Topic adjacent - many years ago you were on a panel when I qualified as “first starting out” and the advice you gave to us as producers was - “do something everyday to make your film(s) inevitable”. That piece of advice was the single best piece of industry advice I received and I reference it all the time and with my own students now. It shifted my perspective completely on how to approach my work and was so empowering. (This post also resonated with me, but your first question compelled me to share this anecdote!)
It wouldn't be so problematic if those people who try to follow this first rule WEREN'T SO BAD AT IT! The only real way to keep a job in our industry is to prove time and again that you are better than the job requires. That takes taking the right risks, trying to improve the way things are as well as the way things can be. Achieving those on a regular basis show the higher ups that you have what it takes to do more and they need to fight to keep you in the position you're in to keep others from poaching you.
Too many are fearfully trying not to make mistakes to stay where they are and end up not DOING anything of value. They only remain in place because one, the higher ups don't notice them and two, no one outside is interested in taking them out of their positions to go anywhere else. Eventually these lose their jobs anyway when the assessments and layoffs inevitably find out that those who aren't doing anything worth keeping aren't worth keeping.
The TRUE goal that should be the number one truth is you should always strive to LOSE your job. Take those risks that will attract the offers of a better job. If you look at the most successful people in this industry, and we can use you, Mr. Hope, as a prime example, they are CONSTANTLY losing their jobs. They never stay in the same place too long. They take risks, sometimes failing, but, often succeeding in unprecedented ways. Then they move on to bigger and better challenges and new risk taking.
If only those minions realized they have the wrong goals all along, the world would be a much more interesting place, with lots of movement and new creations allowed to grow all the time.
I think you and Col Needham could have a fascinating conversation about how to maintain a passion for films and filmmaking over the course of a long career.
I think you dug into my brain and pulled out the giant worm I’ve had here since 19??. Even as a kid I wondered why some movie endings didn’t make sense. In my teens I saw movies end in fist fights and car chases and male/female kisses that come from nowhere. Why? This? Probably but I wasn’t there. As an adult I see big and low budget movies take wild leaps to fill wider demographics or who knows what reasons. Micro budget movies are sometimes deathly afraid of not getting their money back. I have friends who make so-called business choices to get a wider audience. But, I challenged a few of them to my question of why? Anyway, you answered why but it’s frustrating to this guy who can barely watch certain movies for their weird decisions.
I often find myself telling folks to keep going, stick at it. When I look around the industry they people who are still here and doing well have among other things just stayed and kept going. It’s advice I’ve heard from others when starting out. How you can do that is a different story as it’s not easy to keep pushing the Boulder up the mountain day in day out...and get paid enough.
There was a time when I was surprised when meeting people in the biz who weren’t super movie fans and it was “a job” and they weren’t driven by a passion to make “art” etc. It was good to realize that, not everyone is here for the love of movies and that’s fine. In fact I would say it’s a good perspective to balance your way of thinking. Maybe sometimes we should think of this as “a job”, make sure it pays well enough, that it continues for you and everyone else around you, don’t let the film and the people doing it with you spin your life out of control and that your life and death is not tied to the success of your current film (especially so on a night like tonight). You want to make a career out of this then it’s gonna be a marathon. Have some time off, switch off the phone and don’t look at emails 11p on a Saturday night, there are fires that can wait to be put out etc. I find it incredibly hard to do it of course...so just trying.
I tried to break into the industry for so many years that finally I realized that I was going about it in the wrong way. I didn't want to pry open doors and get my foot in. I didn't really want to force my way in, breaking and entering. I wanted to be accepted as a mover and shaker that set new boundaries for the entertainment industry, putting new exciting destinations on the map of movies. I wanted to be able to bring into my home the people that I wanted to live and work with.
When I started my own entertainment structure and invited talent around the world into it, I was moving forward without having to be accepted by the establishment, the powers that be. I knew that at the beginning we may not be recognized, in fact, some may even laugh at us, but that someday we would so affect the world around us that we could not be ignored and that much of the new talent coming to the surface everyday would choose to follow in our footsteps and make projects that would change the industry and the world for the better.
I agree that the industry needs to change, but it does not need a revolution or for us to fight the powers that be. A revolution is only a change of who is in power, a revolving door that sometimes puts one in a more precarious situation than they were in to begin with.
I suggest an evolution in the industry, one that challenges the status quo, and elevates the product to a stage where the audience is uplifted and inspired to believe that anything is possible.
I don't think that we should be concerned about "the job" or making a lot of money. We are talking about a career in the industry that leads to accomplishments and satisfaction. We have a saying at our studio, "it doesn't take money to make movies. it takes talent with passion and a dream." Afterall, money is only a means of exchange.
I know that I think differently than a majority of people around me. My friends say "that I think so far outside the box, that sometimes I forget where the box is, and what was in it." I just can't help but think that my philosophy is right. I don't ever expect to make the greatest film ever made, or even the most artistic, but I know that I will help make some of the most important.
Topic adjacent - many years ago you were on a panel when I qualified as “first starting out” and the advice you gave to us as producers was - “do something everyday to make your film(s) inevitable”. That piece of advice was the single best piece of industry advice I received and I reference it all the time and with my own students now. It shifted my perspective completely on how to approach my work and was so empowering. (This post also resonated with me, but your first question compelled me to share this anecdote!)
It wouldn't be so problematic if those people who try to follow this first rule WEREN'T SO BAD AT IT! The only real way to keep a job in our industry is to prove time and again that you are better than the job requires. That takes taking the right risks, trying to improve the way things are as well as the way things can be. Achieving those on a regular basis show the higher ups that you have what it takes to do more and they need to fight to keep you in the position you're in to keep others from poaching you.
Too many are fearfully trying not to make mistakes to stay where they are and end up not DOING anything of value. They only remain in place because one, the higher ups don't notice them and two, no one outside is interested in taking them out of their positions to go anywhere else. Eventually these lose their jobs anyway when the assessments and layoffs inevitably find out that those who aren't doing anything worth keeping aren't worth keeping.
The TRUE goal that should be the number one truth is you should always strive to LOSE your job. Take those risks that will attract the offers of a better job. If you look at the most successful people in this industry, and we can use you, Mr. Hope, as a prime example, they are CONSTANTLY losing their jobs. They never stay in the same place too long. They take risks, sometimes failing, but, often succeeding in unprecedented ways. Then they move on to bigger and better challenges and new risk taking.
If only those minions realized they have the wrong goals all along, the world would be a much more interesting place, with lots of movement and new creations allowed to grow all the time.
I think you and Col Needham could have a fascinating conversation about how to maintain a passion for films and filmmaking over the course of a long career.
I think you dug into my brain and pulled out the giant worm I’ve had here since 19??. Even as a kid I wondered why some movie endings didn’t make sense. In my teens I saw movies end in fist fights and car chases and male/female kisses that come from nowhere. Why? This? Probably but I wasn’t there. As an adult I see big and low budget movies take wild leaps to fill wider demographics or who knows what reasons. Micro budget movies are sometimes deathly afraid of not getting their money back. I have friends who make so-called business choices to get a wider audience. But, I challenged a few of them to my question of why? Anyway, you answered why but it’s frustrating to this guy who can barely watch certain movies for their weird decisions.
I often find myself telling folks to keep going, stick at it. When I look around the industry they people who are still here and doing well have among other things just stayed and kept going. It’s advice I’ve heard from others when starting out. How you can do that is a different story as it’s not easy to keep pushing the Boulder up the mountain day in day out...and get paid enough.
There was a time when I was surprised when meeting people in the biz who weren’t super movie fans and it was “a job” and they weren’t driven by a passion to make “art” etc. It was good to realize that, not everyone is here for the love of movies and that’s fine. In fact I would say it’s a good perspective to balance your way of thinking. Maybe sometimes we should think of this as “a job”, make sure it pays well enough, that it continues for you and everyone else around you, don’t let the film and the people doing it with you spin your life out of control and that your life and death is not tied to the success of your current film (especially so on a night like tonight). You want to make a career out of this then it’s gonna be a marathon. Have some time off, switch off the phone and don’t look at emails 11p on a Saturday night, there are fires that can wait to be put out etc. I find it incredibly hard to do it of course...so just trying.
I tried to break into the industry for so many years that finally I realized that I was going about it in the wrong way. I didn't want to pry open doors and get my foot in. I didn't really want to force my way in, breaking and entering. I wanted to be accepted as a mover and shaker that set new boundaries for the entertainment industry, putting new exciting destinations on the map of movies. I wanted to be able to bring into my home the people that I wanted to live and work with.
When I started my own entertainment structure and invited talent around the world into it, I was moving forward without having to be accepted by the establishment, the powers that be. I knew that at the beginning we may not be recognized, in fact, some may even laugh at us, but that someday we would so affect the world around us that we could not be ignored and that much of the new talent coming to the surface everyday would choose to follow in our footsteps and make projects that would change the industry and the world for the better.
I agree that the industry needs to change, but it does not need a revolution or for us to fight the powers that be. A revolution is only a change of who is in power, a revolving door that sometimes puts one in a more precarious situation than they were in to begin with.
I suggest an evolution in the industry, one that challenges the status quo, and elevates the product to a stage where the audience is uplifted and inspired to believe that anything is possible.
I don't think that we should be concerned about "the job" or making a lot of money. We are talking about a career in the industry that leads to accomplishments and satisfaction. We have a saying at our studio, "it doesn't take money to make movies. it takes talent with passion and a dream." Afterall, money is only a means of exchange.
I know that I think differently than a majority of people around me. My friends say "that I think so far outside the box, that sometimes I forget where the box is, and what was in it." I just can't help but think that my philosophy is right. I don't ever expect to make the greatest film ever made, or even the most artistic, but I know that I will help make some of the most important.
I love this post. It summarizes everything I'm about.
I believe Cinema is the most powerful ethical means of affecting meaningful social change!
Here's a video I posted this morning that goes into more detail (duration = 2:17):
https://youtu.be/ql468Cz_jPQ