Imaginox

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Davies-Cole

 

‘A life in film’. It’s an expression often used to head obituaries of esteemed auteurs who’ve left behind well-watched bodies of work the next generation of movie-makers might learn from. Ironic, then, that it could also suit as a tagline for independent US film Make A Movie Like Spike – since it heralds American actor Jamil Walker Smith’s directorial debut in the world of features. 

 

The film documents the efforts of two friends who decide their only means of raising enough money to make real their respective dreams - one of supporting his family, the other of attending film school - is to enlist in the army and embark upon a tour of duty in Afghanistan. The drama of the piece is born no sooner than their high-risk scheme is conceived: will both of them make it back to live the life they so desperately desire?

 

A work of fiction, the homemade documentary style preferred by Smith, though made necessary by first feature budget constraints, is intended to contribute towards nuance, as the blurb on the site of Little Plow Films - the independent company behind the project - makes clear: “Drawing from the Dogme 95 Movement and the global street art movement, we are creating a new film movement here in the United States where the lack of resources serve the story as opposed to hindering it, blurring the line between reality and fiction.”

 

The feature, made for only $40, 000, thereby wears its cheap ‘tag’ as a badge of honour.

 

“The blurred distinction exists because what we’re physically using to make the film - from lights, to camera, to shot selection, to sound - are things the lead character would have access to in order to make a film,” explains Smith, who wrote the script of the piece he co-starred in while also directing. “In that sense it truly does become a film made by the very audience who we wish to reach,” he adds. 

“Much in the same way, when my friends - who are street graffiti artists - first started doing their work, it wasn’t necessarily for those of us who are not street artists. They were putting up art as a means to communicate with other young men and women who were also doing the same thing they were doing. From their interaction and communication with each other through these pieces of art, the world started to take notice and have an opinion.

 

“So we wanted to play with that concept by making this film.”

 

With that in mind, the film-makers were adamant the equipment used to capture the images and action was just as important as the canvases provided by inner-city LA and elsewhere.

 

“We used six cameras,” Smith reveals. “I love Super 16, but my character Luis - the young man from LA - doesn’t have a Super 16 camera, and he has to use a camera that can go in his breast pocket and that the can take with him overseas to Afghanistan. So we used a little prosumer HD Sony Handycam. We also used a flip-camera and a Super 8 among others.

 

 

“Hopefully, because of the structure of the film, if someone who is of the working or middle class watches this film about someone putting a movie together, they’ll see themselves doing it as well,” enthuses Smith.

 

“And so within that construct, the lack of money is in fact telling our story: if we’d had a million dollars to make the film, then we’re not making the film that Luis would have made. It’s the small budget and guerrilla style of filmmaking that actually speaks more to what this young man who calls himself an artist has to do in order to create.”

 

Despite being only 29 years-of-age, Smith is no stranger to the screen and all the work that goes into making it glow. A child actor of the 90’s, his regular roles in U.S. sitcom Sister Sister and kids’ cartoon Hey Arnold! soon led to parts in acclaimed series such as NYPD Blue and The Bernie Mac show. Since 2009 he’s played Master Sergeant Ronald Greer, a central character in MGM Television’s Stargate Universe, alongside his friend, UK actor Robert Carlyle. 

 

Smith is certain that such a pedigree has helped balance out any first-time director failings in his favour.

 

 

 

 

“There are two different kinds of first-time film directors: those who have had a graduate education in film-making, and those who have not,” Smith stresses. 

 

“I was at a disadvantage in not having studied film-making through the simple fact that there were technical things that I didn’t understand in terms of camera selection, what different lenses do… in terms of grains and textures that are created as a result of colour correction and what not,” he confesses. 

 

“But what I had, and what allowed me to make a film, was the fact that this is not the first time I’d created a character: I’m an actor by profession. I’ve been acting for twenty years, so there are things that I understand about story and structure that a guy who went to film school may not completely understand in the same way.”

 

The connections the actor has built up over time have also been pivotal in helping to get the film seen.

 

While enjoying its place on the official selection at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival in June, the piece was galvanized by an invitation to view it by Smith’s friend and colleague Carlyle, a patron of the event.

 

Its sentiments must surely have piqued the interest of those who read it: “I am honored to personally invite you to attend…a film that has moved me incredibly as an artist, a man and a citizen of the world. 

 

 

“A beautifully honest film that speaks to youth in their own language, this is a film that explores and gives insight into a world that people think they know, but really know nothing of. With a street level view of Los Angeles serving as a backdrop, the tale of two Marines, their dreams and their subsequent reality is both poignant and beautifully observed.”

“Robert Carlisle’s invitation was sent to press and industry,” Smith explains. “We worked with an amazing publicist, but because we didn’t have a lot of the P & A other films had, we thought Robert’s letter would help us in terms of generating some press. It was beautiful that he wrote that for us.”

 

It serves as an example of the kind of support that can help make the name of a first feature film.

 

“With first time directing, because so many people have access to equipment, the market seems saturated with so many films,” says Smith, adding: “So even if your film is better, it becomes much more difficult for people to even have access to your film, because there are 5000 of them. Therefore what you then have to spend money on is P & A - Print and Advertising - which can end up costing you more than your film cost.

“Hopefully you have a producer who’s not a first time film-maker, but sometimes if you’re a first-timer no-one’s going to work with you unless you have experience. So you end up working with people who have as little experience as you do, which can be beautiful, because you can learn and grow together, but it can also be challenging because collectively you can’t see the pitfalls.”

 

According to Smith, the festival circuit also sets other, near insurmountable challenges for those on a restricted budget.

 

“Today, film festivals have huge sponsors, and those sponsors naturally want celebrities on the red carpet behind the logo of their company,” he explains. “So if you’re a first time film director it can be very difficult to put together a cast that is ‘box office worthy’ if you will. 

“Also, if you’re a first time film director you go to a festival and you’re competing with films that have $10 million dollar budgets. There are certain things that people are used to seeing that they associate with good film-making that you can’t do because you just don’t have the budget.”

 

And that’s the reward that awaits those who’ve successfully scraped together enough cash to actually get their first feature made. Most will never get that far. Which brings us to one of the main tenets of the tale Smith was so eager to bring to audiences.

 

 

 

 

“Something that I found interesting - especially in comparison with being a European filmmaker - is that in America there is no funding for the arts. Absolutely none.

“There is no money that is given, be it for your education, access to the equipment, all the different things you’d need to make a film. Because of that, if you don’t come from money and you can’t afford a $40, 000 film school education, it can be very challenging to make film,” he stresses.

 

“As we all know, filmmaking is one of the more expensive mediums in art, so what ends up happening as a result, from my experience, is the people who make films are people who are not from the middle class,” Smith insists. “So therefore you have stories being told that have less to do with the challenges people are facing as a result of the restrictions put on us by society, the culture, and more films being made about topics that exist outside of what everyday people are going through. Because people making films tend to not have to - on a certain level - deal with those sort of things.”

 

With this in mind, Make A Movie Like Spike seeks to grapple as much with the cogs of the industry in which it was created as with those of the war machine its characters find themselves caught up in.   

 

“In a perfect world, I’d like to see this film used as a tool that helps end a war,” he declares. “I love my country, I love all the people in it, so it’s only natural I wouldn’t want to see us go and destroy other people, and I wouldn’t want other people to destroy us.”

 

Just as street art has matured over the past 40 years from simple declarations of ‘This is me’ to encompass more provocative political messages, Smith intends his film to engage its audience with the big issues relevant to the greater structure it’s been emblazoned upon.

 

The task of attaining this, lofty and abstract as it is, begins on the ground, with the most practical of goals.

 

“I would love to see this film distributed in theatres,” Smith admits. “You learn that although there’s an audience you intend to reach, you have to reach another audience first: the taste-makers, and the people with the money.

 

Meanwhile, the film has screened at the Veterans For Peace/Iraqi Veterans Against the War National Convention in Portland, Oregon, and at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Los Angeles. It continues to tour for educational, community and festival screenings, with the goal being to share the film with as many people affected by the war as possible.

 

Producer Brittany Ballard has said: “We see the film as a counter-recruitment tool, and we’re in the process of joining forces with champions and celebrities to build awareness about the film throughout the rest of the year.”

 

“Sometimes film-making can be like fashion or pop culture,” reflects Smith. “I guess all art is like that in a way: the painting ain’t anything until it sells for $10 million. Then people think: ‘Oh, we can’t get enough of him…’ and the artist is thinking: ‘I tried to sell that four years ago to pay my rent and nobody wanted it.’ And that makes artists become bitter and untrusting of people, and I get that.”

 

But the actor turned director is mindful to maintain his focus despite the fevers such a cynical environment can enflame.

 

“As a first time film director, you make one film, but you make it while thinking of your next two. So you hope the film will act as an introduction and make people take notice  and say: ‘Oh, if that’s what he can do without me, then I wonder what he can do with me…here’s a million bucks.’ ”

 

Smith hopes his next project will strike a similar balance between over-arching social themes and closely observed personal stories. 

 

Repeat After Me is set to be a screen adaptation of Ayelet Waldman’s acclaimed novel Daughter’s Keeper, which Smith has co-written with Little Plow colleague Ballard.

 

“There’s issues of the criminal justice system and immigration in the background, but in the foreground it’s about a mother’s relationship with her daughter,” he reveals.

 

“Little Plow are into making films where in the background you see huge social issues that are very relevant to the times, and are directly reflecting the true majority,” Smith explains, adding: “But huge social issues can make people feel small and insignificant, whilst issues dealing with people trying to communicate with and find their way to each other are things that can empower an audience, because they can usually relate to them more.”

 

With this in mind, Smith is hopeful his film about two disenfranchised friends will help ensure the writing is on the wall for a war he feels should be shutdown for good. 

 


http://www.littleplowfilms.com/projects/the-story-of-make-a-movie-like-spike/ 

 

www.facebook.com/MakeAMovieLikeSpike 

 

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