Best Advice You Have Received?

R

RollaSelbak

This has probably been covered on the boards, but I'm new and interested to hear...what is the best advice that you have received about filmmaking??


Mine are probably:

Make sure you love and believe in the projects you work on. Making a film is a long, hard, arduous, ride, and the only thing that will keep you going is if you truly believe in what you're doing. Otherwise, it'll be extremely easy to just dump what you're doing and get a real job.

Another person told me 'sleeping is for suckers'. This is true, I don't sleep much.

Another one is 'it only takes one yes'. Meaning don't be afraid of hearing 'no', because it only takes one 'yes' to change things around, and chances are, if you stick around long enough, that will happen.

In the words of one my heros, Steve Jobs "Stay hungry, Stay foolish".
 
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"At some point you are gonna fail, but if you don't learn anything from it then you're in the wrong business." - Mrs. Williams (my middle school home economics teacher)
 
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Studio executives are business people, NOT artists. They look at spreadsheet numbers for a history of dollars and cents. The art does not interest them.

It doesn't matter how original or well written a script is to a studio executive. All they want to know is how much money can someone or a production make them, based on pre-existing numbers on the writer, actor, or director.

Major book publishers think the same way.

That is why at ASJA Conventions forum speakers recommend to new writers to make a short story before a novel and sell it to a magazine and keep track of the sales of the issue with their story as numbers to show agents and major publishers later as proof of sales and copies of fan letters as well.
 
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As a writer: "Show it, don't say it."

As a director: "Get good people and try to stay out of their way."

As an actor: "The audience wants to like you, and they will like you unless you don't let them."

As an editor: "Performance dictates the cut."

From my mom: "The world doesn't owe you a damned thing."

From my dad: "Anything worth doing, is worth doing to the best of your ability. Otherwise, why are you wasting your time?"
 
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You don't have to be the best at anything, you need the ability to recognize greatness in others and draw them to you.

To get the best performance from others, make them feel like the most important person in the world when you deal with them.

Reward loyalty, it's hard to come by.
 
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Don't be afraid of getting wet.

Or, to express this in wise japanese words, here is Tsunetomo Yamamoto ("Hagakure"):

"There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything."
 
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An old filmmaker and a young filmmaker walk to a sandy dune crest overlooking a beach covered with swimsuit models.

Wide-eyed and salivating, the young filmmaker blurts out to the old filmmaker "How about we run down there and film one of those models?!"

Surveying the scenario with a sly grin, the old filmmaker picks up his gearbag, puts his tripod over his shoulder and heads towards the models.
"How about we walk down there and film them all." ;)
 
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rayw said:
An old filmmaker and a young filmmaker walk to a sandy dune crest overlooking a beach covered with swimsuit models.

Wide-eyed and salivating, the young filmmaker blurts out to the old filmmaker "How about we run down there and film one of those models?!"

Surveying the scenario with a sly grin, the old filmmaker picks up his gearbag, puts his tripod over his shoulder and heads towards the models.
"How about we walk down there and film them all." ;)
Click to expand...


And that my friends, is the origin story of Girls Gone Wild
 
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make a list of goals...as you go along start checking off those accomplishments...for example...

buy camera
learn camera
shoot with a crew (nonpaid)
shoot with a crew (paid)
shoot a commercial
shoot a short
shoot a feature
see credit on TV
see credit in a one theater showing
see credit on multiple theaters

of course you can fill in areas where you can make other goals but dont let the only goal you have be "Become the next Steven Spielberg" you may never attain it. With the little goals in place and moving forward to the bigger goals someone might one day want to be "the next YOU"
 
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