Well there were a few movies that I saw and liked as an adolescent that got me into movies in general but it wasn't until the first movie on my list here that I discovered that I wanted to tell stories and make movies.

1) Empire of the Sun (1987)
I saw this for the first time while on my first out of town trip without my parents or family. I was a freshman in high school and it was playing on the TV in the hotel room where we were staying while on a band trip to San Francisco in 1989, I was 13 at the time. This was the first movie where I understood the subtext and I recognized all the symbolism. The music, the camera movement, the lighting... everything made sense to me. I felt like I knew what the director was trying to do and why he chose those shots. After that, I started realizing the importance of blocking and moving the camera to help tell a story. It was then that I realized that I needed a jib and a dolly if I wanted to make my movies epic. It was the right movie at the right age for me.

2) Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
This is one that my dad rented one time because he liked cars. I was a sophomore or a junior at the time. I was blown away by it's style. What it did with camera movement and angles and setups was spectacular. The ingenious ways that it staged shots where people have conversations from different locations in the same frame blew my young mind. And it's use of music and song opened my eyes (or should I say ears) to the power songs can play in setting a mood and a style.

3) Jurassic Park (1993)
I was 18 at the time this came out. Now you have to understand something about my family to appreciate this movie's impact on my life. I have a handicapped/mentally retarded older sister. She has cerebral palsy and only has the mental capacity of a baby. Early in my life my parents had a bad experience at a movie theater when my sister wouldn't be quiet and someone shouted out to "shut that thing up." After that my family only went to drive in theaters so that my sisters noise wouldn't bother anyone else. Well, in the summer of 1993, while on vacation at the beach, I had read about this new dinosaur movie coming out that weekend by my favorite director. My brother and I convinced our parents to drop us off at the theater at the beach. It was one of the first times in years that I had even been in an indoor theater. We barely made it in time and were getting our seats when the lights went down. We had the only seats left in the theater, Front row all the way on the right. I had never fully experienced a summer blockbuster movie before that day. I saw that movie 5 times in the theater that summer. And thus began my insistence on seeing movies at an indoor theater. No more drive ins for me. (now i miss them for nostalgic reasons)