“Now Is The Time To Dream Big”
You've been drafted into a mission of a lifetime.
MMMM slides a bit into Tuesday again, as yesterday’s thoughts weren’t quite done…
Back at the start of the new year, I made a suggestion: I encouraged you to build a R2U. So how’s that going for you? Is it coming along well? Any results as a result of the practice?
I thought I would check in after hearing Daniel Kwan’s rousing (and short, <2.30 min so give it a play) speech upon EEAAO winning BP and six others at the ISA. He’s right. It is time to “actively dream up what kind of future we want… what kind of future we want to be working and living in.”. I hope a few more of us do that as a result of his plea. Maybe it will get you a trophy too!
So here’s the deal. It is time for you to build your Roadmap To Utopia (aka #R2U). As much as I hope that is one where we encourage kindness, compassion, and forgiveness, as much as I hope it encourages us to emphasize those incredible everyday superpowers, I hope it also leads a few to say “IAMAHAINGTTTAM!”.
Kwit putting up with that shit. Kwit your job (if you can). Kwit hanging where you’ve been that has you stuck in your ways. Kwit the house and sell the kids. Time to plot your path to a better world. Time to be proactive. Seriously, I think this is part of a successful creative practice.
I’ve been around for awhile now. I’d be content to step aside if I didn’t have so many good movies yet to make. And I don’t really have regrets, but if I had to summon what those things that might-be-regrets are --and what they all have in common -- I know what I’d find. I regret I wasn’t proactive sooner. So little good for me has come from waiting.
I’ve been given a lot of responsibility over time, but I still describe myself as a reluctant leader. I take action because I know others don’t or won’t. Someone has to get out on the dancefloor. When no one takes action, nothing happens. Or rather, when no one takes action it only gets worse. It’s only going to get worse if we don’t take action now. The really special and wonderful thing is: we are at a point where we can bring about change.
And yes, I recognize that the truth is that it is not just reluctance that has the dance floor filled only with all the olds like me. I recognize the systemic barriers that lead to certain folks being given the horse that lifts you closer to the gold ring while everyone else has to just stand there on the merrygoround really getting nowhere. But we can climb on each other’s backs. There are solutions. It starts with the belief that it can change and that we can get something done. It starts with showing up and stepping forward.
When I started working on movies, I believed everyone was an expert at what they did. I did not feel worthy and did not think I would be worthy for years. I PA’d for three years and observed. And I saw that there are definitely experts in the crafts. There are experts in the support mechanisms too. But there are not experts in leadership and vision. There are not expert change-makers in the FKATFB.
There are a ton of best practices for leadership and vision, and its pretty sweet when those BPs are followed. What the best folks in leadership and vision do is try and be willing to fail. Hopefully they also know how to climb back on the horse. And hopefully they come from all over, from different backgrounds and experiences, possessing different experiences. That’s the secret: rotate the crops in the fields regularly.
It would be really exciting if a lot of people stepped forward and said IAMAHAINGTTTAM. We’ve planted the fields with same damn stuff for too long. They no longer even give us a share when we generate some profit. They keep picking the same stuff, doing the same thing they’ve done before. They don’t saff correctly. The hours are not right and we forgot to use the right fertilizer. It’s no longer sustainable and it’s not how we want to raise the kids.
Let’s share in a dream about better farming techniques. Plant those seeds. I didn’t eat grapes for awhile in my youth because the farmworkers weren’t treated right. I love grapes. Nature’s candy. But I don’t have to eat grapes if we are not treated right.
Dream the world you want. If your Roadmap To Utopia is getting blocked, stop eating grapes.
I was asked to compare Everything Everywhere All At Once, Smile, and Barbarian for their ability to last. My basic answer was that the movies with the most relatable elements will last. They’re all fun and entertaining in their own ways so that might save them. EEAAO has universal themes even if its style quirks might not last. Smile has a universal concept but it is in danger of running flat. It might lose effectiveness over time. Barbarian is so specific to a specific set of experiences that I don’t think it’ll last for that reason. But all are creative and new enough. However, I don’t live in Florida and Crawl works because it’s about survival. Jaws, though effective, I was more scared of Piranha because I live in lake country. Jaws works because of the relationships within. That lasts. Game of Thrones is about Home and Family. Train to Busan will last because of that relationship between Father and daughter. Blah blah etc. I could go on.
Universal themes matter. I think that’s what’s missing from a lot of movies now. Truth. Tone and Intent matter. Truth.
Many films spearheaded change. Speaking from mid 20th century on, from The 400 Blows, and Breathless, to The Wedding Banquet and Pulp Fiction to Moonlight and many others. In the ecosystem that these films existed there were bigger counted audience numbers, more distributors, more critics, in essence a bigger petri dish where things grow. I am not sure that EAAO can truly be that film right now by itself? Where and what are the missing ingredients to make that energy come back? The old ones aren't resurfacing? To start actual "viewing" numbers would be a breakthrough both fiscally and critically. People throw the YouTube view numbers around like crazy. WHat's it going to take the cinema tech industry to do the same ???