You WILL NOT make IT.

Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

Patience! Practice! Skills! and being friends with a hollywood director. The odds will be pretty good.
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

The one thing I can add to this is that your priorities and ambitions will change throughout your life, and you have to be prepared for that. Part of growing up and being a dynamic human being is allowing yourself to rethink your goals and reorder your values as your life changes.

Right now, making movies may be the greatest thing in the world to you, something you can't ever imagine NOT doing, but there can be any number of things in the future that will cause you to rethink that assessment. You may find yourself following a more beneficial career path. You may find yourself in a family that becomes your passion. You may find yourself in a new form of creation that satisfies you more then filmmaking ever did. You may even find something in the future that reenforces your need to create film. You may find something in the future that draws you deeper into the film world.

I think it's important to allow yourself the potential for change. I don't mean that you shouldn't committ to something, just that you have to be prepared to allow yourself to rethink that committment in the future. If you lock yourself into the mentality of 'film for life', you create the potential for that creative outlet to be stiffled by any number of events in the future.

I think that is what causes burn-out more then anything else.

I've seen too many people pour their entire heart into a goal, and when that goal was not met in the terms of their self-imposed timelines, they quickly become bitter and resentful. It happens to writers, painters, actors, filmmakers, etc. People who pour their heart and soul into an idea of creation can become bitter at the form when their dreams are not realized.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you allow your passion to be dynamic and self-evident throughout your life, it will remain true. If your love of making film comes from the love of the process, then no hardship will immediately kill that love.
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

My opinion: Get a high paying job (that you enjoy) and shoot film on your free days. Best of both worlds!
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

I've taught film courses at the local college. Out of twenty students in an average class, maybe three or four have the talent and aptitude to go into video/film in some capacity. These are students supposedly interested in the subject, but you wouldn't know it from their work ethic. Here is an opportunity to have access to cameras, lights, sound grear and editing equipment, yet most of these "students" could care less. Most think they can pick up a camera and make a watchable product with little or no work at all.

The word these days is, "with digital technology and computer editors, anyone can make a film." It's bullshit. Stick twenty people in a room with computers with the latest word processing technology and tell them all to write a bestselling novel - or just a readable novel - and see what you get. You might as well give the same assignment to a room full of monkeys. The latest equipment sure helps make the job easier, but you have to have the talent to write, or shoot, or direct...

As to making it, I'd love to make a couple of million a year as an NFL player or maybe a pitcher for the Cards, but I don't have the ability or talent to come close. I can make films and have for many years. That's the talent I was given. Some people just don't have what it takes, but you should give it your all and see if that talent lurks in there somewhere. If you find it doesn't, move on.
RT
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

Well said, taylormade.

Anyone can point a camera, but how good will it be?
Anyone can write a script, but how good will it be?
Anyone...
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

So true Taylor.  I couldn't agree more.

The fact of the matter is that this business is more competitive than just about any other out there.  Its competitive nature sets the bar high.  Many people who try to make it in this biz do not have the talent nor gumption to make their dreams reality.

The digital revolution is good and bad.  I agree with Taylor in that it has made things a bit too accessible to people who really should be doing something else with their life other than filmmaking.

Work hard, persist but be in touch with reality.  It saddens me to see people who have been doing this forever and haven't yet realized they simply don't have what it takes to make a living at it.
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

My goal is to be able to become a working filmmaker; make a living doing it. If that does not happen that is okay. As long as I try. The reality for me is my family. My wife; my son.

I just want to make films and anything that happens beyond actually making them is gravy. I want to make them for me because it is what I enjoy doing in my sparest of moments. If my work never goes beyond myself and DVxuser.com then so be it; it is a great hobby.

If anything, the technology has allowed me to actually start doing it instead of talking about it (pre dv days).

I'd like to get to career status as a filmmaker but have prior commitments and priorities to manage.

Just making films is fun enough.
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

[quote author=Shaw link=board=Directing;num=1103412379;start=15#23 date=12/21/04 at 08:57:43]My opinion: Get a high paying job (that you enjoy) and shoot film on your free days. Best of both worlds![/quote]


I don't enjoy anything else.. I only enjoy Directing.
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

John Hudson,

I hope you do make one soon, because I know your dvd "director" commentary will be hilarious!
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

[quote author=Woodson link=board=Directing;num=1103412379;start=15#28 date=12/22/04 at 14:43:49]


I don't enjoy anything else.. I only enjoy Directing.

[/quote]

Exactly. I only enjoy creating filmed productions, so I become an ad writer. Of course, I now deal with constant rejection by the Extremely Clueless. I've often wondered if I should have just gotten a marketing job (my degree) and been creative on the side. The answer is always an emphatic, "NO!" I would not have been exposed to the production side of things to such a degree as I have been had I gone that route. Now, ten years into the biz, I've discovered what I really need to do is direct. Will I consider myself as having "made it" if I become a successful spot shooter? Maybe. But I'll probably yearn to do a movie at that point.

The whole point of this rambling nonsense is this: if you love doing something there *is* a way to make a living at it. It may be via a path you've never considered, but the route is there.

Then again, to paraphrase Steve Dallas, you can always pimp.

Fox
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

Personally, I want to write and direct. I have a decent-paying job as a web designer that pays for the mortgage and a few toys. Filmmaking appeals to me because I love all the arts. And more than any other art form, film is a combination of so many creative art forms, from writing to acting to music to sound design, etc., etc., etc. To be in a position where I could be a writer/director collaborating in so many different creative processes while watching other artisitic folks such as production designers, composers, cinematographers, actors, etc., do their thing... well that would be truly awesome.

If that doesn't work out, maybe my backhand will improve and I can challenge Roger Federer for the Wimbledon title next year. ;)
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

"Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.  Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: The moment one definately commits oneself, then providence moves, too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise occur.  A whole system of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor any number of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no [person] could have dreamed would come [their] way.  Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic.  Begin it now."  -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

My all time favorite

Man in the Arena

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

One of my all time faves, paraphrased from fencing master Nick Evangelista.

THE FIRE

A young aspiring fencer once had the opportunity to bout before a reknowned maestro. When he was done, he told the esteemed man his hopes of greatness, and asked the maestro his opinion, hoping for approval. He hoped one day to be a champion, and if given the encouragement would dedicate his life to his art.

The maestro said merely: "you lack the fire"

The man was crushed. He sold his gear and went on with his life, putting his shattered dream behind him.

Years went by and the man went on to be very successful in his own business. He ran into the old maestro at a dinner party and introduced himself.

"You changed my Life" he told the old man "I was heartbroken when you gave me your opinion of my fencing, but because of what you said I went into business instead. BUt please, can you tell me how you knew I lacked the fire?"

"Oh, I hardly noticed your fencing. I tell everyone they lack the fire"

"What? That's outrageous!" THe man shouted "How could you have done that to me? I could have been a great champion, a master of the sword!"

The maestro shook his head

"No, you don't understand. If you had the fire, truly had it within you, you would have paid my words no heed. You would have stuck with fencing no matter what anyone told you. But you gave up the first time your dream was challenged. You answered your own question."
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

I haven't followed this discussion at all, but I did find this article, so it seems like a good place to post it:

http://www.indieclub.com/tacoboard/thread.asp?ident=9111620053174212&page=2

Edit: I just got caught up on the discussion...

Regarding "the fire": yes, that is completely true.  Unfortunately it's not all there is to it... I mean, did anyone happen to watch "American Idol" last night?  a lot of those people really had the fire... but, um, well, you know...

(tangential tie-in, it sure looks like they were using 24P video for the stand-up interviews)...
 
Re: You WILL NOT make IT.

..i watched. ill watch again tonight.. simon is just so funny. i love watcing him dump cold water on peoples "fire". cause they certainly need to have it done before they burn to death.
 
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