To many young ” filmmakers ” starting out today, they cant remember a time before digital. I bet many can’t remember a time before video TAPE ( of any kind).

To folks like me, I can clearly remember at time when making a film was a nightmarish, overwhelming undertaking. True “film” cost a LOT, and so much as ONE retake could cost you a LOT. You had to write and storyboard so meticulously, and shooting was SO stressful because no student/independent filmmaker could ” fix it in post”.

So if you got a film finished AT ALL it was a major accomplishment. And if you got an independent film finished and it was actually worth watching… well THAT was a rare feat!

And thats why almost EVERY independent film before the late 1990s was Black and White, color was way too expensive and WAYY to easy to get it wrong.

This film, RUBEN, blew me away when I saw it onscreen at the old DOBIE theater at SXSW in the 90s…..

This inspired the still not finished “Fred Movie”. I saw “RUBEN” and said ” I could make something like that”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177186/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_1
Ruben (1995)
Director: Urs Baur
Writer: Urs Bauer