Motivation

B

Bsmith

Well-known member
I've noticed that there are thousands if not millions of people that all want to be a famous director someday. THATS A CRAP LOAD OF PEOPLE!

They say that you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning or winning the lottery than getting anywhere in the Film industry....and even though its my dream for thousands of people to appreicate my work someday...I sometimes lose motivation knowing that there are so many people that want to be the same thing as me but so limited space.

What are your guys tricks to keeping yourselfs motivated when the future doesn't seem to likely?
 
Re: Motivation

My goal is to have fun, do the absolute best job I can, and produce something I personally enjoy watching.  If I can find a few other people that like my work, than I'm thrilled.  Beyond that, I don't hold on to unrealistic expectations.   The focus should be on your vision and your craft, not on some mythic goal. Better to shoot a kick ass 30-second short than to endlessly plan your unfilmable feature.
 
Re: Motivation

Yeah, you have to stay true to yourself. I'm not motivated by money, though I wouldn't mind making some cash. For example, a lot of indie directors make horror films because there's a market for indie horror. I wouldn't do that because horror isn't my thing. Well, unless it was a comedic horror, but then it would be my own silly brand of horror and not very scary at all.

As for motivation, yeah it can be tough when the odds seem daunting. But I'd say if you have talent, the odds are still better than the lottery.
 
Re: Motivation

Also remember.  I was the director of record for nearly 2000 hours of live and 240 hours of field produced programming over 17 years, and never once made a feature, worked on a feature, or even did anything to justify my entry into the Internet Movie Database.  My career has been about making video wallpaper and babyfood commercials, anti-terrorism training video and corporate VNRs.  I did Phillies Baseball, Lightning Hockey, and Tampa Bay Bucs when they could not win a game to save their lives.  I am also a SWAT videographer, do video forensics, and work on oral history projects with video.  Anything to make a buck or extend my art a little bit.  

Now, the average film school hippy looks at my career and sniffs "so what, I am the next Lucas".  Speaking to one class, before I became a professor, I showed some of my work and several of the students proclaimed that if you don't direct features, you are off the map as far as they were concerned.

But in 17 years, I have never been unemployed, I am close to the top of my game in terms of my skills and abilities, and I had a good time.  One thing you may need to realize is that the industry contains very few Georde Lucases, and a whole pile of people who need to be very skilled and talented to do the pedestrian work.  I have great respect for good wedding jocks, local commercial types, and corporate people, because they make a living doing video.  

So buck up, and realize that it is not that you have an unatainable goal, but that your goal may simply be misdirected.  Besides, if you have access to the equipment, even if you are shooting lousy stuff, then you can always explore your art outside of the standard Hollywood system. Make a film, and offer showings at your local college. Who cares if you make no money, it is the art that is important. And be satisfied with your other work that pays the bills.
 
Re: Motivation

I can’t imagine giving up on something I love simply because someone else tells me I’m dreaming . . .

If you’re a filmmaker (whatever that means), then make films and don’t worry about anything else. Find a way to do it. If, as Slap says, you can find a way to get paid for it, well, doing commercials is better than living on Wal-Mart macaroni and cheese, waiting tables waiting to be “discovered.”

If you’re in it for the fame, the glory, the money, the chicks, then you’re really in it for the wrong reasons, IMHO. None of those things are bad, and I’m sure we’d all like to have them, but there are different measures for success. Thoroughly enjoying what I’m doing is mine.
 
Re: Motivation

Wait, you're telling me coke and whores is the wrong reason to get into filmmaking? I've been misled!

Kidding, of course. I actually tried snorting coke once and I couldn't see why people would get hooked on it. I kept getting the bottle stuck up my nose.

No, I'm pursuing it because I want to tell stories, and there aren't many filmmakers who tell the kind of stories in the style I want to tell them. Be true to yourself and the coke and whores will come. ;)
 
Re: Motivation

I'm coming into this thing (whatever it turns out to be) from a music background and the parallels in the businesses are astonishing (then again, it's entertainment business period). I was in a group that through strange twists of fate landed a record deal with Sony Music in the mid 90's. Things were going great, video, international release, touring, blah, blah, blah. Then, through not-so-strange twists of fate (business) it blew up in our face and it seemed to literally destroy the souls of a few of the guys.

As dumb and cliche as it sounds, the journey there was the absolute best part. The “what if” and trying to make it into the game was fantastic. The people we met and worked with, all of it, I wouldn't trade for anything (even though we were eating some of that excellent Wal Mart Mac and Cheese David J mentioned most of the time). If it's what you love and you can do it without compromise, that's far better than most people unfortunately on this planet will ever experience: unfettered artistic expression.

There are several off the beaten path avenues for creators/artists to take. The bottom line is relaying your vision and relating in some way to Joe Public people and not some stiff shirt suit in some corporate office (woops, that was kinda bitter). No one can stop you from taking your gear and creating your art except yourself. It's fantastic that this gear has become affordable to so many, again the parallel to music / film is that now you can shoot for yourself, the big guys only have marketing and distribution on their side where a few years ago film/video artists couldn't afford to shoot period. And still again, there are many paths for the independent that don't require any approval from the people that represent barriers to indie artists (i.e. you can get a DVD into the market, look at The Orchard for example).

And I absolutely 100% agree with the “if your in this for money, fame, girls, etc” you're more than likely wasting your time.

Good luck to everyone in whatever they do...

"Never, never, never quit. -- Winston Churchill"
 
Re: Motivation

17 years for me, too.  ;)

I like what I do. I've made a living at shooting video for 17 years.

Along the way I've done tons of commercial photography on various formats... 35mm; medium format 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x9; large format 4x5 and 8x10... and I've been able to work on several TV commercial shoots done on 16mm and 35mm film with big budgets, have been a camera operator on more than 3,500 hours of actual live programming... but, I've never shot a feature until now.    ;)

When I was a kid I would visit my grandmother's house and spend hours looking at photo albums she had. I was fascinated by the different people and looks they had through the many years of compiled photos and I desired a camera to make my own photos.

When I was around 12 I remember looking at Sears catalogs and desiring a Super8 camera to make movies with my friends and neighbors, but unfortunately for me... my folks couldn't afford to buy me the camera or pay for film and processing, etc. (Which may explain my recent $3,000 splurge into Super8-dom.)

When I was in college I finally got a chance to play with video cameras and learn to edit.

Over the years, I've worked at TV stations, gone to lighting and Steadicam workshops in Rockport, Maine, shot two documentaries in Alaska, visited Germany for a two week job, travelled to most major U.S. cities on jobs, etc.

I guess I've turned a latent desire to create images into a career. It is still my hobby and it drives me to learn and do.

If I couldn't do what I do for a living, then I would still spend all my money on this passion.  ::)

This site and it's peeps help keep me interested and instructed.

Mike Donis, give me my avatar back! :P It's the only thing I had of my own...™ :'(
 
Re: Motivation

[quote author=Terry_Lasater link=board=Offtopic;num=1089135487;start=0#7 date=07/06/04 at 22:24:16]17 years for me, too.  ;)

I like what I do. I've made a living at shooting video for 17 years.([/quote]

I wonder how many of us ever had the pleasure of stringing a 2 inch machine, or worse yet, rolling in a Quad Cart.
 
Re: Motivation

I have had the pleasure of using a 2" Quad those machines sucked (literally)
Not as old, but VPR 3's rocked...

Terry - don't try to get your own Avatar on this site - they will shoot you... ;D
 
Re: Motivation

[quote author=ChuckS link=board=Offtopic;num=1089135487;start=0#9 date=07/07/04 at 16:47:58]I have had the pleasure of using a 2" Quad those machines sucked (literally)  
Not as old, but VPR 3's rocked...

Terry - don't try to get your own Avatar on this site - they will shoot you... ;D[/quote]

I got mine! (2500th post)
 
Re: Motivation

God I know what you're saying...Today I lost my lead actor in our feature...yeah I know...none of you care, but I'll keep plowing ahead...

I'd like to be a director, but really I'm a writer/camera man...if all I did was work a camera for the rest of my life...I wouldn't mind.

In the end...We all want to be directors...some of us will...others will find a job as a A.D., a D.P., a gaffer, part of some crew, or even a focus puller...

I'd be happy doing any of these, I'm tired of this life.

Good luck to you all and KEEP MOTIVATED!
 
Re: Motivation

[quote author=ChuckS link=board=Offtopic;num=1089135487;start=0#9 date=07/07/04 at 16:47:58]I have had the pleasure of using a 2" Quad those machines sucked (literally)  
Not as old, but VPR 3's rocked...

Terry - don't try to get your own Avatar on this site - they will shoot you... ;D[/quote]

The only VTR that needed ear plugs to operate. And the heads could saw a log in half.
 
Re: Motivation

[quote author=TheAmPro link=board=Offtopic;num=1089135487;start=0#11 date=07/07/04 at 16:59:13]God I know what you're saying...Today I lost my lead actor in our feature...yeah I know...none of you care, but I'll keep plowing ahead...

I'd like to be a director, but really I'm a writer/camera man...if all I did was work a camera for the rest of my life...I wouldn't mind.

In the end...We all want to be directors...some of us will...others will find a job as a A.D., a D.P., a gaffer, part of some crew, or even a focus puller...

I'd be happy doing any of these, I'm tired of this life.

Good luck to you all and KEEP MOTIVATED![/quote]

Be a budding author:

http://www.dvxuser.com/cgi-bin/DVX2/YaBB.pl?board=Events;action=display;num=1089245105;start=0#2
 
Re: Motivation

I just want to make films for the sake of making films. Whatever happens beyond that is fine. If a genie came out of the bottle now and said "John. do you want to be the next Spielberg?" I would jump on that wish; but it is merely a wish.

I just want to make films and entertain even if it gets me no where professionaly
 
Re: Motivation

A guy actually asked me today if I wanted to be the next Speilberg, and I said, it would be nice...he said goodluck and that he believed that I could do it.

After that I said can you shut the door, I'm trying to **** here...
 
Re: Motivation

I love films since I started creating my own stick animations. I just love it, and no one is going to stop me from dreaming of becoming someone in the industry.
I do procrastinate a lot though. But, after staying in front of a computer for 8 hours a day, where do you get the energy to do something else? No way man! I wrote code the whole day and it just damages my brain. Damn! I need to find time to relax.

All the best

Fidel.
 
Re: Motivation

I know what you mean, Fidel. My day job is as a web designer and it's tough to sit behind a computer all day at work then fire up the laptop at home to work on the screenplay. My summer job in college was working construction, and it was easier to come home from that job and write. I find that I have to get out of the house and get some exercise. I play soccer three times a week and tennis three times a week. Yeah, the soccer and tennis cut into time I could be working on the screenplay, but it revives me mentally and physcially, so I actually get more done after my games. Of coruse, when it comes time to shoot, I'll have to cut back on the sports. Too bad I can't just cut back on the day job.
 
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