Coming to peace with uncertainty

a key -- albeit late stage -- step in any creative process

no matter how you frame it, it is going to break

You know this movie of yours that you’ve been working on for years? You rarely know if it is ever going to happen, and if you do, you don’t know if it will be all you hoped. That painting, story, book, photo, song, or suit — you probably can do it on your own these days, but that movie? Nope. It is not in your control.

Granted there is a lot you can do now, all on your own, that can help determine the outcome and even elevate its potential to get made. Yet, even if all goes right on that front — your film does get funded and it does get made — there is so much that will be outside the realm of your control.

Things will change, for both better and worse. And when it is done and you are thrilled beyond your dreams, or maybe you are just the opposite – disappointed and convinced it doesn’t rate – you actually don’t know if festivals, critics, and audiences will respond well or not.

A rainstorm or a nation-wide blackout (yes, that happened once on opening night on one of the films — American Splendor — I helped) could drive everyone away. An off day or a bad screen or an over-heated theater can have an outsized effect on the outcome. Sometimes critics don’t get it, until long after the run is over, if even there. People can think your film is something it isn’t, for better or worse.

Ultimately, filmmaking is about how you deal with all that goes wrong, far more than how things go right. Each day is filled with over 10,000 decisions, and many you have little influence over. The chain of events required to put a film into the theaters is far beyond a road of many forking paths – it would put the complexity of all human systems -- nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular – and all the others, combined – to shame.

Yet, we enter into the process, time and time again, with the sort of false “I’ve got this” attitude. The truth is we don’t know what is going to happen and all we can do is hope to be able to deal with it well when it does.

There is so much that is not in your power or under your control. And that’s just fine in the end. Dandy, even. Cinema is a controlled product that collides with forces that it will never be able to influence. Far more is influenced in the development, production, completion, marketing, distribution, release, and preservation by circumstance than one ever wishes.

There is little you can do about our ultimate lack of control, other than to prepare for possibility and deal with the outcome in a positive manner. The biggest influence we have regarding the ramifications of the unknown and uncertainty is our mindset – yet we often neglect the practices that can most benefit our mindset until it is too late.

I’ve had to walk through hell more than once. I know I have more of that ahead of me. Generally, we’ve been able to emerge from those experiences holding diamonds. Getting through the storms requires a type of preparation far removed from the film itself.

You can begin that work today. You aren’t going to be able to avoid the chaos and pain, so you best learn to deal with it well. Care to explore, it a bit today with me?