Robert Rodriguez and his book " Rebel Without A Crew ". It was years before I actually had any real inclination to get into video production that I read it and while I loved it I had no idea just how deep of a seed he had planted. I'm more grateful for his influence than he will perhaps ever know.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com

Yes, I must tip my influenced hat to Robert Rodriquz as well. Especially after Sin City and the whole, "made it in my garage on a green screen" attitude.

He showed that you don't have to have a mega budget to have mega quality. I'd like to meet that guy someday.

Hmmmm... my biggest influences:

Errol Morris: For my money, the best documentarian alive today. "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control" forever redefined what a documentary could look like. "Dr. Death" and "The Fog of War" are profoundly subversive political works, and great portraits of complicated, unpleasant characters. But also check out some of his early work: "Gates of Heaven," "Vernon, Florida" and "The Thin Blue Line."

Les Blank: Another documentarian, best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s. Les specializes in finding happy subcultures of folks celebrating obscure passions. He's one of the original independents, always working outside the studio system. "Gap-Toothed Women," "Always for Pleasure," "Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers," "Burden of Dreams," "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" (the result of a bet between Werner Herzog and Errol Morris) and "Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists" are just a few of my faves. Check out more at:
http://www.lesblank.com/

The Lumiere Brothers: Going way, way, way back, here. Not only the inventors of the first working movie camera, but also the forefathers of microcinema, the broadcast stringer system, documentaries and fiction films. Startlingly superb cinematography and narrative structure in each of their two-and-a-half-minute, unedited films.

John Sayles: Another independent before independents were cool. Here's a guy who's played both sides of the game: a high-priced Hollywood script doctor, who uses the money to make his own unique films. His collaborations with cinematographer Haskell Wexler (another influence in his own right) are his best: "Matewan," "Lone Star," and "Secret of Roan Inish." I also love "City of Hope." Sayles' book "Thinking in Pictures," about the making of "Matewan," was one of the things that got me into movie-making.

Lloyd Wenninger, a theatrical scenic artist and fine arts painter who taught me to "see" rather than just to looking, a man who insisted that composition was an important factor in story telling; Jim Lynch (production manager NBC, N.Y.), who mentored me through three years of television production in the 1960s; and more recently, the work of British film maker Michael Powell, Luis Bunell and editor Walter Murch.

I also go to 4 ten-week film series at the Seattle Art Museum every year, where the works of the past decades are shown, everything from English drawing room comedies to Italian neo-realism and U.S. and (currently) French film noir. While these are entertaining, they also provide a great deal of information regarding how treatment of the the moving image has evolved. I find these old films to be a great source of information and inspiration regarding composition and camera work, lighting and picture and sound editing.

I also read a great deal, everything I can get my hands on by other editors or "students" of editing. Books like Mascelli's "The 5 C's of Cinematography" and
Crittenden's "Film and Video Editing" may not teach you much that you don't already know, but for me books such as these are a resonator, something which I can bounce my own ideas off of to see what others have thought regarding similar problems and solutions.

Grazie and his Broom even thought this years Elderberry flowers have died and the project is on hold until I can go higher up the mountain to retard spring. Someone here this week quoted from Monty Python as an inspiration and this knocked-on to me to add the following caption to the Elderberry champagne film: "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of Elderberries"

Mike