This book is a rare glimpse into the world of graffiti and ultra-low budget filmmaking, with a DIY film school, behind-the-scenes interviews with key cast and crew, the annotated original screenplay and rare San Francisco graffiti photos. This book gives back something to other aspiring filmmakers, while making it compelling for the graffiti subculture.

The book outlines the filmmakers' fast-paced, ultra-indie Graffiti Model of filmmaking, using Quality of Life as the case study. Unique and often outrageous photos from the San Francisco graffiti scene are scattered throughout the book, with a scrapbook of clippings and mementos from the film�s production and festival run.

Shot on location in San Francisco's Mission District, the movie sheds light on a clandestine graffiti subculture, telling an authentic and gripping story of two young graffiti writers whose friendship and lives unravel after they get arrested.

The film premiered at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, where it was a hit with audiences AND critics (it won coveted Special Mention jury award). The film also screened to sold-out festival audiences in Seattle, Stockholm, Cinequest and San Francisco. It ended its festival run with a BestYouth Film award at the Stockholm Int'l Film Festival Jr.

Design for the book was provided by the renowned San Francisco creative studio Chen Design Associates, who also designed the film�s award-winning poster and other print materials.

Benjamin Morgan has spent over a decade as a government social worker, working within the juvenile justice system with at-risk youth. A former at-risk kid himself, Morgan's connection to the underground youth of today provides the film with its gritty realism and "drama verite" style.

A conversation between Director Benjamin Morgan and Producer Brant Smith September 2005

Ben: So we're about four weeks away from theatrical release. How are you feeling Mr. Producer?
Brant: Well, it's actually both exciting and very scary. Filmmaking is allsunshine and puppy dogs except for the money part...
Ben: So we don't have two dimes to rub together. Sounds perfect! We were basically in this position over two years ago when we shot the film. Originally, we set out to raise a million dollars to make this movie, we only scraped together about $30,000 through art shows, friends and family.
Brant: Basically, by the numbers, we should have folded up the tent and gone home a LONG time ago.
Ben: But having no money made us more creative. We came up with the Graffiti Model during the process of strategizing for production. Graffiti writers create these powerful, compelling images with little or no resources. We adopted that as our production model in place of a larger budget. So the concept was to plan and prep as much as possible (like writers do, scoping out spots, practicing hand-styles), but be prepared to get down and dirty, hit it, and get out. We infected the cast and crew with this philosophy from day one and it really caught on. We couldn't have made the movie any other way.
Brant: I think that's what really defines the independent artist: we don't ask permission. We just find a way to do it. How did you come to graffiti?
Ben: My initial introduction to graffiti was cholo writing when I moved to LA during the early 80's (but I grew up in SF and Berkeley). This gang-banger kid used to show us hand-styles in class. We were pretty hooked, and started writing our names everywhere like we were hard. Later, we switched it up a little when the REAL gang-bangers came after us. But I was never that hardcore; I was more into breaking, a b-boy. But a lot of the cats I grew up with were Bay Area graffiti writers back in the mid-80's.
Brant: That's interesting that you bring up gang-bangers, since a lot of people think that graffiti is all about gangs. Very often, I have to start out explaining that most graffiti has nothing to do with gangs. A lot of people ask us about the title, Quality of Life. The title refers to police campaigns inbig cities that have cracked down on offenses that disturb the overallquality of living. These "quality of life crimes" include prostitution, drugs, homelessness, and graffiti. Needless to say, there is a lot of significance inthe title.
Ben: Quality of Life was a good fit. It allowed us to have a title withmultiple levels of meaning. The undermining flaw with the "quality of life" theory is that it fails to recognize the root causes of these "crimes." If you want to rid the city of homeless people, find them homes and start working with them on occupational training and mental health therapy. To think you can just "sweep the streets" and actually address the issue is ignorant and short-sighted. The War on Graffiti (and quality of life movement) has failed miserably because of this failure to address root causes and literally hyperfocus on the surface.
Brant: Talk about how you approached taking your finished script, and thenturned it into a full blown production.
Ben: Once we had a solid screenplay, we were able to sign on some key staff such as DP Kev Robertson and Producer Meika Rouda, who then helped bring on other key team members. It snowballed from there. But it all started with a solid script. Brian Burnam had a lot to do with that. He was this neighborhood skater kid that I knew in Santa Cruz who later became deeply involved with the SF graffiti scene. I asked him for feedback and soon enough he was rewriting dialogue.
Brant: How were you able to fill the two lead roles, Heir and Vain, in the story.
Ben: We hired this incredible casting director, Belinda Gardea. She sent out the breakdowns to every agent in LA and had hundreds of head shots within the first few days. She eventually narrowed it down to the strongest actors and had them read for me. Lane Garrison's (Heir) heart sold me from the first read. Screenwriter Brian Burnam (Vain) came into the scene after the other lead unexpectedly dropped out for a paying tv gig.
Brant: Lane had a great attitude, totally down for the cause. He too had a hard time growing up and you could see that in his performance. Brian stepped up in a way that genuinely surprised a lot of people on the crew. He really brought such deepness and honesty to the role. Okay, so you have the basic team down, what other hurdles were there?
Ben: Fundraising was one of the hardest parts. I have a tendency to assume that people understand my vision without me having to go to great lengths explaining. Almost like they just trust that I know what I�m doing. But that kind of respect is EARNED not given. So I needed to work harderto explain the vision, in the script, business plan, pitch, etc. It's a skill, one that really doesn't come naturally to me.
Brant: But the San Francisco community really came together to get it done. It really amazed me to see the hundreds of people who stepped up. You look through the list of people who worked on this project over the past few years, and you think of the many more who will help with distribution -- all for basically no money. Very humbling.
Ben: No doubt. It takes a village.
Brant: Let's talk about how you directed the film, how you crafted the scenes with the DP and actors to get what we see in the movie.
Ben: I like to give my actors a lot of freedom to be who they are. I tell them, "I trust your take on it." Rather than endless rehearsals, we have some mandatory bonding time before production where we talk about who we are as people and what our take on the script is. The actors know I am going to protect them, and that the environment is safe. As for shooting, I don't do a ton of coverage, so that allows them to stay in the scene. They aren�t distracted by close-ups, different angles. It's a relaxed, documentary environment. DP Kev Robertson was in doc mode, and he also understood why someone would write their name on someone else's property and wasable to capture beautiful images under extreme conditions.
Brant: Ah yes, the "drama verite" approach. We didn't have much choice,given the story, subject and resources.
Ben: I have no regrets. We took the best path. We learned so much.
Brant: We spent three weeks in production, but more than two years since then working on distribution -- with at least another year ahead of us. That-s the REAL story of indie filmmaking. We've been hurt, bruised, and beaten. And now we're back for more.
Ben: I wouldn't do any other way.