An interview with Lawrence Page

A little taste... What do you get when you mix one part kool-aid, two parts gasoline and a half-a-ounce of weed?...uh, a bad analogy? Alright, that was a terrible comparison, but there is something beautiful happening in the world of independent film making. Hip hop movies are finally being made the right way. No cheese ball concerts, or fake ass actors trying to throw out some slang that they learned from a "How to be Ghetto" handbook. These are not stories about music or artists, they are movies about life as we see it, straight with no chaser. In the same way that hip hop has dominated music and revolutionized the way it's made (...sampling, use of drum machines) these independent filmmakers are changing the way films, labeled hip hop, are being made. Recently, I had the chance to talk the founder of one of the fastest rising independent film companies, Lawrence Page of Lawrence Page Films. How do you turn $7000 into over $2,000,000.00? By reading on and taking notes......

How did you get the film company off the ground?

Blood, sweat and tears..nah mean independent style, just straight working hard. saving my money putting it in the bank, saving it and trying to lift as much as I can.

How did you get involved with directing movies?

My father was in the Vietnam war, he was a cameraman, so I guess it's in the blood. So it's something that I always wanted to do, because actually I'm an air force baby, I was born on an air force base down in Florida, growing up that's something that was probaly in my blood, you know, in the bloodline... so that's how we do that there.

When was the first time you picked up a camera?

I had to be like six or seven, but you know back then they didn't have movie cameras, I picked up a damn photography camera, taking pictures, and then years down the road, I decided that I want to go into film and pick up the camera, like my father used.

Did you go to school for it...any formal training?

I don't have the patience for school. I tried to go to school for it, but the guy was taking to long and I couldn't comprehend his direction of filmmaking so I decided to drop out and do it myself.
Do it the way you envision it...
....and do it the hard cutting way, because there is nothing wrong with school. But there are a lot of things that your only gonna learn on the set.. an actual set, that school can't teach you.

How long have you been in the business?

Well, my company has been up and going for about seven years, but I been in the business for like thirteen years, nah mean, since I was a kid. I call that business. I been thinking business minded since I was a newborn child. When I was a baby I never spoke a word and I never cried. I always had a steel mind and a steel mouth. They always thought something was wrong with me. So I been thinking business since I was a newborn damn baby. Nah mean.

What is your first project?

The first project is Statistic. That's the first project that we got off the ground. There was a budget of $7000 to shoot that film. We made over $2,000,000.00 worth of sales. It took five days to shoot that film. Monday - Friday.. consecutive days. And that's the the first one we're getting off the ground. Redman, Lost Boyz, Mobb Deep in it. Straight independent.

What's the movie about?

Bonnie and Clyde. It's a Bonnie and Clyde movie, man. It's about growing up in the streets of Long Island, about how a boy who grew up without his mother and father. He saw his father kill his mother. So he grew up without a direction in life, he been through the system, the group homes, the shelters, he been through the prison system. The people that taught him in the street were pretty much like the pimps and all the dudes that was down on the corner. So he wanted to straighten up his life, he met a girl in a group home, Tomiko Cameron, she stars in the movie, aka Felecia, so they got together and tried to make something of their life, but they found again that the nine to five job thing wasn't working, because trouble found him. A lot of times when people tell you, to stay out of trouble, your trying to do something right and trouble finds you. So it's hard to stay out of trouble...so he got fed up with the system, felt that there was no way out, so he became a Bonnie and Clyde with her, they teamed up man, and just went ahead strong.

A lot of times when people tell you, to stay out of trouble, your trying to do something right and trouble finds you. So it's hard to stay out of trouble...so he got fed up with the system, felt that there was no way out, so he became a Bonnie and Clyde with her, they teamed up man, and just went ahead strong.

Who's in the movie?

Tomiko Cameron, she's a new, up and coming actress, she's in all my next joints. Redman, is in the movie, Lost Boyz, Father MC, Dana Dane, you got my man General. We got a lot of people in the movie.. a lot of good people. My man Fats....

A lot of people coming up in films, they would love to have names like that in the cast. How did you get them to be in the film?

I shot like 75-85% of my movie. Then I decided that I wanted certain rappers to play in my film. So I went after them, instead of going after big names in Hollywood. I went after the next, best thing, where I'm from and who I could relate to more, and who could relate to me on that level. So I stepped to Redman, I showed him clippings of the film and he was like "I'm in." It was two seconds. Then Mobb Deep heard about it and they was like, "I'm in," stepped to the Lost Boyz, they was in. So you know, I could get like thousands of rappers to say that here in, that comes like second nature. They just feel it like that. You got rappers who feel real movies and if they feel the part is gonna enhance them, they gonna jump in. There not gonna just jump in any film. A lot of cats can't get rappers to be in they film, you know.

What roles do they play?

Redman plays a role named Limpin Lenny. I gave him a handicapped character, but as we all know, there's always a cat in the hood, that got a problem, either one his legs is to short, his shoulder is hunched over, or his neck ain't right, or he got one eye. There is always one of those semi-handicapped dudes, you know. I grew up with a dude who had a leg like Limpin Lenny's, he used to always give us a quarter, sometimes he would chase us and shit. So I had to envision that, bring that character back to life and give that character to Redman.

Lost Boyz, they played just some dudes sitting around a table, just that raw dirty, gritty Long Island style; how we sit around, with nothing to do, because there is a lotta lawn out here, a lot of green, lot of grass where I'm from, so a lot of times there is nothing to do but to go outside, look at the damn trees, and the dogs and just play dominoes all day. So that's how I envisioned them in that scene. And Mobb Deep is just that thug mufucka that I just had to put in there, cause they thugs anyway.

Did you write and direct the film?

I wrote it, directed it, produced it and starred in it.

How do you plan on distributing the movie?

I'll let Tomiko Cameron answer that, that's my sidekick right there....

Tomiko: Well I'm also the producer of the film and our company has just set up the distribution part of it, so our company will be distributing throughout stores on DVD on March 13th. Self distribution, we have ourselves as contacts so it's gonna be in stores. So we want all of the fans to request it if they don't see it. and we have exclusive behind the scenes footage of "Murda Musik" on it, videos, commentary, interviews.....so you definitely want to check that out...

Do you consider the internet to be a viable distribution model for the future?

Tomiko: Definitely, especially college kids because I know they're the ones who use the computers most of the time and they have money to spend.. it's mom and dad's money, so in the middle of the night when they have nothing else to do they're logging on so.. you know, our website will be out there www.hollyhoodfilms.com and we're gonna be registered with all the search engines so they'll be able to find us.

That answers my question, if you have a website up... where do you want to take Lawrence Page Films?

Well Lawrence Page Films, is not just a film company... we're a multimedia company. We're like Viacom, we do it all, we plan on buying everything up, we got music, we got films, we got tv, we're going into radio, we're going into clothing, we're going into sports. We're worldwide right now, we don't have closed minds, we like to expand our minds and reach out for deeper things and actually bring them to life. Independent people, which we are, we're like the gods of this shit, because god answers to no one, he's independent and we're independent just like him; so *fuck* everybody else if they don't feel what I'm doing.

Say like in five years... where do you think your gonna be?

In five years I'm gonna be where I need to be. I'm gonna be at the level where No Limit is right now. I'm gonna reach that level. As far as just having our company like a multi-billion dollar company, where people are just buying in, because I'm not being bought out. That's where we're gonna be.. . I got a lot of tv stations locked down. I'm gonna tie into Viacom, I'm gonna tie into HBO, I'm gonna tie into Showtime, I'm gonna tie into all the top urban radion stations around the country, I'm gonna tie into street marketing apparel, Nike, the NBA, we're just gonna tie into everything.

Tomiko: It's like the internet, they thought it was gonna be small but it spread like a disease.

I heard when Spike Lee first started out he was struggling, eating Oodles of Noodles, he could barely pay the bills, did you find it hard to get things done... say in the beginning when you were getting this thing together?

In the beginning it was hard. When I first shot my film and it took me like $7000 to make it, it was a struggle. I struggled for like three years, without having no money, no food in my stomach, nah mean, mom's was ready to kick me out the house. It was rough. A grown man ain't working. I didn't believe in working when I was trying to make my film because it's hard to work a nine to five job and then try to get off and focus on editing my film and getting it out there, it's just to much time. I didn't have the time to put in two places. So my thing is, I'd rather walk the streets and eat cans of sardines, that's what I did for three or four years straight. Had the same pair of shoes, out there putting up posters, getting locked up for putting them up...

Tomiko: selling our cars...

I had to sell my girl's car. So you know it was rough. I was *fucking* underweight. Now I'm a little overweight. I got a little more weight on me because I'm eating good, but I'm trying to get my weight back down and keep it right. So I was unbalanced for a lot years trying to get an independent film out, it's a *muthafucka.* Now they make it a lot easier. I went through the times when Master P was coming up. I was making films way before he started making films. I shot Statistic like five years ago, it just hit in 99', I wrote the script like seven years ago. Follow me? So I was doing independent films right after that Spike Lee genre, we just didn't have the money to put it out there first. Follow what I'm sayin? So I been at this game for awhile. I eat, shit, sleep and breathe films, man. I am the new nigga in charge of films, as far as Hollywood and Hollyhood, and I will never make a flop. I'll take that to my *fucking* grave.

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 plan use digital?

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 big 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.