00:17almost every movie I've done is shown some part of this river just because it
00:21is a vein of life in the city I think that that showing the bridges and the
00:26roads the major roadways and the river is part of the blood of the city that makes the city tick
00:32and you know the city is so goddamn cinematic I mean it's just it's like New York it's a
00:37beautiful place to shoot and one of the great moments of my young life was standing in Daly
00:42Plaza going it's the Richard J Daly building we're gonna drive a car through it Michael Mann's prime
00:50films have a lot of style to them but what is the real juice of those pictures I don't think
00:56it's
00:56just that they look good I think that they feel real there are some things that I had seen that
01:01impressed themselves as being kind of poetic in a very rough industrial way very evocative of the
01:08poetry of this this world there's kind of a gloomy poetry to them that really evoked a kind of a
01:14buzz
01:16when I first met Harold he was the dirty jokes editor for Playboy magazine and he came up through Second
01:22City it's partly about technique and it's partly about philosophy because while you're learning
01:27to do this you're also maturing as a person so I always tell people who are trying to be writers
01:33or filmmakers to to go do something else first I see filmmaking as a as a way to explore things
01:44and
01:44places that you're curious about in a way you filmmakers are explorers the thing I like about
01:51film is is not knowing where the film will take you the jungle boat ride yeah look out we've got
01:59a
01:59charging dog here they sort of plucked me out of the academic world and offered me a job working with
02:07them yeah we were like you know I get a degree in film where you can come work for us
02:12to be assured
02:12of never making any money or having any future and any artist in the society has to have some
02:20marketable skills that will enable them to pay the rent while they're creating their art and my
02:26marketable skill is driving a cab you know Chicago prides itself really on being a working-class town
02:33and that the work ethic is something to be proud of here I think that that's one of the things
02:38that
02:38I've absorbed being here and I think if you can have that work ethic when you do go out to
02:43LA which
02:44is you know I remember reading an interview with Zemeckis saying the same thing you know he grew up he
02:49went to the same high school as I did thank you went to film school out there but he was
02:53instilled with
02:54that working-class work ethic we need our people to stay here and maybe there's something about the
03:00environment here that makes it really hostile to do that I think it's often because the money
03:05the power bases are not here I don't believe that film is just for the maker you know we're saying
03:12like I make films for me I don't you know I to me a film means nothing unless it's being
03:18viewed by
03:18other people independence is what most film artists want to do it's not up to mainstream filmmaking it's up
03:29to independent filmmaking and I think that's something to aspire to
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