Creative People Need To Be Selective When Choosing Who To Work With
One of the single most important decisions you will make as an artist is whom you spend your time with.
The truth is, you become like the people you associate with. If all your friends smoke, you probably smoke too. If all your friends are fat, you’re probably fat also. If your friends are into cars, you’re probably interested in cars as well. And if your friends are filmmakers who like to push the boundaries and try new things… you’ll begin to act that way as well!
The people you associate with determine who you are, how you act, and how successful you will ultimately become.
Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the people you spend most of your time with. I bet that if you look hard enough you’ll begin to see a lot of parallels between those people and yourself.
As filmmakers, we need to be selective when picking who we hang out with – both at work and off the job.
While your friends and family probably make the most direct impact on your life, your co-workers and bosses also serve to determine your ultimate happiness and success in life.
When looking for work in the film and television, you not only need to look for a job that matches your skill sets and pushes you to become a better filmmaker, but you need to find people to work with who are in alignment with your morals, your attitude, and your vision for the future.
Just because you found a great job doesn’t guarantee you’ll be happy. Happiness comes from working with and being around the right people!
What’s more important than your job title is the people you are working with. If you pick the right people, you’ll be happier than you could ever believe. But choose to work with the wrong people and you’ll forever regret your decision to work in the entertainment industry.
For more reading, check out Seth Godin’s “Be Careful Who You Work For”
Are You Truly Passionate About Film And Television?
What are you truly passionate about? Do you have a zeal for film? A desire to work in the film and television industry? A fervor for writing, editing, directing?
I found out at an early age that I had a passion for film and video. It wasn’t difficult for me to decide that I wanted to pursue a career in the film and television industry. I went to film school, graduated with honors, went to work on numerous movies, films, and documentaries… and accomplished almost every goal I set for myself.
After years of studying goal setting and working to achieve my own personal and professional goals, I began to realize that not only did I have a passion for filmmaking, but more than that, I had a passion for helping other people make their dreams come true. I realized that what I wanted to do, more than just work on movies, was to help other people accomplish their most heartfelt life goals.
With this in mind, I started a career coaching company called Farview Point. The company has now been completely restructured and no longer offers personal career coaching, but has morphed into something completely different. However, the aim for Farview Point from the beginning was to work with individual filmmakers from around the world to help them set goals, recognize what is needed to accomplish those goals, and then work with these individuals to help them accomplish the tasks that they have set out to achieve.
This website is now the collection place of Farview Point’s early filmmaker lessons. What you will find here has been designed to assist the future filmmakers of the world by helping them to improve both themselves, their craft, and the planet as a whole by way of their work in this most exciting and influencial medium.
In 2006, I published a book titled, “Film School & Beyond
Some of these people I interviewed for this book attended major universities such as USC and NYU, while others attended smaller film schools you may have never even heard of. Some of these individuals completed their schooling and immediately went to work in the industry, while others failed to find work after graduation. Some of these people express a pure joy in having chosen film as their career, yet others resent the fact that their decision to go into the film industry has “wasted” so much of their time and money. Some of these people went to film school part-time; others began, but never completed their film education; and a few individuals never went to film school at all, but are now successfully working in the entertainment industry.
By asking these probing questions to a mixed group of individuals from across the country I have provided the stepping-stones on which you will be able to stand as you navigate the sometimes rought and turbulent water that is the film industry.
Whether you are a high school student looking to go off to film school, a current film student, or someone who is about to make their break into the industry, this website and the stories, ideas, and tips for success shared here will provide you with the direction you need for your journey.
Navigating these waters may be scary at times, but working in this industry can be an incredibly rewarding and life-altering experience. Success is possible! You just have to know which steps to take.
The Film Club: A Book By David Gilmour
David Gilmour is the author of six novels, the most recent of which, A Perfect Night to Go to China, won the 2005 Governor-General’s Award for fiction in Canada. Like many individuals working in the film and television industry, Gilmour has held numerous jobs over the years. Gilmour worked for the Toronto International Film Festival before moving into a broadcasting career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), 
where he served as the national film critic for the country’s flagship news show, The Journal. From there, he went on to host his own talk show on CBC’s Newsworld, Gilmour on the Arts, which won a Gemini Award. And finally, as you learn by reading The Film Club, in between all of this, Gilmour was working to raise his son Jesse.
So when Jesse’s high school grades started to drop and his enthusiasm for school was at a complete and utter standstill, Gilmour asked his son a question that would forever change both of their futures. “Jesse,” he said. “Put down your pen. Stop for a second please.”
“What?” Jesse responded.
Gilmour continued, “I want you to do me a favor. I want you to think about whether or not you want to go to school.”
Like many people, Gilmour too had hated his time in high school. I personally feel the same way. Looking back now, I don’t know how I survived it. But Gilmour was brave enough to give his son the option of dropping out of school, living at home for free, and not forcing him to get a job – as long as he agreed to watch three movies a week with his father. Jesse agreed and dropped out of school shortly thereafter.
Now dropping out of school isn’t for everyone, but for some people I do believe it is a good option. In Jesse’s case, I couldn’t say (You’ll have to read the book). But as The Film Club’s story progresses, Gilmour and his son watch a plethora of films. They don’t watch the latest Hollywood trash, but instead, most of their time is spent on the classics and rarely seen goodies of the past.
As time goes on, the book becomes less and less about film and more and more about girls, drugs and the life of a father who is working to do the best he can for himself and his family.
The book chronicles Jesse’s ongoing girl problems and his encounters with alcohol, drugs, and emotionally abusive relationships.
Time slips by and Gilmour and his son grow close but at the same time are very much growing apart. Jesse is looking for freedom and independence, while Gilmour is simply savoring these ;ast precious moments with his son – a son who is quickly becoming a man.
In the end, The Film Club is not about a boy who drops out of school and watches movies all day. Instead, it is the story of a father, fighting to keep his son on a positive life path. Instead of speaking to his son through a raised voice and a hardened hand, Gilmour speaks to his son through the movies he chooses to watch each week. In each film is a lesson and it is placed there, in front of Jesse, for him to soak up, absorb, and take with him as he moves from one place in his life to the next.
To order a copy of David Gilmour’s The Film Club, please click here
Filmmaker Matthew Modine And Why Young Filmmakers Are Unoriginal
Matthew Modine is an accomplished stage and screen actor best known for his role as Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 war movie Full Metal Jacket. Some of Modine’s other film credits include:
Vision Quest – 1983
Married to the Mob – 1988
And the Band Played On – 1993
What the Deaf Man Heard – 1997
Any Given Sunday – 1999
Weeds – 2007
Additional credits and background history of Matthew Modine can be found here.
In the video below, Matthew shares his thoughts on the digital age of filmmaking and tells you the one thing you must do if you want to become a successful and original filmmaker. Be sure to watch this video to the end, because it is the advice he gives in his closing words that is of most importance.
This interview is part of a series on BigThink, sponsored by Dell and Digital Nomads.
The 9 Most Disappointing Films Of 2008
I recently revealed my list of the 148 films I watched this year… and also shared with you some of my favorite movies from the past 12 months. Now I’d like to share with you a list of what I believe to be the most disappointing films I watched in 2008.
Just like my list of favorites, this list contains some films that were not actually released in 2008, but are simply on my list because I didn’t get around to watching them until this year. That being said, you should also know that the films listed here are not necessarily the worst films I saw this year (although one of them is), but instead, films that I was looking forward to and was severely disappointed by. So here’s the list (in no particular order):
Where In The World Is Osama Bin Ladin?
Morgan Spurlock was the creative mind behind the hit documentary Super Size Me and the “30 Days” TV series in which Morgan and other normal people try living the life of completely different individuals for 30 days straight. Morgan’s past successes had me really looking forward to his release of Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden – a somewhat similar take on Michael Moore’s Roger And Mein which Spurlock travels the world asking people to get down to the heart of the war in the middle east and at the same time, trying to find terrorist #1 – Osama Bin Laden. Sadly, as much as I was looking forward to the film, I finished it having not remembered much of what happened. And when you finish a film and can’t remember what happened, you know it isn’t very good! Super Size Memade the viewer leave the theatre and never look at a McDonalds in the same way again. But this most recent work of Spurlock’s left no such affect.
The Fallis a film directed by Tarsem Singh, the same man who directed Jennifer Lopez in The Cell, which released in the year 2000. Because of the huge success of The Cell, I was looking forward to The Fall and was severely bummed at its end result. I knew the film would be strange and maybe even difficult to comprehend, but in the end, the story was just plain boring. I was impressed by some of the special effects and cinematography, but the story (like many bad films) was lacking. I didn’t care about the characters and therefore, didn’t care about the film.
This was the film I was probably looking forward to most of all. I imagined it as a cross between The Beatles classic rock songs and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! But sadly, Across The Universe was a huge disappointment. It had its moments, but overall, it was a gigantic letdown. Where Moulin Rouge! acts as an actual story propelled by song, Across The Universe seemed more like a two-hour music video that just seemed to go on and on and on. I kept waiting for it to end… and thankfully, it finally did. Whew! What a letdown!
Now here’s a film that I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to per say, but it is a film that is marketed in such a way that you half way expect the film to be pretty good. With Nicole Kidman playing a lead role, you’d think it’s gotta be half way decent. But like too many films lately, there are too many special effects and too little story. Once again, I didn’t care about the main characters and actually became a bit angry when the film just suddenly ended by eluding to a sequel (which I pray they do not create!).
Rocket Science was a film that appeared, to me at least, to be a story meant to ride the waves of success that Napoleon Dynamite created in 2004. The story revolves around a stuttering young man who joins his school’s debate team. On a whole, the movie isn’t half bad. But when you compare the film with its rival Napoleon Dynamite, it doesn’t even come close.
As I discussed in my previous article on The Little Mermaid being moved to the stages of Broadway, there is a huge movement right now to take the best Broadway hits and transform them into Hollywood products. It’s a quick and easy model for making successful movies, but as I’ve stated before, “Some things are best left in their original formats.” In the case of Hairspray, there’s nothing technically wrong with the film. The story is strong (but predictable), the music is good (not great), and it is a film in which you actually care about the characters. However, I’m not impressed by most Broadway productions on a two dimensional screen. They just don’t have the same pizazzas they do when performed live right before your eyes. Sometimes it’s the stage on which the real “magic” happens.
Finally, Slipstream isn’t a film I was ever looking forward to. I’m throwing it in here simply because it is possibly the worst film I have EVER seen. In fact, I had never heard of it before I rented it. But a film directed by world-renowned actor, Anthony Hopkins, has got to be pretty good, right? WRONG! This movie SUCKED! And it sucked big time! I turned it off after about 10 minutes and have never been happier to return such a piece of shit to the rental store. Wow, do I want my ten minutes back. Imagine the worst film student movie you’ve ever seen and multiply that by 150. That’s Slipstream.
What films were you severely disappointed by this year? Or which ones do you think just plain sucked? I’d be curious to hear what you have to say.
