tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight, a conversation with legendary hollywood producer roger corman. he helped foster the careers of some many in hollywood. he has worked with francis ford coppola, martin scorsese, and some anymore. his new movie, exploits of hollywood rubble. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is

proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] the lighted -- tavis: and delighted to welcome roger corman to this program. he is responsible for more than 500 films the movie is called, exploits of a hollywood rubble. here are now scenes from his

world. >> i started my own company for a variety of reasons. >> i said, i will make it myself. >> we shot it in seven days, including special effects. the budget was really love. >> for someone very square on the outside, he is a very had director. he said, you can fashion a car crash, d. if it was the fastest greenlight i ever got. >> it was out of the question, there is no need for taste. >> hollywood was desperate. >> i never lost money on the film.

grand theft auto just sold to cbs. >> he is a natural rubble. tell him he can't do anything and he will figure out how to do it. >> what i'd do it again? yes. >> naked girls, they go skinny dipping. that is so roger corman. ♪ >> really epitomized the american dream that you can succeed no matter what. >> my mistake here who was making a good picture every once in awhile. [laughter] tavis: i went back to do research on this to make sure that what i had read was correct.

in 1957, you did nine films in one year. how is that possible? >> i must have been in same, but i can tell you that one day, during the week, i was shooting a picture during the day, casting another picture during lunch, and in the evening, i was cutting the previous film. when i got into bed, i said to myself, i have to sleep fast. at that point, i realized i was out of control. tavis: was there a need or an expectation? was there pressure? why so much? >> i love the process of making motion pictures. particularly the original idea, starting with the original idea,

developing the script, shooting, editing, working on the campaigns is fascinating and wonderful way to work. tavis: let's take them one at a time. how could you back in the day be so prolific comparatively so little money? got it might be the fact that i had so little money. i was shooting on 10 days schedule. now shooting been pictures. clearly i could not have made as many films. also, you can be a little bit more casual or more experimental. you can take chances that you could not taken a bigger film. with respect to hollywood and the way the process works these days, does it really take all of that to do a film?

does it take all that to make a great film? >> i don't think so. i am certain if there are major studio executives here, we need all the money. there are various ways to do it. jim cameron spent something like 200 and some million dollars on avatar. but you can say, i can see where the money went. he did not waste money. on the other hand, someone else has and $80 million picture, it is to people walking around the room and where did the money go? it depends on how you spend it. >> filmmaking is the subject of as many art form, but i suspect that when roger corman is a film he can say that a lot of money was wasted on that film. you can clearly identify that money in your mind, what are you looking at? dr. primarily, production value.

that is a given, and things go along with that. they demand certain things and an entourage comes with it. you assume that it is a fixed -- if you go back to the minor in mathematics, in college, it would be y factor rather than x. x is what you're looking for and why is what you start with. tavis: all those years later, he lost before a second but i caught backup. i am with you on that. let me jump into this right quick. i don't want to use the same word over and over, but you are so prolific and iconic and those words are often over used in this town. an academy award for lifetime

achievement, as you're going to this process and making these films, he or spinning off all these people that we are going to talk about, i will throw some names that you. but when you go off on this process, you are not receiving academy awards. how did you process that? tavis: i did not expect it. most of my films have either been medium-budget or low budget. it was the winner of more minor awards that i have never heard of. tavis: was that enough for you? >> that is all i was looking for. tavis: this stuff is not small by your standards, but certainly

the weinsteins have turned independent film making into academy award winning stuff. >> the weinsteins and bob shay. they both took foreign films and did very well with those buying them. and they started making medium and low-budget films. they moved up to a somewhat bigger -- they're too of the films. tavis: what do you think of the state of in the films? >> is not great. every film limeade got a full theatrical release. today, you can look at the friday newspaper advertising section which is where you have your biggest newspaper, almost no independent films.

everything is a major release. sometimes it will be a big credit production, but it is still a major release. that is taken a great deal of the market away. tavis: you were born in 1926 in detroit, michigan. it has delivered us so many creative people throughout the years. was there anything specific growing up in detroit that impact of his career? >> in probably did, i am a child of the depression. my father always had a job during the depression. it was not big, he just barely made a living. we were probably not even aware of how bad things were. the unemployment rahab was very

high. the city was very badly -- the automobile industry was still functioning. >> he spent a couple years and the navy. it struck me as fascinating. my father was an air force for over 30 years, so how did you survive as a guy that was a rebel? and >> barely. if they sat out a rule, i decided i would break it. i was in a training program that would have a certain number of the merits. if you went over these demerits, you were in real trouble. i came closer than anyone else. i never went over the limit, but

i approached it. tavis: you have been doing this for so long now and so well, how did all of this start? you grew up in detroit, you go to the navy, how did this part kick off? >> my father was an engineer, i went to the university as an engineer major. i found out that the film critics for the daily got repasses for all the theaters. i thought, i would like to get free passes. i was taken on as a film critic. i started to analyze the films that i had the right about. i became more and more fascinated with films and i could agree, i just got the degree and got out of there.

tavis: we all have to start somewhere, i guess. >> i started writing and i sold a script to allied artists. with the studio we are in, oddly enough, it is the former allied artists studio. i offered to go on to work for nothing as an associate producer if i could get the associate producer credits. if you know how hollywood functions, credits are important. i was able to say, i am a writer, producer, and i have the credit on the screen. that i took the money from the sale of the script and i went to successful college graduate friends and

raised a total of $12,000 and made my first picture that was called, it's got to the ocean floor. the distributor thought it was too hard to get title and he changed it to monster from the ocean floor. tavis: it is all about the title. i want to go back and have you unpacked for me a couple of things, there is something rich that i don't want to leave on the cutting room floor, as they say. i was in the theater the other night to see their movies, my week with marilyn. the marilyn monroe project. the story revolves around a guy that had a chance to spend a week with marilyn monroe. the guy doesn't even get on stage because he wanted to be in filmmaking so bad. he was ostracized by his family

because all he wanted to do was be in hollywood. he makes his way into filmmaking, begging for a job, starts out working for free. just wants to be on the set. how important is that lesson today for people that want to be in this business or any other to realize that you have to find a creative and unique way to get in, and sometimes that means doing it for -- >> sometimes it means working as an intern for nothing or working -- a lot of people come to me and asked me, how do you get started? i like the idea of going to film school. there were very few when i started, and now there are many of them. you can get a good education in film school and you can get a job on independent films and it doesn't make any difference. you might start aircraft services handing out hot

doughnuts or something. but the idea, as you say, to be on the set. first, you do your job and you do your job well. if you do that, you will be promoted. also, you are looking around and seeing how it works, what the director is doing, what the director of photography is doing, how everything is functioning. you can get an education just by being on the set. the job you have is important, but not of great importance. tavis: let me shift gears to the people that have sat at your feet. i want to play word association or name association here. become whatever you want to tell me about the person. ulster with jack nicholson. it is not often that you see him

moved to tears. when one sees as a documentary about your life and his legacy, he is choked up. talk about your relationship with jack nicholson. >> i for best--- i first met jacket at acting class. i did not know enough about acting, and i felt i should simply work with actors. i enrolled in this class of them that jack air, and he was the best actor in the class. has that got to know him, he is really brilliant. he and i worked together in a number of films, and the surprising thing to me is that not that he became a star, but that it took himstar. >> he has said there was a time in his career that you're the only one putting him to work. >> almost.

few people know this, but he is multitalented. he is a great writer, he wrote a very good script for me including one that led to the film festival. tavis: jonathan demy. >> i met him working for united artists. he wrote a screenplay, i liked the screenplay, i bought the screenplay, and i have the possibility of a director for a specific film. i said, jonathan, you have done everything well. tried directing. he said he would give it a try and he was good from the beginning. >> your the one that talked him into directing. it must feel pretty good when you're watching him walk onstage to except the academy award for best director of silence of the lambs.

>> he called me one night and he said that we need to go one day over schedule for the big battle scene. it was the middle of the night, i hung up, there is no battle scene in that script. what is he doing? he had written a battle scene and deliberately called me noting the time change when he knew i would be so broadly that i wouldn't know what was happening. tavis: speaking of great director r,on howard. -- directors, ron howard. >> ron starred in a, a car chase

picture called eat my dust, and he had a percentage of the profits. it was a big success. he said, i have a proposal. when actor normally what success, he wants more money. i will do the next picture for the same money at the same percentage and i will even do one other job for nothing. and he said he will direct it. that was grand theft auto, a giant success for us. tavis: martin scorsese. >> marty is one of the few directors that made his first feature film for me and had not worked with me. almost everybody else, the people we have discussed, worked with me in various ways. i saw an underground picture that he had done in new york and

i thought it was wonderful. i did not have anybody at that time that i thought was ready to direct. i talked to him, clearly an intelligent and creative guy. he did a picture called a boxcar bertha had started his career and was a very good film. tavis: francis ford coppola. >> i have bought some russian science fiction films. this is around 1960. the russians made a big budget science fiction films because they were very popular there with far better special effects that we had. i bought them and decided to recut them any of them in english. i called ucla and said, who are your top students about to graduate. they sent me several people at the felt francis was the brightest. his first job was recovering a

russian science fiction film. tavis: the history is mind- boggling, all the people that have come for you. from a director's point of view, how you get through to then about what it takes to be a good director? one of the first things i talked to about the directors is the pre-production planning. they have about a 15-day schedule. he can't walk onto the set of a 15-day picture essay, where shall i put the camera. you better have that figured out in advance. i talked primarily about working out your whole shooting schedule, he shot list, the sketches, before you shoot. telling the your not going to shoot the picture 100% that way. something always comes out and at least you start with the skeleton and if you have to change, you're changing from

something you know is ok. tavis: you are still doing this, you haven't retired. >> i am still doing it, i have a picture starting january 6 in china. it is my first chinese picture, it will be american language, but my first chinese production. tavis: why china, and why now? >> i heard that the chinese government had built for the national television association, whatever it was, a series of replicas of chinese palaces. i saw them, and i thought, these are the greatest assets i have ever seen. a design the picture around those assets. there is a low wage scale in china, and producers want to do co-productions with americans. we will shoot in the city that

nobody had ever heard of, a city of 13 million people. you know, having been there, how many huge cities are in china. tavis: a dozen city that have about 15 million people in each city. >> by chinese co-producer who told me about to over 13 cities all of which have populations of over 10 million. most of which people in the west haven't even heard of. tavis: there are millions every year moving from the outlying areas into these cities. we did a wonderful -- the earlier, we did a week-long special on this show about our trip to china. we had a great time. >> i love chinese food at a have a lot of it.

tavis: they are honored to have roger corman come visit them. i hope they understand the blessing they have upon them to be partnered with you on the project. >> i hope so. >> he is a legend in this town and a wonderful documentary about his life and legacy, ongoing, as you can tell. check it out, a movie theater near you. >> i was very happy to be here. tavis: that is the show for tonight, until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with oscar winner angelina chihli on her new film "in the land of blood and honey." that is next time, see you then. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where

walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.