Mark Sheppard Quotes

I usually make films with $2 and a paper clip.

I used the principles of Kickstarter to make 'She's Gotta Have It.' We filmed that in 1985 to 1986. The final cost was $175,000. I didn't have that money. It was friends, grants, donations. We saved our bottles for the nickel deposit.

I'm really proud of an independent movie called 'Angel's Perch' that you can get now on demand. It's a labor of love. People worked really, really hard, and it's a beautiful film.

We had a tiny budget for 'The Greatest,' which was the opposite of 'Wall Street.' We just kind of went in and did it. You've got four or five takes and then you've got to move on. We didn't even have trailers to stay in or anything.

I think the press mistakenly thought that all of these 'mumblecore' filmmakers were banded together in a similar ideology, but the truth is that we were all just using the same digital camera and helping each other make our movies because we were broke, and we were the only idiots willing to do it.

Persistence is half the battle. That's what I love about independent movies. They don't have to be made. There's no studio with an agenda to set up a franchise like 'Batman' or to make a vehicle for a celebrity actor. My films are made because I love the process.

The great thing about an independent film is that you're too busy working, and you're too busy hoping to God to get it done.

Because of the cumbersome nature of filmmaking, it's only recently that it has become available to the masses, with digital equipment and laptop computers. You can now actually make a pretty serviceable movie for very little money by yourself.

Any asshole can make a good movie for $100 million. I think it's way harder to make a movie with no money, and to start with no contacts and work your way up to international productions.

Where the material is, that's where you go. I'm a workman: I go to work. I've done movies for nothing, literally nothing; I did 'Last I Heard' for next to nothing.

I didn't have a lot of independent film connections. It really took until the digital film revolution came along that I realized that I could do it myself.

It's never easy getting an independent film made and distributed - even when it's easy.

Making a film is very hard work, and you live or die by the sword just a little bit every time you do it, but I wouldn't chuck it in.

I figured, 'When is that ever going to happen again?'. So I basically set out the opposite way movies are made; I set out with a budget first. I said, 'What can I do well for $40,000?'.

With directing, you always have three or four things constantly on the go. It's a tough industry and a tough time, particularly if you're doing things a little outside the box or independent features.

I love making independent movies, and that's pretty much what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my years.

People go to extraordinary lengths to get films made.

I directed some movies in the past, and I'd still love to do that. You know, the whole thing is a labor of love, I think.

Definition of an independent film is torture with less money and time.

If you want to make movies you need to think on a micro-micro level and figure out how to make them for nothing with people who really care about your movie and really want to make it.

You may love football, but that doesn't mean you have any business trying to play the sport. It's the same thing with filmmaking... everybody has a great idea for a movie, but do you have the stamina to get good at your craft and deal with how heartbreaking it is?

My dream is just to make zero-budget movies for the rest of my life, because I love that environment.

I wanted to complete 'Maryada Ramanna' in a short time, but it took me almost a year, and now 'Eega' took double the time, but in the end, it was worth it.

The reason I make more films is that I work all the time without taking a break, and I enjoy it.

We have to make some movies we have passion for, respect for.