Produce Your Own Damn Movie!

Released by: Troma Entertainment
Released on: 9/13/2011
Director: Lloyd Kaufman
Cast: various (see review)
Year: 2011
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The Movie:
Part 3 in Lloyd Kaufman's “_______ Your Own Damn Movie!” series gives budding movie producers and directors some valuable information on how to go about producing their own movie. Through interviews with various filmmakers, many well known, many not known at all, Kaufman delivers all kinds of great tidbits to help inspire those who want to make movies themselves. He also has cameos in tons of low-budget movies and chronicles his days on the sets. He travels all over the country to work with small town movie makers, as well as spending some time in Germany. There are two discs in the set, broken down as follows.

Disc One: Producing

• German Lesson #7 (2:40)
• Blood Bath in the House of Kaufman: On the Set of “Blood Bath in the House of Knives” (9:50)
• Momma's Boys: Lloyd and Charles Kaufman on the set of the new “Mother's Day” movie (9:28)
• Make Your Own Damn Greenscreen! (15:09)
• Godfather of Gore” Lloyd Kaufman's Shock Doc on Herschell Gordon Lewis (18:25)
• BOW! FAP! WHAM! TROMA!: Lloyd on the Set of James Gunn's and Ted Hope's “Super” (8:04)
• Is that a proboscis in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? T.V. Stars, Giant Skeeters & Tax Incentives on the set of “Sucker” (9:46)
• Chick Habit: Kaufman's Cameo in “Nun of That!” (5:23)
• “Killed on the 4th of July” or How a 16 Year Old Kid Produced His First Movie (8:18)
• “Under These Dar Hills!” A Connecticut Yankee in a Period Piece (12:59)
• German Lesson #8: Out of the Ovens & into your Heart with Director Mike Huck (8:28)
• I'm Working From Home Today: Have Your Own Damn Base of Power (11:50)
• Repent! Repent! Repent! “Bad Girls Burn in Hell” (9:10)
• The Manager of a Legendary Strip Club goes to the “Jon” (10:36)

Disc Two: Interviews with people Lloyd wishes he was- Successful!!

• Steven Paul (12:49) Producer of Ghost Rider and Ghost In the Shell
• David Cronenberg (2:24) Director of Videodrome, Scanners, and The Fly
• Trent Haaga (12:17) Actor/producer, and one-time employee of Troma
• Joe Dante (7:15) Director of The Howling, Piranha, and Gremlins
• The DuPlass Brothers (8:02) Jay and Marc, directors of Cyrus, and The Puffy Chair
• Avi Lerner (4:43) Producer of movies such as Rambo 4 and Righteous Kill
• Roger Corman (11:39) Producer of tons of low-budget movies.
• Mick Garris (12:06) Director of The Stand, and creator of Masters of Horror
• Monte Hellman (19:12) Director of Two-Lane Blacktop
• Ernest Dickerson (10:45) Television director on shows such as Dexter and The Walking Dead
• Caroline Baron (9:40) Producer of Capote and The Santa Clause
• Kathy Morgan (6:42) Producer of Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles

Kaufman has a carnival barker on-screen personality and it seems pretty obvious he loves what he does and loves to share his knowledge with others. Watching him with his brother makes you wonder what they were like growing up. They were either the loner kids or the most popular ones on the block, but either way they must have stood out in a crowd. They're pretty silly. On the sets of the various movies one can see varying degrees of experience and efficiency, which makes for a more diverse series of shorts. From a 16-year-old kid who seems to have his shit together to people who should know better than they do. The H.G. Lewis segment is among the most interesting of the clips, and it's neat to see him still sitting in the director's chair and running the show.

The second disc has most of the recognizable names, and the participants seem pretty into talking. Cronenberg, the shortest of the interviews, seems uncomfortable, while Steven Paul seems to be really enjoying himself as he lays down some tips. Roger Corman shares the differences between producing a film in the 70s and 80s compared to today. His interview is also among the most interesting. And of course movie geek Joe Dante is great to listen to. Every single piece in this set is worth the time spent with it.

Video/Audio/Extras:
The aspect varies from featurette to featurette, going from 16:9 anamorphic widescreen to 4:3 Full Frame. to 16:9 non-anamorphic. Most, if not everything was recorded on a hand held camera, so there's lots of shakiness and varying levels of picture quality. Nothing is horrible looking though, it's just the camera movement is constant. The audio is a 2-channel Dolby Digital track, but mostly sounds like mono. No matter. Some people talk too close to the microphone, some too far away, but mostly people sound fine. No hissing or popping issues to report. The discs seem free of authoring troubles. Where this set is basically a series of clips you'd find as extras on a feature film DVD, there are no extras on this. The featurettes on each disc can be watched one-at-a-time or a “Play All” option is available.

The Final Word:
This is a great DVD package for people wanting to get started in movie making as well as those who simply enjoy watching “making of” extras and interviews. Those who enjoy this disc will no doubt want to seek out the others in the series, that is if they don't already have them. This is good stuff.