Why Are You Here?

Jack Lynt

Jack Lynt

Why are you here?

MovieMaker Magazine (http://www.moviemaker.com), Issue 84, Vol. 16, Fall 2009, published by MovieMaker, LLC, page 88, features the article, My Golden Rules: World's Quirkiest Director Shares Keys to Success, by Terry Gilliam.

Other threads here on IndieTalk asking how to get attention for your films and how to hopefully make money with them helped to get me thinking about this.

In the article, Terry Gilliam's first golden rule is to, "Never work for money."

Hmmm. All twenty three rules are interesting, but I think that that first one is striking... as well as, maybe, provocative.

So, what do you think? Why are you here? Why are you making, or hoping to make films? What are your goals? Is it just for the heck of it ...for the love or for the passion? Is it to make money? Is it to break into Hollywood? Is it about following your bliss, or about building a professional career that actually pays some bills? Have you sold the farm in order to make it? Or, do you intend to keep your day job, and work at film on the side and see what comes? Did you go to film school? Do you have an MFA in theater arts? Are you already a professional of one sort or another in the business?

But, back to the heart of the question... what are your aspirations... your expectations? What might make the effort worth it? What, for you, will justify the struggle?

Is Terry right? Does he have something, there? Or, is he wrong? Is he off? Love won't pay the bills, will it?

What are your thoughts? Why are you in it? Why do you want to get in it?
 
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I am more on the arty side of life and like to express myself through art. Normally I write but somewhere in the back of my head I wanted to put that into moving pictures.
Me? I am not doing it for money. However if I put enough of time energy and my life into I would expect to get paid for it. Not now though.
 
Film has driven my heart and passions since I was about three years old. I have at different times considered myself a writer (still do), an actor (still do), a performer, a journalist (still do), a comedian and artist, but I have never lost my interest in expressing that desire to be creative through film. I suppose what drives me is the opportunity to craft something that hits people the way my favorite films have hit me.

That's pretty simple and not very exciting, but that's pretty much the bulk of my reasons for writing scripts, studying films, hoping for an opportunity and trying to keep myself open to possibility and the capacity to fight for that possibility.

It's pretty basic stuff.
 
Ever since I was young, I had a camera in my hand. At that point it was a cheap 35mm film camera. My parents realized I had a photographic eye even when I was young and so they always got me a better camera when they could afford it (or handed their top end camera on to me for a few minutes to take some pictures). My mind works in images. I don't remember street names when I drive, I remember places.

I wrote my first screenplay more than three years ago (a marathon run of 100 pages in 9 hours in Word, and I had to format it after I wrote everything! :( ) But after I got done with it, I didn't have the feeling of "Well, that's done. On to the next story". I felt empty. I mean, I spent all this energy to write this script to only hand it off and get back to being my reclusive self and sit at the computer again. I wanted to go further, but didn't know how.

So I waffled around, writing some, thinking of how to shoot it, then back to writing. One day I happened to knock one of my Gundam models off my desk in my dorm room and it landed on my D50 camera bag. So, I gave directing a shot by making a crappy stop-motion video to a Simpson's audio clip I had. It was crude, crappy, and poorly lit (I forgot to white balance and up the exposure), but it was my first film and made my friends laugh (at the film, not at me trying to make the film...I really did ask that question).

I came to the acceptance that I want to be one of those Writer/Director types. Sure, I've written some movies just for sending off to Hollywood, but I have my "stash" of films for me to make as well.

So to answer the question why am I here, is, I want to become a better film maker, simple as that I guess.

Sorry to bore everyone with the long story.
 
"Because I knew if I tried I'd be really good at it." - Kind of a bold statement.

I love it, that's why I'm here. I enjoy getting up and working on a film. But I also wanted to make a career out of it. As of right now this is how I pay the bills. I love going to my job everyday. Do I do it for the money? No. I do it because I love to. Is the money nice. Yes. But I still think if I wasn't getting paid to do what I love I would still do it anyway.
 
I'm doing it being I have to. There's nothing more fun to me and nothing when I do it that makes the hours pass like seconds and there's never enough time. I think Einstein said it best,
"Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."

I agree with Brooksy, I wouldn't complain if someone wanted to pay me. But if all I achieve is a having a hobby I love for the rest of my life, that's ok, too. :)
 
I do this because I love it. Money, while nice, is the bonus. It's the creation of the thing that I love. Everytime I finish a project, regardless of what it is, I feel lost. The creation is the biggest part of it, and I often have to be careful I don't "overedit" my stuff just because it's something to do.

Having said that, if anyone reading this is prepared to offer me a million dollar offer sheet......

;)
 
It is somewhat bold, but I also believe it completely (or why else would I be about to cross the $10,000 line of my own money I have invested in making films with no commercial potential). I have not the slightest shred of doubt in my mind that if I commit to it, and work hard at it I can be at worst a very competent director and screenwriter, and potentially very very good at both. Is that ego, sure it is, and a healthy portion of it is one of the things that will probably help me be good.
That ego doesn't mean I think I know it all, I certainly don't.
It doesn't mean I can't learn a tremendous amount from others, I can.
It means I have no doubt I have the taste, the talent, the people skills, the organizational skills, the imagination, the eye for a good shot, etc.... will allow me to be a very good filmmaker.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
It is somewhat bold, but I also believe it completely (or why else would I be about to cross the $10,000 line of my own money I have invested in making films with no commercial potential). I have not the slightest shred of doubt in my mind that if I commit to it, and work hard at it I can be at worst a very competent director and screenwriter, and potentially very very good at both. Is that ego, sure it is, and a healthy portion of it is one of the things that will probably help me be good.
That ego doesn't mean I think I know it all, I certainly don't.
It doesn't mean I can't learn a tremendous amount from others, I can.
It means I have no doubt I have the taste, the talent, the people skills, the organizational skills, the imagination, the eye for a good shot, etc.... will allow me to be a very good filmmaker.
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It is possible all this is true. It is also possible that you are saying the exact same thing millions of others say on American Idol right before they audition and then we proceed to laugh our heads off because of how terrible they are.

But you do sound dedicated and it seems like you enjoy doing it, and in the end isn't that really the most important part.
 
Indeed I am (those things, dedicated, love doing it).
So far (at 40) I am batting 1000. I have never comiited to being good at something and failed, ever in my life. The only times I fail are when my heart isn't in it.
 
I love film, I love acting, I love writing... I always wanted to express myself in an artistic way. I have far too many ideas in my head that can't come out in normal life.
Unfortunately I started late, well, later than I would have wanted to.
Two years ago I started with acting lessons, last year I wrote the first scripts, then mid through last year we started filming with a couple of friends.

As actor I have managed to get paid as extra (although with some proper screen appearance) and as voice over acting. Thank god that I have my regular job to pay the bills :-)

We film for the sake of learning, aiming to get better and better, and have fun. We always have lots of fun regardless of how tedious the tasks can be.

A year ago I knew very little about the filming process, now I'm no expert but we can do more than I never thought we could. And this forum has helped me loads to get that knowledge.
 
I am in it for the experience... I'm interested in the artistic expression associated with creation of something from raw materials, i.e. footage/actors/writers etc. Combining components to create something new and different. It will probly never pay my bills on its own, I don't have one profession now so probly never will in the future. But I have been paid to do many different things, artist, carpenter, cook, mechanic, etc. etc. etc...
I'd like to add something from the film industry (indy-ustry, lol) to that list some day.
 
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