I know you're doing your best to help.
The reason there is an empty quote box up there is that I started to reply to one post, and by the time I formulated a decent response, there were a lot of other similar replies.
I've worked on other peoples projects, lots of them. Not one person has ever bothered to reciprocate in a way that helped much. It was much more effective to just work for companies and increase wealth, which actually does work. I only quit doing that because I hated it. I hated being a creative person being directed by non creative people to get it "right" by being as bland and uncreative as they were. (I worked for large corporations)
Look, I know this won't increase my popularity here, and maybe pandering would get me further, but I have to say I think this is bad advice, or at least, non circumstance specific advice. One size fits all. If I was a beginner filmmaker, or businessman, etc, it's pretty good advice I think. We all have to start somewhere.
Ok, for one thing, If we are supposed to give up and just follow the "other", which one of us is the "other" one. That math seems random. In terms of helping someone else in the hopes that that help will be returned, that's illogical. It's trickledown economics at best, and at worst it's a bastardization of the concept of generosity and humility that it appears to represent on it's surface. If I only give when hoping for return, I'm neither generous nor humble, just bad at math. Let's say you have 10 dollars and you want 10 dollars in your bank account. Would you deposit it, or would you hand it to someone, wait for them to spend as much as they wanted, and then hope that they gave you back 11? Trickledown economics is idiotic. The system I envision is more like collective buying power. Let's say you wanted to buy a steak, and it cost that same 10 dollars. What would make some sense, is to get together 100 people that want to buy steaks, buy a bulk rate package of 100 steaks, and each of us gets the same steak for 3 dollars instead of 10. That's a situation where everyone actually wins, and there's no hope or dreams or magic math involved.
As far as just being a good buddy and helping out your friends, that's cool, I'm not mad at that. You work on whatever seems fun at the moment without caring if it makes sense? That sounds like a great way to organize a tetherball game. I'm not sure it makes sense if your goal is to engineer an escape from the crushing bondage of poverty that turns our brilliant film ideas into disposable garbage. You can take offence if you want, but I've worked myself half to death on my films, and the best one isn't even half as good as that rerun of law and order episode 544 that you flipped past the other night.
I'm actually incredibly passionate about creating, and since total failure doesn't seem like a good option to me, I'm not happy with folksy solutions. I want real solutions, where the problem gets solved. This is my perception, I ask how a 10 ton lead block can be transported from the east coast to the west coast. I'm looking for flowcharts, spreadsheets, invoices, loan rates, transportation options, in short, a plan. When I talk to most people, what I get is that they look at the giant lead block and say something like "you either get busy livin, or you get busy dyin" They seem pleased with themselves, and we proceed to stand in silence next to the unmoved lead block. F(ck that. I want to move that block. My goal wasn't to sound clever, or appear to be a good person, or show people how confident I am. My goal is to move that block. Once the block is moved, I can sell it, and then I can pay off the mortgages of 100 people with the proceeds from that block. That's real help, not the appearance of help.
It comes up a lot here on the forums, and IRL, but let's talk about the word "dreams". It seems to me that it's a word we use to invalidate the goals of others, and even ourselves. If I was born on an oil well, then any stupid thing I come up with is a reality, and if I wasn't then the smartest idea I ever came up with is a "dream". This logic leads us to a world where we devalue each other unfairly, and put some of the dumbest and worst people in the world on a pedestal, showering them with support they don't need to help them accomplish their "realities" which are often times far less progressive or interesting than the "dreams" It seems to me that this mode of thinking creates a situation where we judge what we should support based on money rather than merit. It's not like I don't understand what you mean, and I neither infer nor intend any malice. I simply think that we should re-evaluate how we judge the validity of ideas and goals that people propose.
Lastly I'll mount a defense of what I expect most people are correctly believing is my underlying motive. I think people should join my project. All of the above advice makes sense if all things are completely equal. It's based on a valuation system where every stock on the S&P 500 is magically the same price. Bob's idea of making an unmarketable 3 minute film is completely equal to Ricks 90 minute film with an actual plot. I may be wrong, but I feel there is an assumption here that I think people should join my project vs some other project because of ego, or because I think I am more important than others. I definitely understand where that assumption comes from, statistically speaking the US had about 3% narcissists by population in the 1970s, in 2020 some studies indicate that the number has grown to over 20%. When you factor in that those people shove themselves into the spotlight disproportionately, what you actually see out there IRL is more like 60% narcissists by volume. A humble person doesn't usually demand to be the center of a reality TV show.
I knew all this when I created my project, and designed it to be something truly different. It isn't about me. If I had to say it in one sentence, that's it. I made the format animated, so that people could collaborate across great distances. I made it animated so that every idea a team member had didn't have to carry an astronomical price tag that influenced decisions. A planet costs the same amount do display as a dinner plate. I made it choice based, so that we could tell many stories, not just my stories, but your stories. a way we could accomplish our goals in parallel, rather than the old way, where it's either me or you succeeding. I made it infinite, so that the opportunities didn't dry up as soon as my personal goals were accomplished. I'm not trying to get a bunch of people to build me a house, I'm trying to get a bunch of people together to level a field, and build an aqueduct, and install an electrical grid, so that all of us can build houses there, and form a community where each person has a chance to pursue their individual goals of home ownership.
I didn't design this one out of ego. I did it because I once looked for years for something to join, and never found it. No project I ever encountered actually gave me an opportunity to express myself creatively, only to conform to what someone with more money thought was creative. What I'm trying to accomplish is the democratization of independent filmmaking, a way that we can work together to create a synergistic environment where we all collaborate effectively to improve EVERY persons chance of realizing their own goals.
I have those concrete plans, those spreadsheets, those flowcharts. It's not a dream, it's a plan, and it's not about people joining my thing, it's about people joining our thing. I just wanted to tell stories, and I can't do that in a way that meets public expectations of quality. I feel like there are others out there that feel the same way. If some of you are here, talk to me.
