After I shot the Digital Video, I converted it to High Definition and then blew it all up to 35mm film.
Arnold and Jamie Lee must have worked over the years with directors that did 50 takes, because I'd get like three takes or so and say, Ok, that's it, we're done.
Basically I just worked my ass off for two and a half years because I wanted to tell a story that would bring a tear to people's eyes.
Before you approach a production entity or even a potential producer, you should write up a treatment and register your show with the Writers Guild of America.
Big studio comedies are such a headache.
Decline III, I funded myself, from the studio money. That, and I sold a lot of drugs. Kidding. Don't print that.
Different parents have different standards for their children.
Everything has gotten homogenized.
For the most part, studio movies have huge budgets. They don't do anything under 30 to 40 million. When you have that much money at stake, you have so many people breathing down your neck.
I actually picked up copies of Decline I and II at a flea market once. I walked out without paying.
I can't believe I actually was in my own movie.
I do not advise telling the network how many shows you believe your project would be good for-that is their expertise.
I don't want to do any studio movies anymore. I'm just going to do documentaries and whatever the hell movies I want to make.
I got IRS records to finance what I wanted to do.
I got numerous offers of a million plus to do a Decline, Part III about the hip hop industry. But I'm not really interested in that, it seemed to defeat the purpose.
I kept forgetting that I actually had to be in the movie and on the day of shooting, I'd wear the wrong clothes.
I knew punk rock was the next big thing after pornos, I swear.
I live on this nice three acres in Hollywood.
I love punk rock, but I also love metal.
I really feel kind of guilty spending 80 million dollars. People are starving in the world.
I turned down Legally Blonde. I've turned down so many huge movies over the years. I'm very happy doing independent movies.
I was always into music. I think everyone is when they're a teenager, as a way to drown out the world.
I was going for a young adult or a family audience, but the beginning has Tom about ready to kill himself on pills and alcohol.
I went to the Burning Man festival and somebody slipped some ecstasy in my beer. I had the most amazing experience even though I was so sick; I thought I was going to die.
I worked for the studios, making those comedies, and I found I could make enough money then to be able to do the work I was passionate about.
I've been working on a script for a Janis Joplin movie.
If you are looking for a producer, try to contact established producers. Don't let the fear of theft paralyze you, or you will never get anywhere with it.
In other countries, it's a common thing to have outcast children running around the streets in packs, and I don't think we're so far away from it here.
In pitch meetings, they often have a person taking notes to record the proceedings just in case there are issues later.
It is certainly quite a dilemma when you feel your creative ideas are unprotected and vulnerable.
It is fun to try figure out the things that really are real and the things that aren't.
It is the idea that it's a movie in a movie. So I did it.
It used to be that people would try to achieve financial success with their art, to make themselves comfortable, accumulate possessions.
It's like, I love you, you're beautiful, you're brilliant, you're a fabulous lover, but the dead possum head on my desk has to go.
It's really hard to imagine there ever being the kind of impact there was when punk rock happened in the late 70's. I wish there would be one big change like that again, but I don't know if that'll ever happen.
Johnny Rotten really feels that Justin Timberlake can play him.
Many people have been able to get pitch meetings by just cold calling, especially the smaller networks and especially with the reality shows.
Me and Johnny Rotten have been talking about doing a movie of his book, No Irish, No Dogs, No Blacks. We have a script, so hopefully that's going to happen at some point in our careers.
Most, but not all, of these kids have been abused or neglected. They've been given a reason to want to live on the outskirts of society.
Nobody wanted to touch Decline III when they found out what it was about.
Now, it's almost impossible to go out and do a film about a new form of music.
Production companies do not want the liability of a lawsuit, and generally speaking take great care to avoid that.
Rabid fans were literally jumping into the camera.
The first Decline I did was out of sheer love and appreciation for the music. In 1977, it was more about bands, because punk was a new form of music. It was groundbreaking and political.
Their outcast lifestyle is a choice. They want to live outside of regular capitalist culture. It's a matter of principle.
There are thousands of directors in Hollywood.
These kids are very politically sophisticated. I can see the future, where survival is an art, and they're honing their craft.
They will usually start out with a pilot, then decide how many episodes with which to go forth. Most are six or seven episodes these days. Nobody wants to go too far out on a limb anymore.
This generation has given up on growth. They're just hoping for survival.
This is definitely not the studio mainstream film. It's a narrative piece that Tom Arnold wrote.
Those movies, Decline I and II and Suburbia, are dearly loved, but they never made any money. I didn't even have the rights for some of them.
We all worked for scale. If you shoot in LA you can't do a movie for less than 4 or 5 million if you are shooting union.
We're in much more of a decline. The decline just keeps declining. It's called entropy.
When men have money and power they get turned on, sexually. They get horny as hell. Can't imagine why, though.
When we did Wayne's World, it was 14 million dollars and they didn't bug us too much because they just thought it was some little movie that nobody was ever going to see. We showed them.
Whenever I've done music documentaries before, I've always had people say to me how informative it was for them with regards to knowing what their kid was up to.
Women have it harder here because there's a lot of money to be made, but men don't like women to have money and power.
Your best protection is to have an established agent make the contact.
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