directing The Obvious Choice

This is a short essay on how to get something important right.

Frink's excellent post about crediting your crew got me thinking about this.

Virtually every indie film director out there is faced with a common problem. We are too small, underfunded, underpowered, and no one's paying attention to us. It's practically the definition of an indie filmmaker. So the obvious choice, and what most of us do in that situation is to go out into the world and try to rectify this by bringing attention to ourselves. It makes perfect sense. I don't really think there's anything wrong with that, with one major exception. It's ineffective.

We're all trying to build ourselves up, and become stronger, bigger, at least formidable enough that our art can have the impact we imagined when we created it. Some of the weakest and worst try to build themselves up by putting others down. It doesn't really work. Some try bragging. It doesn't really work. Some try cheat codes, thinking they have an idea that will simply bypass the challenges we face. It doesn't really work.

Maybe you're a charitable person, maybe you're a selfish person, or like most of us, somewhere in between. Here's my thought. It doesn't matter. You should still be doing the same thing. I'll explain.

If you want to help others, and that's your goal, you should spend your time building up other people.

If you want to draw attention to yourself, you should spend your time building up other people.

It's the rare person that stands out, and there's nothing more rare on today's internet than someone who thinks of others before themselves. So if you need someone to dig a ditch on your film set, instead of showing people what a big deal you are by ordering an underling to dig it for you, or putting their name in tiny print 100 rows beneath yours. Jump in and dig that ditch beside them. Tell others how hard they that guy worked. When someone compliments your finished shot, point out how you could never have gotten that great shot of the soldiers in the foxhole without the guy who dug the foxhole. Show them that the film. and the team is what's important, rather than your ego, and you will earn a kind of respect that benefits everyone, including yourself, and that no amount of self promotion will ever create.

Building others up is what really makes you stronger, so when you think about it, that's the obvious choice.
 
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Hey Nate, thanks for giving credit on my post about giving credit, that means you read it! 🤣

I'm 100% with you in everything you just said, and I gotta say this is what I'm practicing right now! Finding a spot where I fit with the others, and building each other up. The secret of life!
 
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