American Cinematographer - March 1997 - 47

Nazeer(Ajay
Naidu), the
Pakistani

proprietor of
local slacker
haunt The A

Food Mart, is
confronted by
the buffoonish

Buff, (Steve
Zahn), who's
cheered

on

by

Bee-Bee (Dina

Spybey), Sooze
(Amie Carey),
Tim (Nicky Katt)
and Jeff

CNREenatewocorsaicoutmmlfrkeb.,y

(Giovanni
Ribisi).

Dean

byPhots

after that day."
The two filmmakers dis¬
covered that they were both look¬

ing for

place to live, so they de¬
cided to pool their resources and
move in
together at late rock leg¬
end Janis Joplin's old house in Aus¬
tin. "That's where I really started to
learn about filmmaking," Daniel
says. "Rick taught me a lot about
narrative, which I had never really
been that interested in. My inter¬
ests had been in documentary and
experimental filmmaking."
a

Daniel and Linklater

were

gan

work on the experimental nar¬
highly origi¬

rative of Slacker. The

nal film followed

over

100 inter¬

mingling characters (almost none
of them played by professional ac¬
tors) through the streets of Austin
in the span of 24 hours.
"I was making pretty
good money at the time, so we
had the resources," recalls Daniel.
"I

bought

movies are about hanging out,"
the director admits with a laugh.
my

"There's a certain atmosphere of
boredom. How do you make a film
about boredom and not be boring?
That's always been the challenge.
In

Slacker, there's really no story

and

no main character. Yet it's
watchable because there's a consis¬

tency that carries through it. Audi¬
adapt to the rules you set up,

an old Arri SR that we
shot the film with, and a Steenbeck.

ences

Meanwhile, we were paying $130 a
month in rent, so we had really low

any

overhead. Our house served

as our

as

long as you don't throw them
curveballs."

Linklater's next film,
Dazed and Confused, presented a

roommates for five

years, during
which time their residence became
known as the "Film House." "We
talked incessantly about filmmak¬

production center. We had all of
our
story meetings and rehearsals
there, as well as our syncing ses¬
sions for the dailies. Rick, through

hallucinatory look at
drug-fueled Texas teenagers on the
last day of school in 1976. The film

ing," the cameraman says. "It was
pretty much the only topic. We
founded the Austin Film Society in
1986 for the explicit purpose of get¬
ting ahold of classic and obscure

means

I'm still not clear on, some¬

substantially bigger budget of

films from around the world, so we
could watch them."
While Daniel worked

steadily in the commercial world as
a camera

assistant, Linklater made

his first full-length Super 8 film, It's
Impossible to Leant to Plow by Read¬
ing Books, in 1989. Spurred on by
the money Daniel was earning on
his commercial shoots, the two be¬

how got 60 or 70 rolls of 16mm
Kodak film from some dubious
source. I came home after work one

day hoping to find a beer in the re¬
frigerator, and there was all this
film inside. I said to myself, 'Where
the hell did this

come

from?"'

Orion Classics eventually
acquired the $23,000 Slacker for re¬

lease. The resultant critical acclaim

put Linklater on the map, and
made the film's title

hilarious and

was

made for Universal with

a

six million

dollars, which
put Linklater and the production
over

under the sometimes uncomfort¬
able magnifying glass of the Holly¬

wood studio

system.

"We felt that

a

lot of

people from Hollywood were go¬
ing to come out and tell us how to
do it, even though we already
knew how to do it ourselves while
still appeasing the money people,"

zeitgeist-deand
labor-wary generation. "Most of

cinematographer Daniel reflects.
"It was really tough, but ultimately
we came

in

March 1997

American

Cinematographer

a

fining buzzword for

a young

on

time and under bud

45
American Cinematographer - March 1997

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