Keeping An Eye On The Little Things An Interview with Mark Tapio Kines, Independent Film Maker (June 17, 1998) Meet Mark Tapio Kines Mark Tapio Kines, 28, was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Cupertino, California. During his youth, Mark took to computers and drawing. At sixteen he developed an interest in animation that took him to Cal Arts where he graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor's of Film Arts. After a short stint as a script reader in Los Angeles, Mark fell back on his computer and art skills and worked as a graphic artist for a CD Rom developer. This lead him to a career as a Web Designer in 1995 when the Internet began to take off. In 1996, four years out of college, he decided he was ready to pursue his passions in film making and began work on his first film. Mark wrote a script titled "Foreign Correspondents", hired a producer and crew, and shot his first feature film. The film - featuring Wil Wheaton (Stand By Me, Star Trek: The Next Generation ) , Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures), Corin Nemec (Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Yelena Danova (Chicago Hope, ID4) - is currently in post production. You can read about the film at its official web site at http://www.forcor.com. Mark is currently working as Art Director for Paramount Studios interactive division. Interview Excerpts Childhood dreams The best laid plans Success for me The little things in life Signs of success Bravery and persistence A lesson from my father Closing thoughts
When I was seven I saw Star Wars and I basically wanted to be a film director at that point.		Childhood dreams I was very lucky in that a very early age I had an idea of what I wanted to do. When I was seven I saw Star Wars and I basically wanted to be a film director at that point. I didn't really know it, but I'd run around my house, not necessarily pretending I was Luke Skywalker, but pretending that I was Mark portraying Luke Skywalker, seeing the best way to stage this action scene. Basically since I was seven I wanted to direct film. And everything seemed to be plotted pretty much along a straight line as I forced myself to do that by telling everybody "Okay. This is what I'm going to pursue." I'm 28 now and I have no idea what I'll be doing next year. I'd love to be doing another film. If somebody said "Do you want to start working on one tomorrow?" I'd say "Yeah! I'd love to". It's extremely hard work and it's taxing. The blood, sweat and mostly the tears that go into it, and at the end of the day you wonder if it's ever going to get done. So it's hard when you're not on that side of success, when you're on this side of the hill and haven't gone over the pinnacle yet. It's hard to see what the future's going to bring. Five years from now I could be world famous or five years from now I could be back behind a computer doing artwork, but I don't think so. I've worked so hard that I can't take a step back. Again, it felt so natural to do this thing. I was in my element. I was organized. I had fun. I could communicate my ideas and get everybody excited about working on the project. One of the reasons we didn't have any crew members or cast members try to sue us for money is because they all believed in the project. They all saw that above all else I was being honest and trying to get this thing made. I wasn't trying to rip anybody off or become famous. Because they saw that I was being true to myself and true to what I was trying to do, they respected that, which was nice. You live in LA for a little while and you work in show business and you almost think that there is no such thing as respect for personal integrity, but there is. A lot of people can recognize that and I hope I've done a good job at telling people that this is a real project and that this actually means something to me and I just don't want to get rich. I don't really want to get rich. Success for me would be just selling the film and getting the money to make another film. BACK TO TOP
I used to think that everything happens for a reason, now I think that everything just happens.		The best laid plans I pretty much have to take things as they come, because you plan for something and you break your leg. You want to do something and you expect this to happen and it's silly because you'll close yourself off to all the possibilities that life has to offer. I used to be a little more closed minded about things like this. I was like "No, No, I have to do this. I'm not going to even bother looking in another direction." But sometimes, you look that way and it leads you someplace else. And who knows, maybe I'll end up being a doctor (Laughs). I have a plan in the sense that I know what I want to do and that I can do it eventually and that I can do it tomorrow if I really wanted to do that, of course there are certain restrictions of money and things. I didn't really have a firm plan. Everything just sort of again, like I said, things get thrown at you so randomly that they will always effect what you plan on doing, some for better some for worse, and sometimes things happen for no reason at all. That was the hardest thing to accept was that not everything happens to you needs to be significant. I used to think that everything happens for a reason, now I think that everything just happens. It's up to the individual to give it reason, to decide whether or not that thing that happens should have a reason to it. BACK TO TOP
Success for me would simply be that...some stranger somewhere was affected by something that I had thought about.		Success for me Success for me would simply be that at the end of my life, certainly I'd love to say that I've left all these films behind, that I left all these stories behind, that some stranger somewhere was affected by something that I had thought about. And it wasn't so much ego as it's a need to share the way I felt about the world, or share my ideas, or share my emotions with people. And I think that's the great thing about films, that after all these decades and all the cynicism and all the really trashy films that get made, that people still go to these films because they really hope that two hours later they will be immensely moved by something, whether they laughed their head off or cried their eyes out, or just saw the most intense spectacle. I think that because of that it's a wonderful thing. Film is one of the few outlets that people really have these days to let themselves become emotional about something. Despite all the hassles it takes to make a film and all the headaches you have and all the egos involved, and all the money you need to spend, it still comes down to that and it's pretty incredible that you still have all these people working together through horrible conditions sometimes, making very little money sometimes, just to produce an emotional effect in some stranger somewhere in the world at some point in the history of time. . It's a romantic notion, but I like it. If I never make another film, I'll be a bit disappointed in myself provided I live another 60 years, which is my plan, I will have made something else because 60 years is a pretty long time. It's not even really an option. I can't think of living a life where I just give all this up and I wind up being a clerk somewhere. It doesn't even seem like a possibility. Not to sound conceited, it just doesn't. There's no reason why I shouldn't. I think my life will be pretty successful. I don't know along what front. It's a little terrifying, but it's also a little exhilarating too to be able to say "God knows what I'll be doing next year." Because there's always the possibility out there, that's what keeps you going. BACK TO TOP
...When I'm the happiest is when I realize there is something going on that doesn't matter if I'm there or not.		The little things in life I've found out that the only real way to get through the day is to sort of keep an eye on the very little things in life and the little accomplishments. Sometimes it's nice just to make your bed. Because you can say, "Well, at least you did that. Five minutes ago it wasn't made. It looked messy and sloppy, now it looks neat and tidy. I've done something today. I've made my money for the day." And little things like that. You can't really count on people. You can't really count on the future. You can't count on education, a job, a house, Mother Nature, a car, on a relationship, on anything. You can try to count on yourself. It sounds kinda "new-agey" and cheesy, but I think it's a major step to be able to depend on yourself, to know that at any given time, I can do this. In the meantime to just enjoy the little things that are always going to be there, like grapes, or very pretty clouds or a little ant crawling around on the sidewalk that's doing something so fascinating that you just have to you and watch. And that's the stuff that makes life interesting. So I need to focus on those little things. I mean it's ironic. You think the world revolves around you and sometimes, for me anyway, when I'm the happiest is when I realize there is something going on that doesn't matter if I'm there or not. It's just happening. It's just part of the joy. I just get to observe this beautiful thing, or this fascinating thing, or this bizarre thing, and that takes me to the next day. BACK TO TOP
When someone comes across as being fearless, I think that is a sign of success.		Signs of success Living in LA unfortunately people tend to tend to wear their success on their sleeves in terms of fancy clothes or designer sunglasses or a fancy car parked out front. To me that doesn't fairly denote success. It just denotes money, which can come from family, or luck, or they could be "successful" but not happy. Usually I consider someone successful if they just seem to be cool about who they are. At this point I can pretty much tell if someone is saying a comment that is self-serving or self-conscience, or they don't feel comfortable with saying it. When someone comes across as being fearless, I think that is a sign of success. When they can say whatever they want, where they can act like a jackass or have a goofy laugh and don't care and laugh until their sides ache, and if everybody is staring at them in the room, it doesn't matter because they are happy with who they are. That's what I like to get across when I talk to people. It's this feeling that whether or not my film is a success, whether or not my career's a success, whether or not my romantic life is a success as long as I can speak my mind and tell people what I think and not really fear reproach in an unnecessary sense. I mean don't want to insult someone to their face, but to be able to say how you feel and to go home knowing that you said it and that you didn't keep your mouth shut when you really wanted to speak. Or that you didn't talk to this person that you really wanted to talk to. Then that's "it". I would hope that this rubs off. I've seen in my own experiences that people can be uncomfortable with that with talking to someone who is articulate, who knows what they're talking about who seems to know where his own head is at. I think the people who are very uncomfortable with that might consider themselves failures because they are looking at the negative sides of people and not enjoying a human being as honest, open and agreeable. BACK TO TOP
This whole idea of never ever giving up is something that is very easy to forget.		Bravery and persistence The one thing that I think everybody who's been successful in some way or another, some that had money, some that won money, some that worked hard to gain money, whatever that was (substitute any word for money - love, power, respect), that they persisted. And it's funny. You hear all these cliches when you grow up and they're such tired cliches, but as you grow older you think, "Oh my gosh, they really are right." This whole idea of never ever giving up is something that is very easy to forget. People hear it and say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not as easy as that." Well it is. If you just keep at it, eventually you gotta do something. It especially helps if you have the talent to back it up, but I've seen a lot of untalented people make successes of themselves because they never give up. I've seen a lot of really talented people never get anywhere because they didn't have the courage or ambition to go wherever they wanted to go. That's a shame. It's a real shame. I've seen people, just wonderful writers and artists, that just didn't have the energy. And you ask, "Well, why didn't you do this?" and they reply "Eh, I couldn't do this because of this," and geez it's so easy. I think that's the one thing I found out about being brave is that it really is an easy step to take. The greatest difficulties people have with doing a courageous act are that they are very afraid of what other people will say. I think that the one thing, if there's anything I can share, is that everybody, unless they have problems, really does respect someone who does what they want to do. I don't know why people keep from doing what they really want to do because they are afraid that someone will get mad at them or think less of them if they do it, because it never happens. Like I said, if somebody does claim to lose respect for somebody because they went ahead and did what they said they were going to do then obviously you know who the problem is with. It's not with the person who did what they wanted to do. It's usually because they're upset or jealous because they didn't have the courage to do what they wanted to do. Instead of bringing themselves up, they decided to bring others down. That's the one thing. And I have to keep reminding myself of it that whenever I talk to anybody-- that people really do respond well to someone they feel is saying what they want to say and doing what they want to do and don't really care. It's a great irony. If you want people to like you, you kind of have to act like you don't care if they like you or not because you're going to do your own thing no matter what. I mean you don't want to hurt people, just that feeling of unstopability that people respond to incredibly well. Hopefully, if you do it well enough you can bring others up as well instead of hogging the spotlight on your own. That I think is the one real element to success that amount of bravery, that realization that bravery will get you so far. BACK TO TOP
...you get stressed out and you get angry and you tend to forget there's a life outside your job.		A lesson from my father My father taught me a good lesson, rather I learned a good lesson by observing my father. He works as an electrical engineer, but his passions lie elsewhere. He's a musician. And I learned from him because he could go home from a busy day at work and he would never talk about work. He never talked about "Oh, so-and-so's trying to stab me in the back. Such-and-such is trying to make a monkey out of me, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" He would just forget about it and focus on the things that made him happy because he knew, he knows because he's still alive. He knows that at the end of his life he's not going to be thinking about all those days spent behind a computer at work. He's going to be thinking the wonderful trip he took to Greece where he dipped his finger in the Mediterranean. He'll be thinking about all the music that's touched his soul throughout his life. I learned a lot from that and keeping it as a constant reminder. I mean I've worked day jobs and you get stressed out and you get angry and you tend to forget there's a life outside your job, but it doesn't take much to stop and say what does it matter. A year from now all these people that are giving me nightmares I'm not going to be talking to anymore. Why spend this negative energy going home being angry and loosing a perfectly good evening by grumbling about some looser who's really winning. That guy goes home and doesn't think a thing about me. Then who's the idiot? I'm the idiot because I spending my extra time worrying about this guy who doesn't give a crap about me. So I learned that from my father. BACK TO TOP
		Closing thoughts Stop saying "I'm afraid this is going to happen. I don't want this to happen," because you're just wasting your time. The only other thing I'd like to say personally speaking is to stop watching so much TV. BACK TO TOP
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