lawrence page films - statistic

Are you looking to work with any established actors?

Yeah, a lot of them are getting at me now.

Tomiko: The strike is about to come up...

Yeah, you got what you call a blackout in Hollywood, so there are a lot of actresses, that getting at me right now. They're not really getting any work. A long time ago, I found it very hard to get these Hollywood actors but I've found out that there is no work for black actors. So now they're finding out who's the dude doing all the independent films and actually getting their films out there, so I get resumes for days right now. So... it's a matter of me wanting to work with them, not them wanting to work with me, because I'll move without them. My biggest thing is always bringing in new acts, new talent that I grew up around, I don't really like hopping on actors and actresses that's already out there. I'm big on new cats coming up, everybody needs a chance.

That was one of my questions... are you looking for new people, new faces?

Yeah, constantly...

Tomiko: As a matter of fact on our website, we're gonna have a casting couch, so people can submit their photos and their resumes, to us.

What did you shoot the film with?

Super 16. Actually a lot of big time directors still use super 16 for different looks. So it's the next best thing when you don't have 35mm. My next one is 35mm, the Mobb Deep "Murda Musik" was super 16 and 35mm, I mixed it in, but that's all I *fuck* with, man.

Do you want to move to digital film?

I like to shoot a lot of my behind the scenes shit in digital, just experimenting. Digital is cool, but it's not for me. I think Spike used it in Bamboozled, you can see where he used digital in it. I tried it, took a look at it, but it just doesn't give me that gritty, grimy, film look. It gets close, but sometimes it gets too clean and some people will say "well you can make it dirty if you filter it out" *bullshit* maybe in twenty years it might replace film, but for right now we're sticking with film.

Are you gonna stay on the cassette level or are you gonna move up to the screen?

I already had distribution deals thrown at me. I turned New Line Cinema down for my movie "Murda Musik", I turned Miramax down for "Murda Musik", I turned Artisan down... Right now I can get a film to the theatres, but my main thing is to have my own distribution company and being able to put my films out through video for right now and let me stack up my hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, once I do that, then I'll do a deal with them. Other than that they can kiss my ass, I'm not trying to take no 2 percent... if they ain't gonna give me ticket sales then I don't want to fuck with them.

Are there any directors that influence your work?

Yeah, there is.. he's really influenced me a lot, I mean I love him, I think he's one of the prettiest mufuckas that I've ever seen and that's Lawrence Page. That's me. I'm the only muthafucka that has influenced me. I'm the type of dude, I can't even tell you who director's are right now. If you asked me three or four names I'd probaly tell you that I've never heard of them. It's the same with big time actors. Sometime I'm just in my own world. I just have this wall up and *shit* I see nothing else. I just make my films and I make them for me and the certain fans out there who look for great films. I don't really look at other director's work. Like Oprah Winfrey said, the time that it took you to look over your shoulder, is the time you *fucking* lost.

Any last words you want to say, like, to people trying to come up?

Yeah, all the cats in the prisons, man. Those are my biggest fans. Those are my deepest dudes. Everybody doing life sentences and all the cats that are locked down doing hard time, I want them to keep their heads up, don't crack up in that muthafucka, just stay strong. If they have any ideas or thoughts just write their ideas and their stories down and get them over to me somehow because we could probaly turn their lifestyles into movies. Those are the people who are doing the hardest time in life. It ain't the people out here. I ain't got no concern for a *mufucka* who has his health and his strength, because if you have your health and your strength then *mufucka* it's on you. It's the people behind the closed doors, the ones who can't get out to the world and do things for themselves, the ones that didn't get a chance. Like in my first movie, the dude had a chance but he blew the chance, so it's the dudes that's caught in the cycle, those are the dudes right there that I look out for, the ones locked down, the hardcore dudes in prison, those are the ones I want to rep for life, one love nigga.

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statistic box cover

    Statistic DVD w/ behind the scenes footage, interviews,
    and sneak previews of Murda Musik
    Coming March 13th

internet deal going down
the benzito

quiet before the storm
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