A Quote by Mike Birbiglia
I majored in screenwriting and playwriting in school - and wanted to make films as a career. But when I directed my first short in college - which was called 'Extras' - I lost thousands of dollars and made an unsatisfying and incomplete film.
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I made lots of short films, about nine or ten short films. And then I made a television film called 'This Little Life.'
When I went to film school about three years ago, the first two years you're required to make a series of short films. I started making films based on short poems.
I was a screenwriting major in college, and really wanted to do that after I graduated, but there are no job listings for that, as we all know. I had many classmates that made it in the business, but stand-up comedy was my way in, and my first film 'Sleepwalk with Me' was based on those autobiographical experiences.
I wanted to be a playwright in college. That's what I was interested in and that's what I was moving toward, and then I had the lucky accident of falling in love with film. I was 19 or 20 that I realized films are made by people. Shooting digitally became cheaper and better. You couldn't make something that looked like a Hollywood film, but you could make something through which you could work out ideas. I was acting, but I was also conceiving the plots and operating the camera when I wasn't onscreen. I got very unvain about film acting, and it became a sort of graduate school for me.
My favorite film is "Meshes in the Afternoon," a short avant garde film directed by Maya Deren. This was the first film that I saw that was actually directed by a woman.
Then in college, besides economics, I also majored in studio art and got involved in photography and making short films and acting. But I didn't know you could make a living that way.
I did a film called 'Nightfall,' based on Isaac Asimov life, which was directed by an American director. However it was a short film.
If you are going to call a film a 'black film' then you have to make a film that represents everyone that's black, which is almost impossible. That is why white films are not called white films, they are just called 'films.'
My father ran London Films. He made films like 'The Red Shoes,' 'The Third Man.' And he had had a long career in the film business, which was bifurcated with a career in intelligence. He had to deal with gangsters, and sometimes he would take me with him. Also, I went to school with their children.
My M.F.A was in directing, and all the films I've made, for film school and after, I've written, directed and shot.
Most of the female-directed films, if they got distribution, would have fewer dollars to support the film and play in fewer theaters than the men. Because the female-directed films go to smaller companies. So the gap starts widening.
I directed 'Death in the Gunj' which released in 2017. It got very good reviews and a few awards but did not do well at the box-office. But I'm not bothered. I made the film that I wanted to make. It was not a film for everyone.
I spent a long time on my first movie, which was the sequel to a short film that I did called 'Carne.' And I had no money. I shot it over a period of three years, a bit like David Lynch directed 'Eraserhead.'
But even a kid, directing was something that I did. I made short films in school. I feel like I've been in the best film school in the world.
Well I'm Superman, just not action. I'm kind of looking for something with a lot less action and more talking and listening. I also have a film that's premiering Vegas Film Festival, short film, directed by Joel Kelly, it's called Denial and it's a story, short film, 35 mm short film and it's about a man's struggle to choose between the woman of his dreams and his reality, so it's definitely different than Superman. So I'm really proud of that.
When I started this profession, I wanted to make films that entertain but that have content. When I went to film school, they made me believe that the two could not mix.
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