There have been many books released over the years that serve as an educational tool for budding filmmakers, from Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies to Robert Rodriguez’s Rebel Without a Crew to Steven Ascher’s The Filmmaker’s Handbook. Let's Make a Movie!, the illustrated children's book about moviemaking for today's youngest generation, offers a fresh take on the genre.
The book is created by filmmakers David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Blumhouse's Halloween trilogy) and Onur Tukel (Catfight, The Misogynists). It follows a group of young intrepid filmmakers as they set out to make an independent movie titled The Ninjas Fight the Killer Sharks at Bikini Beach, showcasing the challenges and rewards that moviemaking presents. As big fans of cinema themselves who developed a passion for film at a very young age, Green and Tukel are hoping that their story will help "inspire more magic" for a new generation of filmmakers.
Ahead of the release of Let's Make a Movie! in June, Green and Tukel spoke with MovieWeb about the new book, as well as their own filmmaking aspirations. You can check out our conversation in full below.
Finish What You Start, Even If It's Not Perfect
MovieWeb: If you could give a younger filmmaker some words of advice, what would they be?
David Gordon Green & Onur Tukel: Don’t be intimidated. Write something that can be done cheaply with four or five characters and three or four locations. Keep it simple. Make it with your friends or utilize characters and resources that you have access to. Write a script and have a reading. Discuss ways to make the script better. Work all summer and save up some money and shoot it on weekends in the fall. Rehearse the scenes and figure out how to shoot them. Make sure you get good audio and try to find nice lighting to make it look good.
Don’t get upset if it’s not perfect. It’s not supposed to be. It’s your first movie. Just make sure you finish what you start. So many people start writing a script but they never finish it. Many people shoot a movie and they never edit it. First edits can be frustrating and disappointing, but you have to see it to the end. It'll probably be different from what you thought it would be, but that's cool. When the movie is finished, have a premiere for your family and friends in your living room and share your work. The most important thing is to have fun and have a good since of humor about the process.
MW: If you could go back and give yourself advice as a younger filmmaker, what would it be?
DGG & OT: Don't get upset if the movie doesn't have a lot of success when it's released. That's outside of your control. Enjoy the process. Make the best movie you can. If you expect huge success, it can be heart-breaking. Just make the best movie you can, be proud of what you did and keep going.
The Authors Got Started in Film Early in Life
MW: How old were you when you first had the calling to be a filmmaker?
David: I was twelve years old and skipped school to be an extra in the movie Born on the Fourth of July. I got to watch Oliver Stone and his crew work and was overwhelmed with a sense of ambition to be a part of something like that. I made the cut too. If you look quickly, you can see me wiggling my eyebrows in a baseball game at the beginning of the film.
Onur: I feel like I became a filmmaker in the 6th grade, when my friends Kirk Wilson and Paul Choong invited me to join the crew of a VHS-slasher movie called Camp Out With Death. We shot the movie the following summer, and I was instantly hooked.
MW: Could you give some insight into what your favorite part of this book is personally?
DGG & OT: Making movies is fun, but it can be extremely stressful. It can be emotional. It can knock you down. You have to get back up. At one point in the book, the director wants to give up but his friends won’t let him give up. They inspire him to keep going! Create a project where you support each other and finish the movie!
There Might Be More to Come from David Gordon Green and Onur Tukel
MW: Considering every filmmaker has ups and downs along the way, what helped keep you going and not give up?
DGG & OT: Making movies is about a group of people coming together to make something. It’s magical and collaborative. It’s all about teamwork and a common ambition. Everyone’s role is important. When you support each other, great things can happen. When you watch it together, you feel a collective sense of pride. You made something…TOGETHER! When you have a great team, you feel like you can do anything. That’s why we often work with the same people on the movies we make.
MW: Might we expect more collaborations between the two of you in the future or any other literary projects related to filmmaking?
DGG & OT: We’re hoping that this book inspires a young generation of kids to make movies. If the book is popular, we’ll make more books. We’d love to see the young filmmakers in Let’s Make A Movie! go on to make bigger movies and perhaps they expand to other efforts and art forms.
Let's Make a Movie! will be released on June 14, 2022, by Pitchstone/Imp Works, in partnership with Green's Rough House Academy; find out more about the company at RoughHousePictures.com.