The only way I knew how to break through — cause I didn't have any money, I didn't have any connections, I didn't have one single relative in the film business — was to go through the cheapest art form that I could find, and that was music videos. You could make a music video for $100 that's four minutes long, versus trying to scrounge up $ 1,000 for a short film. It took me 13 years to get past music videos to actually start doing feature films
Were you nervous about directing "Torque"?
Well, yeah, because quite frankly, the movies I want to do aren't the type of movies that critics are gonna love. I like popcorn movies. My favorite filmmaker is Steven Spielberg. He's very critically acclaimed now, but during his early years, [critics] didn't like his movies. He used to be sort of like the popcorn director who couldn't be taken seriously as an artist.
To do a big, major studio film, as opposed to an independent movie, which is a world that I'm simply not interested in, you're gonna take a hit on two things. |
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One, you're the guy that's going in there purposely making a studio film, and then two, your product is probably not going to be as great as it could be when you're established. As a first-time filmmaker, you're gonna have limitations on you. I had to sort of calculate, 'How good is that final product gonna be?' It's not like I'm just any director who made a film and suddenly popped out of the independent world and nobody knows who he is. I have a brand on MTV, my name. So I can taint that brand if I screw up.
Can audiences expect a music video quality to "Torque"?
You know what the truth is? My music videos have always been an extension of my view of filmmaking. Music videos haven't taken over my style, I put my style in a music video, and I let other people sort of emulate that. |
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