It might just be every young filmmaker’s dream to make the perfect buddy movie. Most aspiring performing artists have considered it at one time or another, getting a camera and taking a road trip with friends, and faking their way through the rest of it. Even the ones who do break through in the business have these dreams, like a young Robert Downey making plans for an art project with his friends, or Jonny Depp, living out a very popular fantasy and turning Hunter S. Thompson’s masterpiece into a cinematic daydream. All these projects are fragile and tentative, and most of the great ideas with friends never do see any light, but the ones that do are powerful documents for a generation.
For the aspiring filmmaker, then, the main thing to keep in mind is that most of these projects do fail. The reasons for their failures are multiple and complex, but deciding to actually make the project can put you in a better position than most. It is kind of a slacker dream, after all, and slacker dreams don’t often make their way into any kind of palpable reality. One way to avoid having your film become something that only gets talked about is to make a decision to not talk about it. If it stays under wraps, then it has a better chance of getting seen, because it becomes something you want to show people. Because you haven’t told them about it already. And the trick here is to keep it secret long enough that it turns into a film.
The next decision is to consider the genre. Do you want to make a buddy film, or a road movie? There is a distinction. Of course, like any distinction in the art world, it’s not fixed, just as genres are not set in concrete. Every filmmaker has the right, and in some cases the genius, to redefine these things. There are, after all, plenty of films that do cross over into both categories. Buddy films focus on the relationship between two people, and road movies focus on an adventure. In films like Thelma and Louise, or the Motorcycle Diaries, the adventure and the friendships are equally important. It’s a very good idea, then, for new filmmakers to know their traditions, to make a choice that is based on knowledge, and a willingness to break with certain forms.
The next step, then, is preparation. If you are hoping to make a film that inspires generations, you’ll need to spend a significant amount of time developing the script and working with the actors. But if it’s a project that’s intended to be a rough document of a cultural moment, there isn’t much more that’s necessary than enough money for gas and food, and a link for a saturn repair manual download in case of emergencies on the road. It is an adventure, after all, and the road to adventure is sometimes well paved, and sometimes filled with potholes.
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