FOR THOSE ABOUT TO BITCH WE SALUTE YOU
Thursday, April 07, 2005
You know I have come to learn a few things over my many years and many attempts in the entertainment industry. In all forms, music, art, movies and so on one thing is clear. There are always critics and there are always people you're going to piss off. Most often they are one in the same.
During my years in music I was young, stupid and selfish. Now I'm just older, stupid and selfish. But in different ways. I guess it was because I had no clue as to how any of the actual business aspects of entertainment worked when I was younger. Nor did I care. It was about the art and I wasn't going to compromise or kiss ass just to keep people, shit anyone for that matter, happy. Youth and unflinching angst was the key I needed to kick the suits in the ass and tell them to suck it! Rage against the machine baby and rage I did. I wasn't afraid to make others feel angry or alienated due to my artistic expression. I was a rock god waiting to make the mere moral fans of rock worship at my feet and chicks to flash me their tits. Oh, I partied like a rock star, hell at one point I could taste the riches. One problem. That just wound up being a bad coke binge and a nasty hangover the next day. And in the end I found myself homeless and begging for plane fare back to the cozy confides of mommy and daddy. But honestly I thought I was on my way to the big time.
So how does this relate to making movies? For one, I realized for once this is a business and when you do much of your work for free and with volunteers who get paid the same, you go out of your way to be nice. I can't order people around on set, fire anyone or even pretend that it would even matter if I could. So I've learned to make nice, and make sure no bridges are burned or even scratched. I once read that the person who you step up to and play "ego shithead" to may be the one person you'll be facing one day to ask for more financing to finish your film, or the one to greenlight it in the first place. And if you don't think that one person is out there or could rear their now more powerful head to you and not remember the time on some no budget indie shoot you told them what a fuck-up they were, or chewed them a new ass in front of a whole room full of cast and crew? Think again. Because your visage is now burned into their memory like it was placed there by a branding iron and they are just waiting to make you eat your own shit and more than likely in a excruciating and public setting.
So, be nice. Be nice until it hurts. And I do, we do. I swallow a lot of fucking pride sometimes because I want to stay in this business. And you have to know when to pick your battles. This is not about being a pussy either, it's about surviving. Because the reality is this. No matter how nice you are, or how hard you try someone, somewhere, for whatever reason is going to be pissed and then they are going to bitch, to you and to others. So when that time comes and believe me it will you need to have built up a strong and influential group of people around you who have your back. That's where those unscathed and pristine bridges you built come in very handy. This is where who you know, not what, really applies.
We get angry emails from time to time around here, not often mind you, about how we fucked someone over, stole their resources, their ideas, or they just simply didn't feel like we gave them the time of day they thought they deserved. Maybe so, maybe not, but this ain't Hollywood and really there's no ones money on the line but ours. So when those who feel slighted, or when rants flood in from the misinformed do come a calling we try and keep it in perspective. We try, and most times it's hard, not to lash out, be we maintain it pretty well. Shit most of the time it's just not that big a deal. But if you want to travel down that road be our guest, it's not a lonely one that for sure. It's littered with angry, frustrated actors and fimmakers most of which find a nice living being critics. Hey I never said there wouldn't be a silver lining to this one.
During my years in music I was young, stupid and selfish. Now I'm just older, stupid and selfish. But in different ways. I guess it was because I had no clue as to how any of the actual business aspects of entertainment worked when I was younger. Nor did I care. It was about the art and I wasn't going to compromise or kiss ass just to keep people, shit anyone for that matter, happy. Youth and unflinching angst was the key I needed to kick the suits in the ass and tell them to suck it! Rage against the machine baby and rage I did. I wasn't afraid to make others feel angry or alienated due to my artistic expression. I was a rock god waiting to make the mere moral fans of rock worship at my feet and chicks to flash me their tits. Oh, I partied like a rock star, hell at one point I could taste the riches. One problem. That just wound up being a bad coke binge and a nasty hangover the next day. And in the end I found myself homeless and begging for plane fare back to the cozy confides of mommy and daddy. But honestly I thought I was on my way to the big time.
So how does this relate to making movies? For one, I realized for once this is a business and when you do much of your work for free and with volunteers who get paid the same, you go out of your way to be nice. I can't order people around on set, fire anyone or even pretend that it would even matter if I could. So I've learned to make nice, and make sure no bridges are burned or even scratched. I once read that the person who you step up to and play "ego shithead" to may be the one person you'll be facing one day to ask for more financing to finish your film, or the one to greenlight it in the first place. And if you don't think that one person is out there or could rear their now more powerful head to you and not remember the time on some no budget indie shoot you told them what a fuck-up they were, or chewed them a new ass in front of a whole room full of cast and crew? Think again. Because your visage is now burned into their memory like it was placed there by a branding iron and they are just waiting to make you eat your own shit and more than likely in a excruciating and public setting.
So, be nice. Be nice until it hurts. And I do, we do. I swallow a lot of fucking pride sometimes because I want to stay in this business. And you have to know when to pick your battles. This is not about being a pussy either, it's about surviving. Because the reality is this. No matter how nice you are, or how hard you try someone, somewhere, for whatever reason is going to be pissed and then they are going to bitch, to you and to others. So when that time comes and believe me it will you need to have built up a strong and influential group of people around you who have your back. That's where those unscathed and pristine bridges you built come in very handy. This is where who you know, not what, really applies.
We get angry emails from time to time around here, not often mind you, about how we fucked someone over, stole their resources, their ideas, or they just simply didn't feel like we gave them the time of day they thought they deserved. Maybe so, maybe not, but this ain't Hollywood and really there's no ones money on the line but ours. So when those who feel slighted, or when rants flood in from the misinformed do come a calling we try and keep it in perspective. We try, and most times it's hard, not to lash out, be we maintain it pretty well. Shit most of the time it's just not that big a deal. But if you want to travel down that road be our guest, it's not a lonely one that for sure. It's littered with angry, frustrated actors and fimmakers most of which find a nice living being critics. Hey I never said there wouldn't be a silver lining to this one.
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