Too much going on

 I say this because I am experiencing the paradox of having so much to write about that I can think of nothing to write. No, even that's not quite right, it's not that I can't think of anything to write it's that I can't focus on anything to write about it because as soon as I do I think of 3 more things I should write about. Modern lack of civility, AI and the assault on art, the stupidity of the current economic situation, the state of the education system, the failures and pitfalls of social media,  and the arrogance of ignorance ... just to name a few bouncing around my head.

Net result is that I'm likely not going to talk about any of those ..... or maybe I'll write about all of them. We'll just have to wait and see. Sometimes I look around, I listen to the news and read things that make me wonder if I'm the only one that sees some of this stuff. I mean I feel like I can't possibly be ... well, let's be fair, I know I'm not because I know my wife sees at least some of it too because we talk about things such as this fairly regularly. But outside of that? Well let me tell you a story.....

Last year I was working late evenings catching drives for various jobs and we had a 'one off upload' coming in that night. That is a client coming in that just needs to use our fast internet connection to upload their media to another location ... usually LA or New York. Well turned out they were shooting marketing material for a show we were working on (we didn't know what they were shooting when we booked the job, and they didn't know we were working dailies on the show, just had heard that we had good internet connection and reasonable rates.)  ... none of that's important by the way, just a cool coincidence.

 Well when he came by to drop the material for the upload since there was nothing going on in the office I offered that he have a seat, it was only a 30 minute upload based on the data anyway. I started the upload and we sat down at the breakroom table and talked. There was something political in the news ... I don't remember what now ... and normally I wouldn't normally discuss politics with a client, but he brought it up and while I doubt we'd have agreed on everything, we did on this point at least in general neither of us spoke too specifically. He was about my age ... maybe 5 years or so older if I had to guess (and I would have to as I didn't ask) ... and one thing we definitely agreed on is that we, as a society in general, have largely lost the ability to disagree.

I've talked about this a bit before I think, or maybe I haven't here ... I don't remember ... but starting I'd say with the news media in the late 90's or so and then into the rise of 'social media' nearly everyone and every topic largely became black and white, but reality and life rarely truly work that way. Discussion, debate, discourse is how we, as a society, learn about the complexities of issues by getting information from a differing point of view. But too often now, anyone that disagrees with someone becomes 'the enemy' (and we both noted that this behavior is from both sides in pretty much any discussion ... it isn't a left/right or a liberal/conservative or even a black/white issue .... it's a society issue.

A lot of people in today's society have decided that their view is the one true view, that what they see is THE answer and that everyone else is wrong. But that's not always the case, and with almost every complex social issue it is certainly NOT the case. Everyone has different experiences, different points of view, maybe different understandings of a situation. A friend of mine showed me an image many years ago, and I've used it many times in talking about this issue, but I recently found one that took it even a step further:

 

What you know and see may be true, but it doesn't mean that it is the whole truth, it doesn't mean that what someone else sees and describes from their point of view is wrong or a lie. This tendency to attack and belittle anyone with a different point of view only leads to not actually understanding the TRUTH of the matter. We are stronger and better as a society if we can take a step back and look at something from a different perspective, listen to someone that might have different life experience and take a moment to understand their view of things, doing that might give us a better picture of the truth, a better understanding of the issue and allow us to work toward better solutions, better ways of treating others around us that maybe we don't understand at first because we don't share their point of view, their experience, or their upbringing. 

 Don't get me wrong. Some things are simply wrong. Judging or treating someone differently because of their race, religion, sex, or anything like that is wrong, full stop ... do not pass go, do not collect $200. Any group that preaches, teaches, or condones hatred toward another group, who wish harm on another group ... is wrong. Some will say 'then punching Nazis is wrong too' ... in a way, that is correct, however, Nazis have traditionally been the aggressors and defending yourself or others is not wrong. Most reasonable people understand that these things are bad, so if you have a group of people going out of their way to identify themselves with such a group of people openly ... yeah ... Captain America had the right idea....

Letting go

I was watching a clip from an interview the other day. The interview was with Samuel L Jackson and he was being asked to give advice to up and coming actors or want-to-be actors, and what he said made me think. I won't go into how he laid it all out, because I don't completely remember it, but what it boiled down to was 'give up on your expectations and do it for the sake of doing it.' I want to note that it was give up on your expectations, not give up on your dreams. Because a lot of people don't realize how their expectations hinder them in chasing their dreams.

Really what he was saying, echos something that I see in these types of interviews a lot and it centers on the fact that people, in all walks of life, have certain expectations about doing things and succeeding at doing things. And when reality doesn't align with those expectations it makes it easy to give up, or quit. Another actor I listened to talked about the actors that basically say, 'I'll give a try for a few years' and he said, if that's your attitude, save yourself the two or three years and figure out what you want to do. Now in these cases they were talking about acting, but it is true in a lot of fields ... art, writing, music, sports, business, investment, careers in general.

My script writing professor in college on day one had us go around the room, saying what we wanted, not just from the class, but from learning script writing, what was our ambition with the skill, and as people answered he wrote the answers up on the board. Some of the answers were, fame, wealth, have a script made into a movie, learn story structure, learn character development, finish a degree. (The story structure answer was me for the record). Once everyone was done, he circled Fame and Wealth and then crossed them out saying, 'If you're here for these reasons, do yourself a favor now and go find something else' and then he circled 'have a script made into a movie' and said 'if you want to do this, or want to learn to tell better stories, I'll be happy to teach you what I know.' He continued saying 'because if your focus is on becoming famous or wealthy it's much more likely that you will become discouraged and fail, but if you focus on the craft of telling a great story, then it's much more likely that you might find wealth or fame.'

 The problem with it is expectation, if your expectation is that you're going to be famous, if that is your focus, then every time you fail to live up to that your likely going to lose a little more drive, doubly so if you see someone else get a break ... more over when you are focused on fame or money, you're more likely to try and make what you think will sell or be popular, which likely means that what you create will end up just one of hundreds or thousands of others almost just like it.

In any creative endeavor, create to create. Create for you, write the story that's in your heart even if (possibly especially if) you can't imagine that anyone wants to read it. Write the music that you want to hear, the lyrics you want to sing. Paint what speaks to you, take pictures of what catches your eye and sparks your imagination. Because if YOU love it, if you love making it, you'll improve at it, you'll learn and get better because you want to make it better, you'll create and polish your creation and it will shine. Then the next one will be better as you take what you learned and start from a better place, and you'll learn and improve and polish. 

I won't say that if you do it you'll absolutely become famous and rich, but I will say that if you're doing whatever you do because you love it, you're more likely to stick with it through the hard times and, thus, increase your chances of coming out better on the other side than if you were just doing it for money. Because if I've learned anything it's that if you care about the result then nothing is ever easy, because things are only easy if you don't care about the result ... and if YOU don't care about the result ... neither will anyone else. 

The Importance of ....

 ... To be honest I've got a couple of things bouncing around in my head today, so I honestly have no idea where this is likely to go. For those that don't know me, I work in the film industry, so a lot of what sparks my rants lately have to do with that. Not specific issues, but broader things, like the issues I discussed last ramble ... the shift in focus in Hollywood from making movies to making money (and really the shift in businesses ... specifically large corporations, which is what most studios have become). 

I've been working in this industry for ... well it will be 30 years later this year so I'm just going to start calling it 30 years. I've seen a lot of change in my time. The rise of digital audio from the reel to reel audio recorders, the move to high definition, the death of film (Ok, ok, there's still some film being shot, but let's be honest, there's still people shooting on VHS if you look for them ... While I still honestly believe that there is a look to film that digital doesn't quite capture, the medium is basically no longer a mainstay in the industry) and the rise of purely digital production. "AI" being the latest big change in the workflow, but I'm not going to talk about THAT elephant at the moment, however.

It's, honestly, one of the things that I love about my job. The constant change, the evolution. Encountering new processes and workflows, finding the flaws and coming up with solutions. Learning new tech and figuring out how to best integrate it into the current workflows, or sometimes how to manage something similar without the expensive new toys.

There are two pieces of advice that I give to every student tour, young new hire, or anyone else interested in starting in the industry. The first is to make 100 percent sure that you love it before you commit to it, because this industry does not tolerate half measures. And secondly I don't care where you're going to school, focus on internships (the Professors don't always care for that one, but it's true).

 Students will occasionally ask me why. The answer is simple, experience. Internships told me that I really DIDN'T want to try and be a DP. Not that I didn't enjoy working with the cameras, setting up shots, and the artistic part of that job, but it showed me that I HATED working on set and in production. It also gave me experience in parts of the industry that I hadn't considered. And when it came time to get INTO the industry it was that experience that got me that first job, not fancy film degree I had ... and that was a job in a city where I didn't know anyone, where I had no connections in the industry and was at just about every disadvantage you can have starting out as a result.

This is very much a networking industry, knowing someone, getting a reference from them, or a suggestion of who to call or contact is the primary source of finding work, particularly early on. Internships give you connections and, more importantly, gets you connections that have experience with you in the working environment. Meeting people that you don't know at a networking event is all well and good, but the chances of them giving you a referral or a reference from that meeting are slim. If they're looking for someone and you just met them recently, maybe you'll get a leg up as you are fresh in their thoughts .... if they don't have names with better references already in line.

But I can tell you ... it isn't just about getting an internship and showing up. No. Show interest, ask questions, pay attention and show it. Interns, obviously, are often given the errands, understand that a lot of jobs start that way and own it, if you're frequently getting coffee for someone at the same time each day, have it ready for them, the way they like it, before they ask for it. Don't have an assigned task at the moment, ask someone if they mind if you just hang out and watch, or, if you see someone is busy, ask if there's something you can help them with. Be willing to learn things outside the area that you think you want to go into. First, learning is always good. Secondly, you might find another interest.

If you show an interest in learning, attention to detail, and a proactive approach to helping out. You will distinguish yourself to the people you're working with and it will put you on a short list. More than that, the industry is small, and even if where you had your internship doesn't have work for you right away, they may suggest a contact at another company or reach out to see if their other contacts are looking for anyone. THAT is gold.

I will tell you from experience if I got an email with a resume, I'd look it over and file it under possibilities, but if I got a resume for a prospect from someone that I knew, someone I had worked with in the past or otherwise knew professionally, those resumes went into the call back folder ... that was the folder that was my first go to if none of my personal contacts were available. Why? Because someone that I knew had vouched for them, as opposed to the otherwise random resume that just showed up.

Because here's the thing about a reference or a referral. By giving it they have said that they approve of you, and, to some degree, that is putting their reputation on the line for you, and there are very few that will be willing to do that unless they know that you will be a good fit, that you can do good work. If I recommend someone to my contacts, it's going to be someone that I think will leave them with a positive reflection on me. And if you're the intern that sat around waiting for someone to tell you what they needed done ... you aren't the one I'm recommending.

I know, I know, you're going to film school ... surely you'll just jump into an editor's gig, right ... yeah ... no. Doesn't work that way. You're not getting out of school and editing the next Marvel movie. If you catch a lucky break you might land a post PA position with the edit team. If you do, remember what I told you about getting people coffee. ;)