ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 3 months ago - Will Jones

I fully empathize with your situation, I've been there myself. I can't speak for how to deal with the issues you bring up regarding being both a filmmaker and family man, however, I do have some advice on how to deal with that sense of the film world passing you by. You mention how you endeavor to "hook into social media to see what's going on, read stuff when I get time, but there is SO much to try and keep track of - funding opportunities, development and training, trying to find networking of a sufficient quality that it's worthwhile, not to mention actually writing and making work.... phew." Well, here's my advice: stop. You are currently buried in post; that's enough and that's fine. Focus yourself entirely on making this, your current project, all it can be. That in itself, should you produce a great short, will do your networking for you (or it won't, who knows). The point is, you're buried now, but when you surface, the film industry will still be there, but now you'll have something great to show everyone. And you might look back over social media and see an opportunity you missed because you were paying the forums no attention at the time, but had you been on the forum then, would you have been in any real position to take said opportunity? And would the distraction have been conducive to the completion of your short?

My second point is that you note how you "have daily conversations with friends who are attending talent labs, having conversations with important industry folk, blagging their films into major festivals and basically doing the networking and pulse feeling that is necessary to progress their careers." That's fine, let them do that, and then when it's done show everyone your short and see what happens. The only pace ever worth going at, in the long run, is your own.

I am aware by the way that all this is easier said than done, but I have found, personally, that always striving not lose this mindset completely helps with the pressure of the job and certainly reminds you to have fun. This is the best job in the world after all.

Best of luck and never forget to enjoy the process, that's what matters ultimately (and your family) :)

9 years, 3 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Some great words there Will. Only thing I'd add is that there's a lot of noise in the foothills and it can be distracting knowing to whom to give your attention. Almost all of that noise is effectively meaningless.

Friends going to networking events etc., but the people they meet are their peers - other broke aspirant filmmakers hoping someone will give them a huge amount of cash to make their dreams. You generally won't find actual investing producers going to any events where they will just get mobbed, although you do get quite a few credible-sounding bullshitters. The guy's who are doing stuff are out there actually doing stuff on the query mountain, not in the noisy foothills.

Most distractions are just that - distractions. You don't need to follow/attend them. In fact, to ever get the mental clarity to make a feature, you have to mentally isolate yourself from the clutter. Learn that discipline and discernment and it'll be no bad thing for your future.

There are some actually useful events out there - sometimes BAFTA might have a talk from a producer, and those can be very insightful. I was lucky enough to see Simon Channing-Williams there before he passed away - it was singly the most candid and actually helpful event I've been to. He was speaking to his peers more than aspirants, and that context made such a difference. Maybe meet with whoever runs local film festivals to you, take them a coffee and a screener.

If you can go to Cannes, go to Cannes just for a few days for the experience. You don't need to go every year for the whole circus, but once to understand the market and industry is enough right now. Watch what desperation turned up to 11 looks like in the SFC in the Marché, and notice how little time Spielberg spends watching short films. Notice that you can't get near the people you think you want to get near, and anyway, what would you say to them, really? I've watched Tarantino walk through a hotel bar with people literally trying to push scripts into his arms and him refusing to take them. The experience is amazing for other reasons, but there are distinct layers, and most of the people who are currently making noise about networking etc., around you are going to do the same in Cannes, but not really get anywhere or do anything they don't do at home.

So for now, just edit, just focus, get it finished. A finished film is worth more than all the networking flannel from dreamers who never actually 'do'. You'll have something to show. It might be brilliant, it might be rubbish, but it'll be done, and you can take the lessons learned and go on to the next one. If you go to a party anytime, and for some unlikely reason there's an opportunity for one person there to get some backing, the person with some actual experience and trajectory will be of far more interest to any real money than someone without.

Work/life balance - tough one. Don't miss out on time with your kids, the industry will still exist once they're at school/uni.

9 years, 3 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

PS, those friends who talk the big talk - remember there's a LOT of flannel and self-aggrandisement that seems to be encouraged by aspirants.

*Talent labs - is that just a training course? There are others.
*Meeting with important industry people - who counts as important will seem different from outside than inside the industry, and there are a LOT of time wasters and bullshitters who flit between aspirants looking for an easy few grand and free latte here or there.
*Blagging films into major festivals - major festivals are immune to blag. There are maybe 10 festivals in the world that count for anything (Cannes, Berlin, etc)., and the rest are in the foothills. A major festival will only screen on merit as it's their credibility at stake. Maybe your friend's film is great and suitable for their themes, if so then that's how it got in. Otherwise, for a festival outside the top 10 or so (and remember they're all commercial events - someone gets paid and makes profits from them), you can probably horse-deal, but being in the official selection at Genericfest Online International Independent Film Festival means nothing to anyone who knows anything about the industry.

Even some second and certainly third tier of festival will be open to finding a way to 'support' a producer who turns up with a few grand to 'help with the festival running costs'. And almost all festivals are third tier from an industry perspective. Unless films are being bought and sold at a festival, it's an irrelevance in industry terms. I've known people set up a mayfly festival, born, take submissions, screen (online), award prizes and die in a single (compressed) cycle just to award themselves laurels for the jury prize with a grand sounding spurious festival name. It may sucker a few punters to see the laurels on the DVD case at the petrol station.

Just take everything people tell you about their glamorous and successful activity as an 'upcoming filmmaker' with a big pinch of salt. Numbers bear out, almost all of them will never ever the industry in any meaningful way (ie making and selling a feature film), and if so, what value are their words and smugness? On this very site, you can 'meet' more 'industry' than pretty much any networking event. There are members here who make and sell movies and who are happy to share their thoughts if asked.

9 years, 3 months ago - Marlom Tander

Focus.

Compartmentalise.

My early career day job was 9-5ish, and in the evenings I was running a band, a record label and setting up raves. For fun and annoyingly small profits. (Raves paid label losses, ce la vie)

The way I got out on my own.

Monday-Friday 8am, get up. 9-5 day job. Home and eaten by 7. 7-11 building spreadsheets to solve an "impossible" problem. (I'd cracked theory, now it was just a 249 page sheet away from working).

Saturday - 7am to 10pm, maths. 10pm to 1-2am, clubbing. (I decided I had to get out once a week or I'd go mad).

Sunday - 10am to 10pm, maths.

I rand that schedule without a break (ok, maybe one weekend off) for 6 months until I had the maths nailed, a software house on board and then - somehow I don't think will surprise you - quit the day job.

Ok, so I was single, which made easier, but even later on with a family and my usual project heavy life, it was all about scheduling. Not all the time, but whenever I felt it was needed. Though children come first, so that does slow you down.

The biggest thing is to avoid "time sucks". Schedule your social networks and news sites etc. Back in my day it was "no, this is NOT the time to play Asteroids".

The next thing is to get enough sleep. You can go low on sleep for short periods, but it soon costs you re mental acuity.

So basically, right now, Family, Work, Project. Nothing else matters.

9 years, 3 months ago - John Lubran

Whilst taking any particular case for a generality is always a mistake I believe Paddy's observations above to be amongst the most profound ever contributed on these lists. All these institutions, all these pathetically miniscule and tortuously over subscribed funding entities and all those festivals and then there's all those businesses and quasi non businesse worthy entities feeding off them. No amount of networking and pitching can turn the naively boring and inconsequential into a silk purse, unless of course one is already a member of a well heeled nepotistic cartel; that's only how so much souless trite gets distributed. Great ideas and great business models are the primary drivers of success; without which no amount of hard work, enthusiasm or professional/vocational training has much value in such a disproportionately over subscribed industry.

The smarter ones creative and business ideas are the luckier one is. Beyond that there's nothing fair about this business and nothing fair and little thats inarguable about the processes and decision making of even the most seemingly worthy arts awards and support agencies beyond a throw of a dice at best. Spare us from the opinions of the great and the good but don't ignore those of the market audience, which is usually a generation ahead of the worthies.

Finally dont rely on anything I say as being definitive of reality, or anyone else's version either. There's an inheriticality that's a prerequisite and that needs very little from the examples of others other than a good view of the lay of the land.

9 years, 3 months ago - Alève Mine

Forget family.
Ditch life.
Miss no target.

9 years, 3 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Good doses of reality here. Especially from Paddy and those bullshit "industry mixers." But in the end, you are complaining about being busy in an industry that you want to be in. You're editing, right?

I live in Los Angeles, and 90 percent of my friends are in the industry. I've never heard anyone of them complain about having work. Myself included. We may complain about the particular film we are on, but never about having a job. In the 80s and 90s, I never had to look for work. It was awesome. Then digital hit big, the studios changed (no longer funding mid-range films), piracy, theatre chains not accepting smaller films... lots of things that gutted the middle class film worker. Now we get offered small films a 10th of our going rate or have to compete with 300 people for the same union gig.

So, be happy. You're working. Finish your film. See your kid. Keep working. We all work freelance, and that's a hard row to hoe. It seems you're doing great. Don't worry about what others are doing. Do your own thing. Did you ever think that you are not being passed by, but it's your friends wasting their time at industry meet and greets that are being passed-- by you?

9 years, 3 months ago - Chris Bogle

Just come back to this today and thank you guys for the wonderful insight and perspective. Really great advice again.

It all makes sense - especially you Paddy - I think social media makes it even more difficult to filter. It constantly gives you a sense of being on the back foot which isn't healthy.

Part of my mindset is that although I've been making commercial films for many years I finally got to drama late - at the ripe old age of 41 - and it's difficult not to feel the pressure to make every move a good move. Know what I mean? But I think every move a good move goes into the same bin as perfectionism - an impossible task.

Yes the project is the priority and apart from checking in here every so often I'm going to stop fretting. :)

Thanks again, you're all wonderful people. :)

9 years, 3 months ago - Christopher Jolley

On a side note, I completely sympathise, I have two children, a full time job, I script doctor and complete ad hoc writer for hire work, on top of directing short films. It's a little bit barmy for me and there are days where I am running on pure caffeine. I am quite an OCD person and organisation is everything. The wonderful thing about this, I know plenty of writers who need to be alone or in a Starbucks to creatively think. Strangely this doesn't affect me, I can happily work on film while my son watches Paw Patrol and yabbers at me for a peanut butter toast sandwich. Like a lot of guys above, it's the love of film that keeps me doing it.

9 years, 3 months ago - Rudolf Kremers

Much to agree with here. I would like to add that it can be downright bad, artistically, to be too close to "what's happening". I think it's essential to develop your own filmic voice, and you need to do that in part by setting YOUR OWN guidelines and goals.

Trends and (too much of) other people's input can really muddy that. Just do your stuff man!

R