about us. Do it now! Don't wait likes of Halle Berry, either to save the day. Create talent that is more talented those Hollywood mixed-race actors like Michael Michelle whose real talent is parading herself as "black" woman and plays "trophy" girlfriends/wives for black male actors on television programs and films. There is liberal whining about "whites" or "society" makes them play "black" roles. Please, that's just plan nonsense. The half-Irish Jennifer Beals played many white roles and she's recognized as mixed-race. The mulatto Jamaican-American actor Frank Silvera played Italian, Mexican and other non-black roles. You see actors who identify as "white" or "non-black," does not limit or hinder themselves to roles that reflect their personal racial background. While black-identified mulatto actors complain about the hesitant of casting directors to hire their pretty non-black selves for "black" roles, a "white" actor who behaved that way would be thought as a total moron. Can one think Martin Sheen asking only for “Irish-Cuban" roles instead of playing any other roles? No one would ever have heard of Keanu Reeves or Jennifer Tilly if they asked only for mixed-race Chinese/White roles. No one would ever have heard of Jewish actors like Tony Curtis, John Garfield, Dustin Hoffman, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and countless other stars asking for only Jewish roles? If they did, they would have been so idiotic. Remember when making a mixed-race film, it don't have to be all about race politics. For example, it can be a romantic comedy between two Mulattoes or Eurasians without the mentioning race. However, if your film bring issues that concerns us. Be subtle about it. For instance, Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow is example of this. It's about the experience of Asian-American males in upper-class southern California. It makes no serious mention of race. However, the message is very subtle without the being preachy on the race politics. If you’re going make a film that is heavily into race and issues that concerns us, please don't be politically correct about it.
After observing for several years, emailing and protesting about films that promote the myths of "white" purity and "one drop" like the Human Stain, isn't going to be so effective. That's why I encourage mixed-race do their own films. If you know someone who is mixed-race making a mixed-race film, help him/her out. If not physically on the set like a grip or gaffer, maybe financially or provide catering services. From there we can have own voice by our own people. Capital, marketing and promotion are the key. That will change things. From there we can have a stronger voice to protest. The days of all talk and no action will soon be over. Go and do likewise. Do whatever it takes! Never give up your hopes! Never be let down by frustrations or patronizing. There is no one true road to success in making a film. What may worked for Quentin Tarantino or David Fincher, may not work for you. Create your own path. If you have to go NYU or USC for film school and spend lot of money. So be it. If you have to work in a video store like Tarantino did to learn about filmmaking. Do that. As the 17th century Japanese poet Basho said, "Do not follow in the footsteps of the old masters, but seek what they sought." Make your own mark and enforce it!
Suggested Reading
White Racial Identity, Racial Mixture, and the "One Drop Rule" by A. D. Powell Presented at Fifth Union, Kingsport, Tennessee Friday, 18 June 2004
"White,''Mixed"'or"Other?'"Some Books and Articles Your Librarian Didn't Tell you About! by A.D. Powell
"Imitation of Life'' (1934), A Window on "Passing" or Who is "white"? by George Winkel
Tenzer, Lawrence R. The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War: A New Look at the Slavery Issue. Scholars Publishing House, 1997.
Pascoe, Peggy. "Miscegenation Law, Court Cases, and Ideologies of "Race" in Twentieth-Century America," The Journal of American History, 83 (no. 1, June 1996), 44-69.
Hodes, Martha E. Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. New York University Press, 1999.
Sollors, Werner. Interracialism: Black-White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies (9th edition). Prentice Hall
Ascher, Steven and Pincus, Edward. The Filmmaker's Handbook. Plume, 1999.
Dick, Bernard F. Anatomy of Film. St. Martin's 1978.
Dancyger, Ken and Cooper, Pat. Writing the Short Film. Focal Press, 2005.
Egri, Lajos. The Art of Dramatic Writing. Touchstone, 1960.
Alton, John. Painting with Light. University of California, 1995.
von Mises, Ludwig. Socialism. Liberty Fund, 1981.
von Mises, Ludwig. The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality
King, Stephen. On Writing: Memoir of the Craft. Pocket Books, 2000.
© Copyright 2005, R.J. and Mulatto Renaissance