Cowboys and Angels
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Prior to his student thesis film, there are two other student shorts that we have (very limited) knowledge of. His 290 short, which may or may not have been called Property Settlement Agreement, is shown in <PERSON>'s book, and appears to be a brief film about child custody. <PERSON>'s 310 student short was called Territorio (1990), an eight minute video without synchronized dialogue about homeless people fighting for territory. But the film that would eventually launch his future career in the movies was his 480 thesis film, Cowboys and Angels (1991), a twelve minute short shot on 16mm. 666
The 480 Advanced Productions class at USC involved the collaboration of a writer, a director, and a small crew of about seven other people. <PERSON> read around 25 scripts and chose one with a genre hook, but according to film school friend <PERSON> he "riffed on it so wildly that it had nothing to do with the original screenplay." Not all school instructions were followed, but the risk payed off—eventually. Showing the dailies to <PERSON>, former Hollywood filmmaker and chair of USC's film department at the time, <PERSON> was earning his admiration right up until a scene containing nudity (against both the rules and <PERSON>'s sensibilities). The film was given an F, but <PERSON> appealed the grade, was given an A, and the film went on to be a hit at the USC student film screening First Look. 417