5Q's w/Vickie Sampson "You Drive Me Crazy" Director
#1: Can you describe your movie and why somebody should see it?
Technology is taking over our lives. How far will it go before we wake up? Also, don’t cheat or there will be consequences.
#2: What do you want the Borrego Springs Film Festival audience to know about your film that isn’t obvious from
its title?
You Drive Me Crazy takes the audience on a ride. What isn’t obvious is what the movie is about in the end and I can’t give it away!
#3: What is your movie making background?
I’ve been a feature film sound editor for 40 years on over 200 features, including Return of the Jedi, Donnie Darko, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Speed. All my life I’ve wanted to be at the helm of my own stories; writing, directing, editing them. In 1987, I got into the prestigious Directing Workshop for Women at AFI where I was one of 12 out of 600 who got to direct their first short film! It was exciting and I thought, this will now propel me into my directing career. It didn’t. But I kept plugging along making films as much as my post-production career would allow. I’m a member of AMPAS and also a reader for the Nicholls Fellowship program. I teach Post-production sound for filmmakers and have taught Sound Design classes at Cal State LA, USC, UCLA, AFI and Video Symphony also serve on the Board of the Alliance of Women Directors. I learn a lot about directing from each movie I’ve worked on as a sound editor and on each of my own sets. I still have a lot of movie-making to do!
#4: What was the biggest lesson learned in getting your film made?
The biggest lesson I learned from making You Drive Me Crazy was how hard it is to do good green screen. If you don’t do it well, you’ll need lots of visual effects and color correcting help! I wanted to make this film because I had never done any green screen but on our limited budget, it caused a few issues but issues are there to be solved. We learn more from failures than successes and I’ve learned a lot!
#5: What does the future hold for your film and you?
YDMC was part of a quest to do a film in almost every genre (except horror) though it does have some “horror” elements to it! I saw it as a cool challenge to my skill set. Apart from hopefully getting noticed for my talents and learning about green screen, YDMC is just a fun comedy….with consequences! I have other short projects (a new short film that may turn into a web series) and I’m still committed to making a feature film soon…before I die (and I’m not getting any younger!) but those take money and hopefully someone’s money besides mine!
