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. ;)

Modern Capitalism

I see a lot of people complaining about capitalism and in their complaints there are always two problems, first is that they don't understand the fundamentals of capitalism, and the second is that what they really have a problem with isn't capitalism, it's MODERN capitalism. The concept of capitalism is that people deserve to be compensated for their work and those that work better deserve better compensation. Those that come up with better products will get more market share and thereby receive better rewards.

If you have two co-workers, one that is always late, never contributes to the project and spends all their time at the office playing candy crush on their phone, and another one that is punctual, gets their projects done early, and is constantly striving to improve their skill set. Which one should be rewarded with a promotion? A raise?

That's capitalism. The problem is that somewhere in the 70s/80s there was a shift in capitalism and it moved from 'Companies exist to give their customers the best service/product' to 'companies exist to make money' and this is where the problems started as companies shifted their focus, cutting costs, raising prices, and doing anything, and everything, to increase profit ... at the expense of their employees and customers. ... People ceased to matter except as a means of making money.

I'm not saying that pure capitalism is perfect, greedy people will always take advantage of others, but don't act like they don't do it under socialism as well. Under socialism, no matter how pure the motives of the set up, a 'ruling class' will emerge, they will get more, they will give favor to those that serve them and create problems for those that don't. Corruption exists in both systems and it is the greedy that will find a way to benefit themselves through it.

Of course education is at fault here as well, because one of the KEY factors in capitalism is the power of the consumer, as power that most don't consider or even seem to know exists. I've talked about this before in various rambles in the past. But people will complain and rant against various things they don't like, while at the same time paying the price to get the items.

Take the issues with the last round of game consoles where there were massive shortages because scalpers bought huge batches of the consoles only to sell them on ebay for 3-4 times the MSRP. People yelled, people screamed, people called Microsoft and Sony and the scalpers horrible names, but you know what? Not a single scalper had any units left at the end. Every console that they bought and marked up sold. So what lesson did they learn? People will pay that much for the consoles. 

Well Sony and Microsoft should have done more to stop it! ... Realistically, what difference does it make to them? They sold their product and got their asking price, that's all they're technically interested in doing. What people do with the consoles after they get them is not their concern. Realistically it is up to the CONSUMER to shut down scalpers ... if scalpers couldn't sell the units they bought, or couldn't sell enough of them to make a profit they would stop buying them. Trust me, if the best sale the scalpers could make was at MSRP or maybe even MSRP + 15% it wouldn't be an issue, there wouldn't be enough money in it to make it worth the effort. But if they know they can buy 10 units, keep one for themselves, and sell 9 at even 2x MSRP they'll do it in a heartbeat, if they think there's the remotest chance they can get more than that they won't be able to charge up those credit cards fast enough.

Lack of economic education AND a society that reinforces the constant FOMO of materialism means people mistake 'want' for 'need' and are willing to pay stupid amounts of money for the new shiny ... be it consoles, smart phones, tablets, laptops, cars, or anything else. Companies know it and take advantage of it every day. 

The problem is, it's unsustainable. Entertainment is really starting to feel this wall, trying to find more and more ways to slash budgets and expenses because, at the end of the day, the market is saturated. Netflix, for example, was so profitable early on because they had solid licensed content and a rapidly growing consumer base as more and more people came on board with streaming, so, with money to invest they went into production, making their own shows and creating some very successful movies and series. But they went too heavily in that direction as though planning on continued growth in their subscriber base ... but then several things hit ... one they largely achieved market saturation most people that could afford a subscription HAD one so they stopped getting new customers. Two, they let a lot of their licensed old shows and movies lapse so some of the content people wanted on the platform went elsewhere. Also, three, several other streaming platforms began springing up, competing for those subscriptions because people couldn't afford to subscribe to ALL of them. The first meant that their income growth tapered off, the second and third meant that people canceled or paused their accounts to view other platforms that had more of what they wanted to watch at the time. 

 As all of this was happening, various costs began to increase including the cost of maintaining the network infrastructure and storage required, not to mention the writer and actor strikes, production crew cost increases, and, let's face it, increased cost of living across the board effecting everyone's budgets. But the exec level, and the investors, want, no demand year to year growth in the profit .... they don't care that costs went up, that subscriptions are down, they want their money and if that means cutting jobs, canceling shows, and selling assets then dammit that's what they're going to do to hit those profit numbers ... never mind that it will make it that much harder NEXT year because you dug a hole this year ..... The bankers, the investors, and the executive level decisions makers that are doing this only care about the money ... only care about how much they can line their pockets now ... and THAT's the problem. 

It's why originality has left Hollywood ... they don't want to make anything new ... they don't want new IPs or ideas because they are untried and might not work out ... they want sure things because they can't afford to back a bad film. Worse still, streaming has been horrible for Hollywood as it has lost them MOST of their after market sales, the real place that the studios recovered their money in most instances AND it is a major factor in the fact that fewer people are going to theaters so hitting them on both ends. And the decision makers aren't movie people ... they're bankers ... in the past the people running things, making decisions, loved making movies .... they've been replaced by people that love making money. 

Here's the thing, and I've found this true more often than not ... in most pursuits if your goal is just to 'make money' you'll usually fail. If your goal is to 'make a product' there's a reasonable chance that if you're serious about it, if your HEART is in it, that it will make you money. Maybe not a lot, maybe not fast, maybe not consistently, but those things will be defined as much by how much effort you apply and how consistent you are in doing it.

I did some work with a group of film makers several years ago. They had several hit movie series, mostly horror, and, as we were getting ready to start up another production several of us were sitting around a table and someone asked how they did it, how they got started. The answer was they produced a LOT of films ... most of which failed ... but each year they generally managed to get 1 that made them enough money to bankroll them for another year, and eventually they got one that set them up, let them improve their product and gave them the ability to branch out. Of course successful ones got sequels and gave them some degree of stable income that they could bank on. In the end though, they did it because they loved doing it, and all they ever really wanted was enough to make their next one.

Knocking off the Dust

Wow. It HAS been a while.... And some things haven't changed since the last time I posted here. I thought about making a fresh start, about clearing out the archives, but you know what? Nah, I may not 100% agree today with everything I wrote back then, but it was my thoughts, and really the main thing that this is about is my thoughts, searching for the truth ... that central facet ... the bone of the matter. It was always what Klikhizz, what I, meant in talking about the Path of Bones ... the path at the center of everything, the foundation, the core, the skeleton that everything is built upon.

 I didn't know everything back then, and I sure as hell don't know it all now. I'm not the person I was then and, in another ... looks over at the archives ... 20 years I won't be who I am now. At least that's the hope. People ether learn, change, evolve in their opinions or their minds are too closed to think for themselves, and if I want anything to be true of me, it's that I'll never become THAT person.

 At my core I'd still say that I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal, largely a person that believes that what you do is your business as long as it doesn't directly harm someone else. But the world has changed, I can see that certain definitions have been changed over my lifetime, and not for the better. Certain things have stagnated, and many things that should have been ended have been left to fester.

I'm not writing this now to change people's minds, hell I don't plan to advertise this page any more than whatever blogger's algorithm does automatically. It's posted publicly, if people find it and read it fine, if they don't, fine, technically it's a journal for myself really. A way to look back on my thoughts down the road and go 'God I can't believe what an idiot I was' or, at least, consider why I thought certain things and think about why I changed my mind. 

The world has changed ... this isn't the world that it was in 2004 when I first started these rambles. Time marches forward, and if I've learned anything in my 53 years on this planet it's that you can't stop time, technology, or change.

This isn't to say that I disagree with what I wrote, I haven't gone back through it all, but I'm reasonably sure that I don't 100% disagree, but my opinions may have gained some nuance in the last 20 years ... some perspective that I didn't have back then. Maybe just because I've seen the change in the world, and see the damage that some of those trying to hold on to a past that doesn't exist any more are doing. But then isn't that what should change your mind ... acknowledging and accepting new ideas and knowledge that you maybe hadn't seen before? Change is a part of life ... nothing good comes without change, nothing improves the idea isn't to stop change ... that way lies stagnation and decline ... the idea is to make the best change for society as a whole, and sometimes that means letting go of things.

Where will this go from here? I don't know ... will I have the time, desire, and material to keep posting here regularly again? I don't know. The political landscape is bleak .... I don't know where things are headed at this point, if something doesn't change I truly fear what may be on the horizon ... not just in the US, but globally. I hope I'm wrong, but I see entirely too much hate in the world, and I see our leaders fanning those flames rather than dousing them, I see too many parallels in history and none of them end well. 

 Part of the problem is that our Education system has failed so many, for decades if not a century or more, an institution to churn out good little workers with just enough knowledge to do their job. The government isn't interested in teaching critical thinking because critical thinkers question things, critical thinkers want to know why, critical thinkers check sources, check facts, and expect their leaders to provide facts and evidence rather than just taking their word for things. A nation of critical thinkers could do great things, but such people are difficult to lead ... or more accurately, are difficult to mislead. They think about things, they see flaws and wonder why those haven't been fixed, only to realize that they aren't going to be fixed because that flaw benefits those in power. That those flaws are there to keep them in power.

It is said that power corrupts, but I'm not completely sure that's accurate. I can't decide if power corrupts, if power attracts those that are corruptible, or if those that are already corrupt can be relied upon to seek more power. The thing is power only truly attracts those that don't care about the responsibility that it entails. The head that wears the crown is only heavy if it cares about the people that it leads, if it cares about improving their lives or at least protecting them. What we need is a leader that understands that, who seeks to address the responsibility, rather than power, prestige, or notoriety. One who loves people, who wants to raise everyone up, who understands the strength of compassion. One that realizes that life is a collaborative art, and we all make more beautiful pictures when we work together rather than tearing each other down.