The Films of Rick Schmidt 1975-2015--He wrote 'Feature Filmmaking At Used-Car Prices, and 'Extreme DV';

For all those indie filmmakers who wonder about jumping into the 'feature filmmaking' pond, here’s an exciting catalog of movies that Schmidt made, by hook or crook--26 no/low-budget features in 40 years. Budgets range right down to $39 for the DV movie THE HIGDEN MAN (see FOREWORD). What matters is that if 'filmmaking' is your dream, hopefully this HOW-TO BOOK, with numerous 'Director’s Statements' by Rick on the struggles to produce IMPROV features, will form a basis for your future efforts (if HE can do it so can U!). By examining the various one-page movie entries, also Schmidt’s 'Director’s Statements' about 'the making of,' then equating that information to TRAILERS and FREE FULL MOVIES, the reader should get a sense of Schmidt’s creative priorities. His improv approach to actors/non-actors, on-the-spot story-telling, editorial exploration, and the nuts and bolts of no/low-budget producing should begin to make sense. After all, his fully-improv,’ $15,000 ’Sundance’ feature, Morgan’s Cake, is pretty good proof of the pudding! Hopefully, the take-away from this 'used-car filmmaking' book is that ANYONE CAN BECOME A SUCCESSFUL INDIE FEATURE FILMMAKER. With DV/digital moviemaking equipment-many features here were shot in DV--artists can now make their movies with affordable HD cameras or phones, shooting 4K video and complete the storytelling process with inexpensive editing apps. With determination, you can start to compile your own catalog of completed works, hopefully earning a trip to Park City/Sundance and beyond. Good Luck