cinefilesproject

[cinefilesproject]

Mark, Financial Planner - St. George, UT

The theater is one of the few places an adult can indulge the inner child that wants to make-believe. Surely, I am not alone in allowing myself to let go of the real world for an hour or two and allow myself to be caught up in the theatrical reality. For a brief moment, I can drop the worries of every-day life and embrace a great experience as I Raid the Lost Ark, find romance Somewhere in Time, or roam through the twisted streets of an unknown Dark City. What a Beautiful Life we can live through cinema. 

[cinefilesproject]

Vicky, Housewife/Grandmother - Long Beach, CA

I remember when I was very young, going to San Francisco to see the opening of Mary Poppins. It was so thrilling seeing such an amazing movie on the big screen! It is the first movie I remember seeing. My Mom, my brother, my sister, my aunt, and my two cousins all went. It is a day I will never forget! Since then I have seen so many wonderful, fun, romantic, exciting, inspiring, and thought provoking movies. What I enjoy most is the opportunity to be taken away to another place or time, forgetting for a couple of hours the day to day challenges of life. I also love the fun of discussing movies with family and friends; sharing our thoughts and laughing as we remember our favorite parts. Also answering important questions like, team Edward or team Jacob? I appreciate that so many who make movies, continue to raise the bar in the quality, substance, and  the entertainment value in the movies they make.

[cinefilesproject]

Golden Age Love Affair

Kathy, Retired/Grandmother - Murrieta, CA

I recall holding my mother's white-gloved hand excitedly as we walked into this other world, waited with anticipation for the lights to dim in a roomful of strangers, the music to begin (often with a lavish overture as many of the epic films once had), and sat with ever-widening eyes as the curtains opened to reveal huge letters looming before me and announcing the title of films like The Wizard of Oz, The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Gone With the Wind. In addition to the current Cecil B. DeMille epics, many spectacular films from the '30's and '40's were often brought back again and again to the big screen so that new generations could experience them in a larger-than-life format, a practice I am grateful still exists today. I fell in love with Technicolor, and couldn't wait for the day when we would be able to bring it into our home.

My love affair with the movies began on those outings with my mother, but I brought it straight home to my small screen where I avidly devoured every old movie that was featured on TV. I became a Clark Gable fan, a Spencer Tracy fan, a Jimmy Cagney and a Bogart fan. I adored all of Katherine Hepburn's early films, and dabbled a little in Bette Davis and Laurence Olivier. My youthful star struck years led to a later and more mature love of great literature since so many of the great screenplays were born of the best novels and plays. But you never forget your first love  

My husband and I shared this love of movies, and viewing and discussing film together became the staple activity of our continuous courtship during our 33 years of marriage. Now that I've raised a family, avid movie fans the lot of them, I am enjoying my grandchildren immensely, and treasure the tender experience of  holding my little grand daughter's hand as we walk into a darkened theater with our popcorn and Icees and watch amazing stories come to life together. My hand is not white-gloved like my mom's was, but the sense of wonderment and excitement is the same. Thanks, Mom. You are the honored progenitor of two generations of movie fans and buffs. I'll never forget you or the great movie moments we shared together.

[cinefilesproject]

Dad's Hi-8 Camera

Titus, Filmmaker - Bellevue, WA

When I was growing up me and my best friend would always make movies together. We would use his Dad's Hi-8 camera and make our own version of The Untouchables and even our own original classics like The Deadly Cure, On the Run and Underground 1, 2, and 3. We loved to tell stories and show our friends and families our movies and have them ask "how did you guys do that?". We loved all the different reactions we'd get and we loved the whole process of making these little movies. We enjoyed the challenge of coming up with these ridiculous ideas and finding ways to execute them. When we first started making movies we were in the 1st grade and didn't even really know what a film director's job was. But that didn't stop us, we were just doing it because we loved it. A lot of our films were just direct rip-offs of whatever we were watching at the time, we would see something cool and wanted to emulate it.

Some kids grow up being able to watch whatever they want, probably now more than ever, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that in the 80's most kids under 17 weren't allowed to see R rated movies by their parents. There was obviously many ways to get around this, the easiest and most well-known being to buy tickets for a PG-13 movie at the the theaters and then just walking into an R rated film instead. At the the video stores however, my friends and I had to be a little more clever, as my parents put a block on me renting R rated films. The local grocery store also served as a video store and they had a policy that you could rent R rated films as long as they called your home and your parents approved. So I would ride my bike to the grocery store and my friend would be waiting at my house by the phone, before the first ring even came to an end he would answer and try as hard as he could to bring his prepubescent voice down to the more baritone voice of what the clerk would assume was my father. "Hello Mr. Richard. Your son is here wondering if he can rent Showgirls, Natural Born Killers, and Full Metal Jacket, is this ok?" - "Yes, yes of course." It worked every time.  I would also go to the library and put a bunch of movies on hold and then go in once notified and check them all out, surprisingly the librarians were always way less uptight than the video store clerks and would let me rent whatever I wanted. This was especially awesome since you could search by director in the library system, I would just scroll through directors and put all their films on hold. Actually, it started with actors first, not gonna lie. It was DeNiro that introduced me to Scorsese, not the other way around as it should be. I'll come back to Scorsese, but first let me tell you about my first experience with DeNiro. 

The first film I can ever remember seeing in the theaters was The Mission, directed by Roland Joffé. I was four and I remember the experience vividly. I was probably too young to see a film like that even though it was only rated PG, but I was mesmerized. I grew up in a religious household and I think someone from my Dad's church recommended it to him, and he decided to bring me along. I remember being completely enthralled with the story, in awe of the beautiful cinematography by Chris Menges, and hypnotized by Ennio Morricone's flawless score. Jeremy Irons was obviously fantastic in that film as well, but there was something about the transformation of DeNiro's character that really struck me. He started off as such a vengeful, angry, tyrant and then ends up sacrificing himself for the people he once killed. It's a beautiful story and an amazing film, I still adore it to this day. There are many biblical references throughout the film about revenge, burdens, forgiveness, and sacrifice. It was a lot for a four year old, but I can still remember seeing those scenes for the first time and the impact they had on me.

Years later I would see DeNiro pop up in numerous other films, and constantly be blown away. I saw him in The Godfather, and in The Deer Hunter, and was astonished. Then when I was about 12 I saw Goodfellas and that changed everything for me. It made me obsessed with gangster flicks and especially Scorsese. I immediately typed "Scorsese" into the library database and put everything with his name attached on hold. It was not long after that I saw Taxi Driver, and Mean Streets, and was once again wowed by the energy and dedication coming from DeNiro. If The Mission was the film that made me fall in love with film, then Goodfellas is the film that made me want to be a filmmaker. It was the first film I saw where I really wanted to know who was responsible for making it and learn more about them. There is so much energy in that film and the camerawork by Michael Ballhaus is impeccable. The camera was constantly moving, snap zooms, swish pans, steadicam shots, dolly shots, crane shots! There was so much life in it! The performances, the long takes, the great music, the great VO, I was just completely consumed by that film. After that film is when I started looking at the end credits more and learning who the directors, and editors, and cinematographers were, and not just looking at the actors names. That was when I said, "This is what I want to do. I want to do that. I want to tell stories like that." I have seen so many great films since then and have been introduced to the works of so many amazing filmmakers and continue to be, but that was the beginning for me, just the beginning.  

[cinefilesproject]

Michael, Web Designer - Menifee, CA

I loved dinosaurs as a kid. I played with dinosaur toys,  drew them all day long in school,  and loved watching Godzilla movies., I was definitely excited when the first Jurassic Park movie came out in 1993. I remember that day as if it were only yesterday,  my older cousin Evette took me to see it the day it came out. I was 8 or 9 at the time and could name every dinosaur in the movie., Steven Spielberg really brought those dinosaurs to life for me with some of the best CGI every created. I loved the scene in the kitchen where Lex and Tim were hiding from the Velociraptors and you could hear their nails tapping on the floor - that was so real!

[cinefilesproject]

How It All Began - This Is Thriller

Tom, Blogger - Murrieta, CA

This experience caused me to see films in a completely different light. Rather than just sitting and watching a film I began to try and figure out how the filmmakers made the movie. I spent the next couple years watching countless horror films wherever I could get my hands on them. Older cousins came in very handy for watching the slasher films of the 80’s and due to a tape accidentally being left out and queued to just the right spot I experienced a bloody chestburster from a rented copy of Alien at the age of young age of 6. That was awesome!

In 1988 a new type of film sparked my interest when my family went to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I had not been this mystified by a film since Thriller. How did the filmmakers have cartoons interacting with real people? I began having my parents record anything on TV about the movie. One night the Disney channel aired a making of the movie documentary and my parents let me stay up late to watch it with them. Immediately upon finishing with both my parents sleeping on the couch I rewound the show and watched it again. This was the time my parents took notice of my passion and began to help with broadening my horizons a bit when it came to my choice of genres and showing me many classic films. The Academy Awards was like the Super Bowl in our house and movies were watched daily. By the age of 9 I had become a regular film buddy with my parents.

Sadly I did not become a filmmaker. My desire to work in the industry turned from special effects to writing then to directing. I have been fortunate to spend some time around the filmmaking process but have since found another job path that fits me quite well. Horror is near and dear to my heart because of the role it played in my life, but thanks to nourishing parents my horizons were broadened and I learned to appreciate all film for the beautiful art that it is.

I write this article not just to share my experience but also to start a discussion. So often we get to hear from filmmakers and actors their experience with film and how it became a part of their lives. However, there are more of us out there who truly love film and will rarely, if ever, get to share our stories with anyone outside our small circles of film loving friends. So this is your opportunity. We started The CineFiles Project because whenever we as humans are passionate about something we seek out others who are passionate about the same things. We enjoy hearing other people’s origins stories about how they came to be involved in the thing we all enjoy so much.

The CineFiles are a collection of your stories. It is a place where you can tell everyone how film became a part of your life and why you love it. Take the time to visit our site and be a part of the launch. The Project will begin on June 18, 2010, so please take the opportunity to share your story and send it to mystory@thecinefiles.com. We look forward to hearing your story.

The CineFiles Project: http://thecinefiles.com