P.M. Lipscomb, Filmmaker: One thing I love in cinema that Christopher
Nolan does is he'll take these opening images that have one meaning and then
when you watch the film a second time they have a second meaning.
Film Courage: Patrick, you've been a filmmaker for 15 years.
P.M.: Yeah.
Film Courage: Was it everything you thought it would be?
P.M.: Well there's lots of sides to that question. No one ever goes in expecting the amount of stress
that comes with it but I think the reason is because people overlook the idea of management
when you go in to make your own movie as a director you're managing all the personalities on
set so you're managing everybody's going to come into this and I think we have a fantastical idea
of what that would look like directing a movie and the reality of it is you really got to decide if
you're going to put the camera here or a half inch there and everything has to be shifted one way or
the other so and so with that said it's completely different than what I expected but there's nothing
else in the world that keeps my interest like all the different levels of making a film
as far as like riding and shooting and editing and how different all of those are from one another.
Film Courage:
Was it easier or I should say is it easier or more difficult than you anticipated making movies?
P.M.: Well on April 23, 2006 that was the day I devoted my life to cinema I told a friend of mine
a dream I had and he responded with you should make movies and something clicked in my head and
at that particular time I was skateboarding a lot and got it going into sponsored skateboarder route
and so when I first started making movies for the first five or six years I only viewed it like
skateboarding like taking people sneaking into a location filming something and then running
away and I would make these films and show my family members them every holiday but I didn't
know about film festivals I didn't know about it could be a living or anything of that sort
I feel like throughout the time you're making stuff you start to hear these little nuggets
of oh that's pretty good or all of this and it kind of builds into something so in terms of of
what I thought it was going to be making films I think the big changing block for
me was realizing that it is a viable option to make a career out of and
kind of crazy that the road I was on LED that path that's because I was making all these things that
just were I don't know I had no idea what it was and then suddenly it became something where you
can make movies and then I learned what the budgets were and that they could be millions
and that's strange but you had said earlier that the the managing people or whatever and that that
is such a big part of of anything in in film did you did you realize it would be maybe harder that
because people are sensitive actors are sensitive crew members are sensitive maybe they don't give
that off when you first meet them but people we all have our little space and we bump up against
each other and and things will happen on set and and maybe we don't it's a little pressure cooker
as we've had a former guest say yeah it was a great analogy did you think it would be easy to
manage people did you think oh we'll all just we're all creating art man this is going to be
cool no one's going to have any issue here well here's the issue with where I'm coming from with
it I I've been wearing so many hats on all these movies that when I'm in the middle of the process
the managing of of people's expectations and their time I think when they see me running full speed
drenched in sweat everybody's like follow him let's go and so I haven't had a lot of moments
where I've had to worry about how people were viewing it because again I'm from Cincinnati Ohio
so in Cincinnati I think the the the the neighborhood that I was making films and
a lot of people had fun doing it together and so that passion and fun why we made these pictures
I think it translates later to hopefully now when I'm bringing people together here and people
are getting paid that maybe there's a different feeling because it doesn't really change as you're
making things I feel like the kind of bubble you build in the beginning continues to be that bubble
except for sometimes when money is entered into the picture there's a little bit more pressure
and ultimately the person at the top sets the tone and you seem upbeat to me so they say forgive my
analogy here but things roll downhill we'll clean it up a little bit so if it's positive
then whatever rolls down will be of a good thing filmmaking taught me to be incredibly positive
and here's the kind of stuff that I bounced off of for instance I was making my first feature length
movie but at that time I didn't even know what a feature-length movie was I just decided I was
going to take one actor and just work with them over a long period of time to make something long
in the middle of that I was supposed to use a gas station bathroom
and I had about six or seven people waiting for me crew members some actors outside in
the parking lot I walked in and talked to the manager and the manager's like no you can't use
this bathroom anymore and instead of going to tell a single person about it I ran across the street
to a different gas station and then secured this other bathroom and then came back and said we're
going over here and no one ever knew the issue happened and so I I think a huge part of this
is obviously we all know it's problem solving but falling in love with problem solving that's to me
what filmmaking is really like embracing that there is going to be something that's not going
to go right and get excited by it and I think so over the years especially making movies with
no money because I made two features and a bunch of other shorts with no no financing behind them
except for less pain for gas and food you have to be incredibly creative and and to get those
projects done so then when the money enters the picture in my mind I am hoping you can still stay
in the realm of we're making this piece of art but then also understanding you're also making product
and people need to get their money back or you're not going to keep doing this so it is a kind of
transformation into your vision and the color red or blue or how the poster should appeal to the eye
but I love working with poster designers so that's all fun I like that though so so basically if you
had a bumper sticker would be I love problem solving in terms of for making movies because
that's basically what it's going to become like Murphy's Law if a locations set it'll there could
be a chance it'll fall out an actor might not show think different things could happen 100 I really
believe the theoretical idea that if you point the camera at a subject long enough something is going
to transpire when I first was making films or like just adventuring the juxtaposition of images in
the editorial I would go down the street corner on Clifton Avenue and Ludlow in Cincinnati Ohio
and I'd set my camera up and I'd film for 30 or 40 minutes just the street corner and cars and people
going I'd go home and I'd watch it just kind of curious is there some kind of poetry in certain
moments and there really are there really are in movement and I really think what we love about
videos and Cinema and all of it together is it's a time capsule for the human body if you look at
Jack Nicholson from the very beginning of his movies all the way up to present you've got
this human being and for him specifically it's a time capsule of his emotions because they're all a
diary entry I'm sure he remembers when he watches something exactly what was going on at that time
so it's interesting because there's so much going on in cinema in that way and the theoretical idea
of one plus one equals three where one image is cut with another image creates a
whole different image in the human psyche that's happening regardless if you understand it or not
so trying to embrace that notion is is quite exciting were you almost trying to recreate
slacker in some way that just walking down the street and the different interactions
or that had nothing to do with it that had nothing to do with filming the street corner
that was just me wondering I at that particular time I was reading a book on directing and they
were talking about directing background actors and and background stuff and I just kind of started
thinking to myself well it doesn't take much time for me to go film the street corner for 30 minutes
like I wonder what that looks like and that's like the most realistic depiction you're ever
going to get of a street corner and so that's what that was but I was in the neighborhood in Clifton
I was known as the guy making film so I could I would carry my camera I had a Canon XL2 in the
beginning and I'll carry it around on my tripod and I'd go into the U.S. Bank, they let me film
a scene right without paying for anything I've not been shutting down the institution they just let
me set up my camera and film but that's because I just ran around and filmed all the time again
that was just my favorite pastime was filming and making things and then it obviously it just keeps
getting bigger you keep saying to yourself well now I did this what if I what what could I do next
so you caught these different moments on film and I know you have a
I don't know if this is one you caught on film but you were at a restaurant and you
saw what you thought was a loving mother and daughter together and it turned out
it wasn't that oh no no no no no no no no no I know what you're referring here for Willa’s
Peach the idea of behind that I was driving in a car by myself down down down the road from buying
some movies and I was just contemplating stories and characters and out of nowhere I said to myself
well are you coming or aren't you and instantly I just knew it was a mother saying it to a daughter
in my head but I knew that that wasn't really her mother and that she was taking this child
but in my head I saw this classic image of the angry mother like come on let's go and so we
we went into that path of making that movie but so you so how one scene you could see you think
it's just a regular interaction and it turns out it's it's much more darker in nature hopefully
one thing I love in cinema like Christopher Nolan does is he'll take these opening images that have
one meaning and then when you watch the film a second time they have a second meaning and
a lot of his images have these dual meanings in them and his belief if I'm not mistaken from what
I've understood watching some of his interviews and stuff of that sort is that creates re-watch
value the more the more you embody in the picture different layers of what something could mean
then the more that picture I think could give an audience member a lot to look at
multiple viewings and that's what we always get from from his movies Christopher Nolan’s
movies so then the question lies how do you do that and I think that just is prepping the
script going over it a thousand times thinking about if you're writing the
screenplay what what what story are you telling and from what point of view and
and how do images even work with the mind because at the end of the
day that's what we're choosing every time you choose a lens versus camera placement
like if I wanted you to feel vulnerable maybe I'd put the camera on a very wide angle lens and put
the lens camera right up against your face and have you do the scene and it might make you feel
more vulnerable at that moment or if I want you to feel more secure maybe I put the camera on a very
long lens like the safety brothers and uncut gems when they're filming Adam Sandler getting knocked
into the fountain from across a block on a 800 millimeter lens and Adam has no idea where they're
shooting filming from so I feel like all of those choices are so important to making the piece but.