I had done student films for the School Of Visual Arts and for NYU and all these schools in New York, so those were my first film experiences, but they were student films, so I guess they don't really count.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I didn't see many films until I was in college teaching.
I was one of those avid moviegoers as a kid, and we didn't have video, so we went to see everything five times. I went to see every foreign film playing in my town. As times went on, I watched a lot less films. I have a different film school now. My film school now is my life experience.
I never had any film training. I went to Northwestern. I studied education and theater. So it was all theater training.
My first few films were institutional comedies, and you're on pretty safe ground when you're dealing with an institution that vast numbers of people have experienced: college, summer camp, the military, the country club.
Film schools didn't exist when I was growing up. I learned by working with clever people. Good writers and cinematographers.
I thought about going to NYU film school - that was this ideal to me. But I didn't make any kind of grades in high school.
Film is something I've always loved since I was very young. In fact, I actually wanted to study to be a filmmaker when I was younger.
I never studied film formally at school, but as a kid, I spent most of my time in cinemas.
I loved American filmmakers when I was growing up. I didn't get to film school or anything. I was a very bad student. I just devoured film, but there was a point in my teens when I started to run a little film society.
There was a film class in my high school in Northfield, Minnesota, which was very unusual. I saw my first Buster Keaton film there, aged about 15. It made a gigantic impression on me.