Interview Mick Alderman

Below is my Interview with Mick Alderman. He spent time on the set of the Goonies. Michael is currently crowd-funding for his film "Crimps" on Kickstarter. The link to the Kickstarter page can be found here. A link to Mick's production company can be found here.  Before you read the interview check out the trailer for "Crimps". WARNING: For mature audiences

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/19937830]

What is the current project you are working on?

CRIMPS is a feature-length supernatural thriller movie. It is completed except for music, which will be recorded in July.

Did you always want to be a filmmaker?

Depends on what you mean by "always". I started in my early teens and never looked back.

What inspired you to become filmmaker?

As a child I went to the movies, but it never occurred to me what they were and that someone actually made them. This was back in the 1970s, before all the interest in "behind-the-scenes" minutiae. I loved comic books and drew cartoons constantly, so I already had developed a knack for visual storytelling. Then Star Wars came out in 1977 and completely blew my mind. Shortly thereafter, a show on PBS featured a boy my age who had made a stop-motion animated short. It showed how a movie was a series of still photographs projected in series. It was like my cartoons, only with the illusion of movement. My grandfather gave me his wind-up 8mm film camera and I made a 3-minute animated short called "Attack of the Blob", which was basically the same thing the kid on TV had done. The sets were Legos and the blob was 5 cans of blue Play-Doh. The camera didn't even have single-frame capability. The movie was awful, of course, but I'd been bitten. My parents bought me a Super-8 camera for my next birthday and I was off and running.

What is the best thing about being one?

Telling stories and working (playing) with other creative people.

What is the worst thing about being one?

It's incredibly expensive and stressful, especially compared to other art forms.

What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?

That depends on your definition of "project". I've made 3 features and a handful of shorts. But I've also operated a video production business for 25 years, so I've shot hundreds of documentaries, commercials, industrials and events. I've worked on numerous professional sets in a variety of capacities.

Who is your favorite filmmaker?

After Star Wars piqued my interest, I heard about another science-fiction film that had been released 9 years earlier called 2001: A Space Odyssey. I saw it on TV and it blew my mind in a completely different way than Star Wars had. I didn't fully understand it at the time, but I had always been enamored of space travel and adored Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series on PBS. 2001 presented space travel in a highly realistic manner and captured the mystery of it that Sagan made so alluring. I had become interested in the actual film makers by then, so Stanley Kubrick became my new hero. I named my fledgling company 2001 Productions in homage to him. 33 years later, I'm still using the name.

How has your life changed since you became a filmmaker?

I've been doing it so long I can't remember what it was like before. I was a caterpillar who became a butterfly.

What is one piece of advice you can give to someone who also wants to make it in the movie business?

Know what it means to tell a story. Stories entertain, but are capable of so much more. They are part of what it means to be uniquely human. Our stories define us as much as we define them.

What do you like to do besides filmmaking?

I've done a lot of theatre work over the years. Directing and writing plays is a wholly different discipline from film making, and yet the two are very similar methods of telling stories. Stripping away the technical side and simply working with actors and a script on a bare stage is enormously valuable and rewarding. I've also acted in many plays, which is very insightful to me as a director.

Have you had any other jobs before you decided to become a filmmaker?

I was still in elementary school when I started making films so I hadn't yet entered the workforce. I'm just ending a 23-year job working as a media specialist at a college, which paid the bills while I made films.

What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?

Anything Kubrick did. Lawrence of Arabia is my favorite movie; I weep in awe at its beauty. If I can make a movie one-tenth that good in my lifetime I will die fulfilled. I stopped watching TV in 1987 because I found it insulting to my intelligence. However, I regularly record the PBS science show "NOVA" at work and bring it home to watch. I also record "Ghost Adventures" on The Travel Channel because one of its stars, Aaron Goodwin, worked briefly with me on CRIMPS before he became famous. I also never miss a Super Bowl.

How would you describe your film education?

Self-taught, primarily. I took TV production classes in college, but by that time I had already been making films for 5 years.

How would you describe the film "scene" where you live?

I live in a small town, so there really isn't much of a local film "scene". However, the town is Astoria, Oregon where many Hollywood movies have been shot over the years, including, most famously, The Goonies.

How has social media changed the independent film industry?

Personally, it has helped me network with others like me, despite my rural location. The Internet in general has been enormously valuable in helping independent producers connect with others and procure resources.

What's your opinion on crowdfunding and recent crowdfunding scandals?

My KickStarter campaign for the CRIMPS music is my first experience with crowdfunding, so we'll see how it goes. I haven't heard about the scandals.

What is the casting process like?

That's a broad question. Finding the right actor for a role is like finding the person you want to marry. It just clicks on every level. I've heard about directors casting actors who were brilliant, but with whom they didn't get along well. To me that's a deal breaker. I worked with an actor like that once and I won't ever do it again, if I can help it.

How does independent film differ from the mainstream?

Well, the technical definition of "independent" means a film made without funding from the major studios. By that criterion, many mainstream movies are independent, including the most recent Star Wars films. Some people use the term "indie" to refer to films like those I've made, with no stars and little money. They differ from the mainstream in that they have, well, no stars and little money.

You could go back in time and see any classic film being made. Which film would it be and why?

Anything by Kubrick, simply because I'll never get to meet him otherwise.

What's your favorite movie quote and why?

There are a million, but here's Peter O'Toole as movie director Eli Cross in The Stunt Man: "If God could do the tricks we can do he'd be a happy man!" So many layers there; it's arrogant and cynical, but also defines the storyteller as a kind of deity. After all, every religion is a collection of stories. Whether the stories are true or not is irrelevant - or should be irrelevant. What matters is that they resonate, which is the ultimate goal of the film maker as storyteller.

You could have any super power. What would it be?

Flight. Camera movement would be so much easier.

What is your opinion on movie remakes?

Remakes are fine as long as the filmmaker has something new and valuable to bring to the material. Many remakes are superior to the originals, which should be the goal. Hitchcock made The Man Who Knew Too Much twice, and Wyler made Ben Hur twice. If the only goal is to milk more money out of an established property, I have no interest.

What is your opinion on book to movie adaptions?

Love them. Books have such a richness and complexity of story and character compared to stories written directly for the screen. One should never compare the two, however. They are completely different storytelling media and should be perceived as such.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

In a bit of shameless self-promotion I'll mention my book, "Three Weeks With The Goonies", which details the time I spent on the set of that movie during the location shooting in 1984. I know there are millions of Goonies fans out there because thousands travel to Astoria every year. The book has tons of pictures and is available on Amazon.com.

 

 

 

Thanks for doing the interview Mick. Mick's book can be purchased here.  I hope you will be submitting "Crimps" to festivals around Boston. I'd love to write a review.