Any famous DVXusers? Anyone "make it" yet

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HenryMurdoch

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I was just curious if any DVXusers are famous or have made it so to speak?

I don't want to be a negative nancy, but it just seems like a large forum full of filmmakers with nobody famously rich is kind of discouraging.
 
As a director?
As a writer? - yes
As a graphic illustrator - yes
As a Set designer - yes

What else am I forgetting guys?
 
dvxuser members come from all walks of life... We have high-schoolers, hobbyists, professionals, oscar nominated documentarians, emmy-award winning producers, etc, etc.

That's one of the beautiful things about this site (in my opinion). We have the full range of members, yet everyone is able to get along very well for the most part and the conversations are generally productive and there is something for everyone here.

later,
Jason
 
So I take it there is nobody here that did a feature for under $10k that is now directing million+ dollar films like Robert Rodriguez? Or someone who maxed out there credit to do a $25k feature like Kevin Smith?

Guess those guys aren't an example of how you can make it, but the ONLY example! lol












Now I'm depressed.
 
So I take it there is nobody here that did a feature for under $10k that is now directing million+ dollar films like Robert Rodriguez? Or someone who maxed out there credit to do a $25k feature like Kevin Smith?
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That kind of thing just doesn't happen. It's about as common as winning the lottery. If you're making your business plan based on that, well, you'll find very few examples spread out over a long, long amount of time (let's not forget that El Mariachi was seventeen years ago! And "clerks" was 15 years ago.)

Seriously, people seem to think that this kind of thing is commonplace. I can think of four examples in the last 20 years.

If buying lottery tickets sounds like a solid business plan, then running up your credit cards to make a breakthrough indie film would seem like a good investment too. And yes, every once in a while we hear about someone like 'The Blair Witch Project" that takes relative pennies and turns it into millions of dollars... but then again, that's usually once every three to five years, whereas we hear about lottery winners every month or two, right?

So, yes, we have plenty of successful industry professionals represented here, including the president of Sony ImageWorks' animation division, Peter Jackson's editor, two-time oscar nominee James Longley, and many others. But most of them, who have achieved a significant level of success, don't advertise themselves as such.

Make films because you love to make them. And don't spend any money on them that you can't afford to lose, because you're going to lose it.
 
I am Robert Rodriguez, using a psuedonym.

I am famously rich, and richly famous.

You will never be me, as I am the only successful independent filmmaker (besides Kevin Smith).


Suck it.
 
Barry_Green said:
That kind of thing just doesn't happen. It's about as common as winning the lottery. If you're making your business plan based on that, well, you'll find very few examples spread out over a long, long amount of time (let's not forget that El Mariachi was seventeen years ago! And "clerks" was 15 years ago.)

Seriously, people seem to think that this kind of thing is commonplace. I can think of four examples in the last 20 years.

If buying lottery tickets sounds like a solid business plan, then running up your credit cards to make a breakthrough indie film would seem like a good investment too. And yes, every once in a while we hear about someone like 'The Blair Witch Project" that takes relative pennies and turns it into millions of dollars... but then again, that's usually once every three to five years, whereas we hear about lottery winners every month or two, right?

So, yes, we have plenty of successful industry professionals represented here, including the president of Sony ImageWorks' animation division, Peter Jackson's editor, two-time oscar nominee James Longley, and many others. But most of them, who have achieved a significant level of success, don't advertise themselves as such.

Make films because you love to make them. And don't spend any money on them that you can't afford to lose, because you're going to lose it.
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Alright so what is the path to success then as a director? I used those as examples since they seem to be so popular. But even on this forum with all the people that post on here, you'd think someone would have made the $100k feature funded from private investors, that is now shooting million dollar feature films in Hollywood.

You got all these people on here from the Cali area, all these very talented people on DVXuser, some now shooting on Redcams, where are the examples of the people that have made it?

It would seem with a community as large and connected and as talented as this one, there would be more director success stories. I just find that kind of discouraging myself.

I know it's great that there are others that are successful in other areas like animation or set design, but I think in general that's not what most people on here are on here for. I also know some people that have won some awards and that are distinguished, but they are also broke. So it's not always what it's made out to be. Not saying the people you said fit that, just it's not the same.

Anyways, I guess that's my rant and at the end of the day, the question is how do you "make it" as a director in our current time, any examples of success?
 
jpastuch said:
Step 1;

Stop caring about getting rich or "making it".

Instead

Go make a short film.
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This forum is full of people like this. I'm not going to bs myself or others, I want a successful paying career, I want to direct million dollar features. I've done shorts, I've done a feature. What have you done to even comment on this subject?

Lets get serious here. You ever hear Dov Simens mention shorts are a waste of time because they generate typically no revenue. Yes great for learning, outside of that you have to do features if you want to be taken seriously.

I personally agree with Dov Simens, so many people don't consider this a business. Don't care about making it they say. Apparently to them you can't do both, it's either money or passion. I say bs, it can be both and is.

It's almost a disgrace that this many heads together, and nothing big has came out of it all...where is all that energy and talent going! Down the drain it seems.
 
Alright so what is the path to success then as a director?
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Well, it's the same formula as for any other career:

Step 1: study. Step 2: study some more. Step 3: work hard. Step 4: check back in 20 years, where you might have accomplished "success" by then.

Now, if you want a "shortcut" to success, well, we're back to the lottery tickets.

My pick for a DVXUser who's going to be a breakout success as a director is Jack Daniel Stanley. Do what he does, and have his talent level, and that's likely a good path to success. First, direct stage plays for a decade or more. Then, study the living hell out of the art and make some short films; Jack's first film took 2nd place in our DVXUser film festival; his second film took 2nd place, his 3rd film won, his 4th film won, his 5th film was an "audience favorite", etc., and now he's had films screen in Tribeca and Slamdance, and tonight he's being honored in his own section at the Fright Night Film Festival.

Still hasn't made any money at it, of course, but once we settle on the particulars of the script we're going to make, I'm going to bankroll some and raise the rest to make his debut feature. And it will be a real feature.

Jack exemplifies the kind of dedication and work it takes to make it. Oh, and on top of that, you've got to have enormous loads of talent. And probably some luck. And work really, really, really hard. And don't ever stop studying, and working, and refining, and studying, and working some more.



outside of that you have to do features if you want to be taken seriously.
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Many, many, many people make what they call "features" every year. Just because something's 90 minutes long, that doesn't make it a feature -- a "feature" is something that someone is willing to pay to see. It's something they'll plan their time around, drive to the theater, buy tickets, and commit two hours of their life to, not because they "support the arts", and not because "oh, we heard some kid made this for $3,000", but because they expect to be entertained by it.

Every day we see new announcements of people making "features". Nobody takes a "feature" seriously unless it's made it into the theaters, or at least into nationwide wide release on one of the major labels (and no, a pay-for-play deal through LionsGate doesn't count!) If you have to give your pic away, or (worse) pay someone to distribute it, nobody's going to take it (or you) seriously.

Making a real feature film is incredibly hard. Making a WATCHABLE "feature" is extremely difficult. I dare say there are very few "true indies" who pull that feat off successfully.

I would take someone far more seriously if they made a great, entertaining, well-received short, versus another slog of 90 minutes of whatthehellwasthat...

So -- you want a career making million-dollar films? Make a $200,000 film that distributors find irresistible, that audiences across the country can't wait to see (Napoleon Dynamite, perhaps?) If you can do that, if you can demonstrate an ability to bring paying audiences into the theaters in droves, then you'll have no problem finding people willing to bankroll and distribute your next picture. Case in point: Christopher Nolan. If you can make "Following" and then "Memento", well, you'll have a career.
 
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HenryMurdoch said:
This forum is full of people like this. I'm not going to bs myself or others, I want a successful paying career, I want to direct million dollar features. I've done shorts, I've done a feature.
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You've directed a feature film and you are still so clueless about...well, everything?

If you want a successful, paying career in Hollywood, there are numerous roads to that end, work your way up through commercials, work your way up through music videos, or hell, just write a successful novel. I know of two people who have been offered "million dollar movies" to direct simply based on the fact that they wrote the novels the movies were based on. Never even set foot on a movie set.

But ALL of these roads involve making stuff and NONE of them involve showing up on random message boards, denigrating the inhabitants.

I don't think we can help you here. Maybe try somewhere else?
 
You want to direct? Direct.

Nothing stopping you but yourself. If you have what it takes, someone will notice. But you have to drive that. Not complain online and wish it were true.
 
HenryMurdoch said:
It's almost a disgrace that this many heads together, and nothing big has came out of it all..
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What do you expect this many heads together to accomplish, when 99.5% of them all want to compete over the same job? EVERYONE wants to direct. I'm probably one of the very few on this entire forum who is confident in saying "I don't have any ambition to be a director."

I've seen many groups get together, pledging their talents and equipment so that they can all work together to finally make a film. And every single time, it comes down to "well, of course I'M going to be the director, because I am putting up most of the equipment (or whatever)". And everyone else says "well, why am I gonna kill myself working to make YOUR career?" And within two or three meetings the whole thing dissolves.

where is all that energy and talent going!
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To day jobs, for most of the folks here. There are many who make a full time living in media arts, but not many of them are feature film directors! And the vast majority of the folks here are dedicated artists who don't have careers in the media arts yet, so they have to work day jobs and practice their filmmaking on nights/weekends.

We have over 50,000 members. How many full-time jobs do you think are out there with a job title of "feature film movie director"? I mean, let's look at it another way: "Hollywood" turns out, what, 120 films a year? Now let's pretend that each and every one of those films is directed by a different person. So the competition for those 120 jobs is INSANELY TIGHT. Film schools graduate, what, 20,000 students every year? Random number, but it seems like it's probably right... that's 20,000 people competing for those 120 jobs. But, that's not really fair, because come on, Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorcese and Steven Spielberg and James Cameron and Ang Lee and Jon Woo and Christopher Nolan and all the rest of the A-listers are going to take at least half those jobs, so now you've got 20,000 people competing for 60 jobs. And that's just of THIS YEAR's graduates. What about all those 20,000 who graduated last year? And the 20,000 who graduated the year before last? And the year before that?

There's probably several hundred thousand, (if not a couple million) folks with 4-year degrees from UCLA, USC, NYU, or other prestigious film schools, who all rightly believe that they're qualified to compete for those sixty jobs each year.

So complaining that some indie folks, who (by and large) DON'T have that training, haven't "made it" to the upper echelons yet ... seems to me to be a gross miscalculation of what the true odds are.
 
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Mark Harris said:
You've directed a feature film and you are still so clueless about...well, everything?

If you want a successful, paying career in Hollywood, there are numerous roads to that end, work your way up through commercials, work your way up through music videos, or hell, just write a successful novel. I know of two people who have been offered "million dollar movies" to direct simply based on the fact that they wrote the novels the movies were based on. Never even set foot on a movie set.

But ALL of these roads involve making stuff and NONE of them involve showing up on random message boards, denigrating the inhabitants.

I don't think we can help you here. Maybe try somewhere else?
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Yes, you are correct, I understand the amount of work involved in making a feature. I've been through that trial and have learned a lot of things the hard way that in my opinion, most people will never know until they do it. It's not covered in books. And quite frankly I think it takes some serious courage to do a feature with a fair sized cast, multiple locations, locking everything in, completing it and screening it. But at the same time there are many people that have done a feature and what it doesn't prepare you for is "making it" as a director simply on the basis of doing one.

It's really in most situations, the continuation since most filmmakers only complete one feature if that because it wipes them out and is a very discouraging process. You have to really be passionate about filmmaking to even do one to completion, a decent one at least. And you have to really be passionate to even consider doing another one and another after that. But at some point you have to be realistic and realize that you need money.

This is a very legitimate question that some people seem to not want to ever talk about. He we are on a forum, from what I've seen, the largest filmmaker forum on the internet, if not in the top 3. And there isn't one example of someone who's actually made it. Probably because nobody is willing to honestly talk about it.

So your suggestion is to write a successful novel? Do you have an example of someone who wrote a successful novel and then directed it? No offense to you but I know quite a few people that were offered money to direct this or that and it never materializes. It's just talk.

Obviously you have to create something, that goes without saying. I don't understand why you feel the need to talk down to me when I'm asking a legitimate question.
 
Step 2;

Make more films. Read a lot. Go to the opera. Become a better artist. Stop thinking about instant success or even success- put your heart and soul into what you do. If you have any left. Who cares what Dov whatshisface says?


Seriously, if you are unhappy making films, money or no money, just stop making them. Become a lawyer or a doctor or a businessman- these require just as much hard work and are usually less of a crapshoot, and you'll still be rich and successful.

And also, even though I seem to disagree with a majority of the people here about the many aspects of film, I don't try and compare myself with them. The collective messageboard isn't you, so what the hell does anyone's success on here have ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU AT ALL?

It's so confusing. Like if someone on here became rich, you would suddenly become rich or make great films?


PS> Didn't someone on here mention that some guy, uh, took a DVX100 videocamera and shot a documentary that was nominated for an Academy Award (not that I go by the Oscars, but isn't that enough of a "makin it" story for you)?
 
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