Jedi Knights and light sabers lured Marco Ricci into the film industry. "I was 8 or 9 when I saw Star Wars for the first time, and afterwards, I had an inkling that I wanted to make films," he says. "The lights went down, and I was hooked."
The 28-year-old Italian-American filmmaker has been telling his own stories with a camera ever since. It hasn't been an easy road, but Ricci's perseverance has enabled him to make a living doing something he loves - writing, editing and producing films. Ricci's father, an architect, and his mother, a chemistry teacher, were supportive about their son's dream to pursue a degree in the arts. "They saw media production as a booming field, and a legitimate way to make a living," Ricci says. "I've had to do a lot of jobs over the years that weren't my first choice. But each one has given me experience, skills and contacts."
After a number of years experimenting with a Super 8 camera, Ricci applied to Northwestern University's film and television program. While not every film career requires a college degree - director Stanley Kubrick was a high school dropout - the benefits of attending a university are many. "You learn film history, techniques and theory, and you have access to state-of-the-art facilities, equipment, and cheap or free labor," Ricci says.
While at Northwestern, he volunteered on many of his fellow students' projects, during which he learned about lighting, sound, camera techniques and building relationships. "Even if I was the gofer getting coffee, it was experience under my belt," Ricci says. "When I started working on my own films, people I had helped out came around to help me."
Networking is a skill that Ricci cannot emphasize enough. "Every contact you make, no matter how small it seems, pays off at one time or another. I ended up doing a promotional video for someone because I saw his sign on a bulletin board at New York University. I didn't make a lot of money, but I've been referred to many other projects because of it."
Writing is Ricci's true passion, and he has worked on a wide range of projects throughout the last decade to make the money necessary to turn screenplays into films. In the same year he started his own production company, MCM Productions, Ricci began working at LMC-TV, a local public access station in Mamaroneck, NY.
Though he says that wasn't the most creatively fulfilling job, Ricci learned valuable time and people-management skills through his studio responsibilities. He also saved enough money to leave the TV station for a year to make his first major short film, Pishadoo, a story about a young Italian man struggling to succeed in his father's Bronx, NY, barbershop. The film is about finding a niche for oneself in life, and it shows how the traditions of Italian-American families are changing.
Ricci served as a jack-of-all-trades to complete the project - he wrote, produced and directed the film. He balanced the $32,000 budget and spent hours completing invoices and paying bills. He researched film locations, found the right music and found actors in a Bronx neighborhood to cast as extras. After wrapping the film, Ricci spent a month writing letters to everyone he could think of who might be interested in distributing or showing his movie. He submitted the film to competitions. He even sent the film to all airlines that flew to Italy because of the film's Italian themes.
The result? Ricci has won several film festival awards. Pishadoo is currently being shown on European television and to passengers on United Airlines flights from New York to Rome. "Everyone can get out there with a little elbow grease," Ricci says. "You need just need gumption and follow-through."
To further showcase his film and celebrate new visions of the Italian-American experience, Ricci applied for a grant from the National Italian-American Foundation, from which he received $3,000 to host an "Italian-American Short Film Night" in New York City. Ricci reserved a theatre, selected films and publicized the event, which sold out and received a commendation from the City of New York.
But the life of an independent filmmaker sometimes requires working on jobs that aren't exactly glamorous. Filming a medical hypnosis seminar is among the more tedious projects Ricci's done, along with recording more bar mitzvahs and weddings than he can count. "These kinds of projects bring in anywhere from $250 to $500 a day, however, and if you do enough of them, they provide the money to do what you really want," Ricci says. He has also lived with his parents to save money, something he says might not work for everyone.
Aspiring filmmakers consider all kinds of projects as potential work, Ricci says. "You never know what could pan out into something that will lead you to your next big thing - you need to manufacture your own breaks," he says.
Ricci has made promotional videos for a parochial school, the American Institute of Architecture, and for an employment agency. He has filmed subjects ranging from medical instruments to aerobics instruction to a gospel hip-hop group. Also try checking with people in your local mayor's office who can tell you if a film is being shot in your city and how you can work on it.
"Production assistants make about $200 day, and many people are able to move from job to job once they work with a particular production manager," Ricci says. This type of work allows you to be an apprentice to an experienced professional. Whatever you do, don't lose your creative focus, cautions Ricci. "Getting experience in all aspects of the industry is important, but you need to make time to do your own thing on the side that keeps the filmmaker in you alive," he says. "Even if it's writing at night or filming your family events."
Ricci's plans to continue developing his production company and to produce the feature-length scripts on which he has been working. He quotes Freddie, the main character in Pishadoo, who says: "Life is a lot like hair - you can always find a part in it." "It is possible to find a place, a niche in the world for yourself that will make you happy and feel fulfilled," Ricci says. "You just need to work hard to get there."
Want more on making movies? The Motion Picture Association of America reports that employment in motion picture production and distribution is projected to increase 33 percent by the year 2006. Given the large demand for film and video productions - due to the increasing availability of cable and satellite TV and the rise of the Internet as a way for filmmakers to deliver their work to a global audience - aspiring filmmakers have a better chance than ever to pursue their creative dreams and earn a living.
We've provided some resources to get you started in exploring a college and film career path that's right for you. www.petersons.com Check out the on-line Peterson's Guide to Colleges, which cites more than 80 colleges and universities nationwide that offer degrees in film and TV production. www.cyberfilmschool.com Not quite ready to shell out the bucks for four years? Spielberg wannabes should check out the Internet Film Group's virtual university. The site offers mentoring, instruction, tips, advice and techniques on how to make, produce, direct, shoot, light and edit TV, films, movies and videos. Whew. www.entertainmentcareers.net Still iffy about which career in the industry you'd like to pursue? Surf this site to explore all entertainment-related jobs, read up on industry news, and find an internship (although we found more film-related internships listed on www.internshipprograms.com). www.city-net.com/~fodder/ Do you boycott big blockbusters but wait in line for Indie flicks? Here, you can learn about the tools of the trade in small-movie making. www.iCast.com See how the Internet is making it easier for filmmakers, actors and musicians to put their work on-line. iCast's online chats, self-publishing tools and industry news promote the participatory, do-it-yourself nature of the Internet.
