[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Bill Mikita, Screenwriter: The worst people I’ve met on this journey by far, no one is even close, attorneys.
Making the movie was exhilarating and it was also the most stressful thing I’ve probably ever encountered. I’ve said it before, when people ask me what it’s like to make an independent movie, I say Oh okay, so what you do is you take the most critical deadline you’ve ever faced and take the most dire financial crisis you’ve ever faced, add those two together and multiply by 10. That’s what it’s like to make an independent Hollywood movie. It is very difficult.
I just saw a podcast with Paul Thomas Anderson. He said, and I’ve been quoting him, it’s a miracle any movie gets made. That’s how difficult it is. When a big-time director and filmmaker says that, people don’t realize all the elements that have to come together to make this film.
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Film Courage: Do you think if it hadn’t been such a special story, you would have given up? If it had just been some horror story that maybe you were invested in or a coming-of-age drama about another family, but because there was a personal connection to it, just you kept driving it through?
Bill: That’s a really good question. I’ve never thought of it. I don’t know. I just know that I faced, I went into this… and another thing I learned about filmmakers is that, maybe I said it somewhat flippantly, but I said I was not going to risk my family, my finances, or my faith to make this movie and in the end I risked all three of them. I risked everything. I’ve learned every filmmaker who is making a film, especially for the first time, many and sometimes not even for the first time, it might be for a special project, but I was facing personal ruin, financial ruin if I didn’t get this movie made. It was an incredible experience but it’s not unique. It’s just a tough world…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
WATCH ‘CHASING 3000’
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About:
Bill Mikita was born in Steubenville, Ohio, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Brewer’s Boys, Chasing 3000 (2010) and Medal of Honor: American Heroes. He has been married to Pattie White Mikita since February 25, 1978. They have four children.
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