I have always been a fan of Spike Lee. His book “Spike Lee’s Gotta Have It” really did change my life and altered the way I look at filmmaking. Most of the book is from his journals as he was making his film “She’s Gotta Have It.” I don’t know if the book is still in print, but it is worth hunting down.

From the introduction by Spike Lee:
“Everybody and his mother has a script or is a filmmaker, but the ones who gets their films done are the ones who don’t listen when everybody says, “Forget it, you’re wasting time and money.” The ones who believe, have an unwavering faith in their films and ability and are almost, but not quite, willing to kill to get that “bad boy” made, will prevail---’cuz dat’s what it takes.”

It remind me of some of my filmmaker heroes close to home. Tim who stuck his neck out and pulled out his credit card out to make the Minutemen documentary and now is starting his second music documentary and talking about his third. Also Jared Hess who stuck his neck way out and did not compromise on his first film Napoleon Dynamite.