“I wish I could have had this book 35 years ago, before I made my first low- budget features. ” —Vilmos Zsigmond, Cinematographer, DELIVERANCE,CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, THE DEER HUNTER, THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, THE CROSSING GUARD
“Rick Schmidt, whose "Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices" is the undisputed champ of low-budget bibles, was the guru of choice for many of today's top indie moviemakers long before this new trend (DV) began.” — MovieMaker Magazine
“A must-have for no-budget filmmakers. A most valuable resource in case you don’t have a billionaire uncle or aren’t one of Spielberg’s kids.” — Eduardo Sanchez, Co-Writer, Co-Director, Co-Editor, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
“Schmidt has low-budget filmmaking down to a science.” — AMERICAN FILM MAGAZINE
“Schmidt's Morgan's Cake is a deadpan, unpretentious delight. The title character, played by the film maker's son, Morgan Schmidt-Feng, is no less comically out of sync with the world around him than the gorilla-suited David Warner character in the 1966 movie for which Morgan was named. Morgan's Cake adopts his point of view and reflects his bewilderment in sly, fresh, unexpectedly comic ways. One of the most promising films of this year’s New Directors/New Films series.” — Janet Maslin, THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Rick Schmidt's approach to independent filmmaking doesn't aim to beat down the doors to Hollywood. His latest "no-budget" film (Morgan's Cake) has a refreshingly personal point of view and captures sympathetically and with quiet humor the life of a late-’80s California teenager.” — Lawrence Smith, SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
“Thirty-five plus years after his 1975 feature filmmaking debut, American Independent Rick Schmidt remains a free-wheeling derring-do filmmaker holding fast to the notion that people's real lives are more truly dramatic, hilarious, exciting and as exasperating as those manufactured by Hollywood's minions. Most everyone falls in and out of love, rejects and gets rejected, contends with failure and success, hatred, ambition, the death of loved ones...It's all there. To capture real life on film, Schmidt fashions a creative weave out of the threads of narrative, documentary, and docu- drama film forms. His actors draw on their own experience enabling him to create a unique blend of fact and fiction. In the end, Schmidt makes art and life intermingle and imitate each other. Aware that the American Dream factory financiers would never fund his films, Schmidt, undeterred, remains the maven of low, low-budget feature filmmaking." — Vic Skolnick, CINEMA ARTS CENTRE
“Rick's Feature Filmmaking At Used Car Prices was one of the books that got me (and
many others) started in filmmaking. This new memoir, Twelve Dead Frogs and Other
Stories, a Filmmaker's Memoir, is a great companion book to Used Car Prices - it
provides more details, behind the scenes stories, about what it took to make the movies,
and about dealing with the stress and joys of filmmaking. Highly recommended to indie
filmmakers, fans, and anyone interested in filmmaking.”
— Sujewa Ekanayake, writer/director,
WEREWOLF NINJA PHILOSOPHER
“Twelve Dead Frogs and Other Stories, a Filmmaker's Memoir by Rick Schmidt is an
entertaining and insightful memoir and must read for everyone who aspires to become
who they truly are, as artist and human being. Filmmaker, writer, educator Schmidt
takes us on a journey back in time to the beginnings of his artistic inclinations, and
forward as he shares the path of making his award winning low-budget films and writing
his best-selling Penguin book, Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices. His life story is a
soulful adventure of self-actualization through artistic invention, self-expression,
perseverance and resilience, with a healthy dose of humor with a profound sensibility to
the absurd in everyday life sprinkled on top. He's told his story mostly in one-to-threepage
anecdotes that are full of emotion – they made me laugh and cry.”
––Cynthia DuVal, NEW INTELLIGENTSIA ATELIER
“These are the reminiscences of a passionate artist and independent filmmaker and the
roller coaster ride of dedication to the creative life. The book (Twelve Dead Frogs and
Other Stories) is smart, genuine and open-hearted and reveals not just the author's artistic
journey, but also his talent for friendship and fatherhood. There is wisdom here for the
reader -- examples on the value of being present, of slowing down and taking time, of
being open to life and creative possibilities, on keeping focus and sticking to it. From
growing up in Chicago and car-loving Southern California to the energies of the San
Francisco Bay Area in the 70's, to New York and international film festivals thereafter, it's
the recounting of an adventurous creative life, well-told.”
— Beverly Connor, Screenwriter
An uncompromising look at the joys and sorrows in the life of an artist culminating with
the satisfaction of a life well lived. Rick Schmidt's book (Twelve Dead Frogs and Other
Stories is a primer not perhaps for your life but for a life to learn from. To call Rick, the
central character in this book a survivor, would be to misconstrue the message. The artist
alive here is the ideal we aspire to yet few of us achieve. To some extent you may feel that
your artistic approach and Rick's are diametrically opposed—I suggest that you will
benefit from trying to think more like Rick and less like yourself whenever you have a
creative problem to solve.
—Bill Kimberlin, Writer/director, AMERICAN NITRO, and author of "INSIDE THE STAR WARS EMPIRE."