WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
When the premiere is over and all the glory that is friends and family who praise you and your creative movie making ability have gone home and life gets back to whatever you consider normal is, what now? It's like this big wave of energy that you ride for what seems like months. You don't sleep very much (never did to begin with), you don't eat and so on and so forth with bad health issues.
Then the day approaches. Shit it's here! You're busy on the phone making any and every contact humanly open to your existence and need, you rush around like some crazed lunatic, you meet, you greet, you make new acquaintances, you show the film, you get praised, drink too much, stay out way to late and then it's over. This is no pity me session, mind you, just the reality of setting up a local premiere. The real question comes after that wave you've been riding has crashed and now you are churning in an violent undercurrent of uncertainty tossing you around and slamming you on the shore. You lie there sore and in pain but you smile because it was worth the ride.
The fact of the matter is, that could have been the first and last time you ever show that movie to anyone. That's the long and short of it.
You see when I was a singer in a rock band(s), there was always the next song to write, the next gig to play. Not that they were always packed shows but there was always one just a few weeks away. The people would come out wether they liked you or not, shit it was in a bar, so someone was bound to show up. That's the part of making music I miss the most. Not the off handed chance that I would become a rock star but the simple fact that I could just get a few people together, rehearse a bit and then put on a show.
In the movie making business it's the complete opposite. You are hoping for that BIG break! One shot to make something of what you spend so much of, not just your time, but your life on. But that's also the best part. That opportunity can be right around the next corner. And you've got to believe in that or you are just wasting your time. Music I made for me, movies I make for others. I mean I make movies for me too, but I think about what my audience wants now before what I want.
I had a good talk with a guy I know who lived, worked and made money in Hollywood as a writer. He had the perks, the success and living what for most of us we would consider "the life." He doesn't do it anymore, he still writes, just in a different medium. He said he hated Hollywood and doesn't miss it, he's a New Yorker through and through. He did say what he does miss the most is the fact that the next big break could happen any second. It's such a hit or miss business but it can happen. And he told me that you have to believe in what you are doing and not downplay your work. You work hard so be proud of it.
So now the premiere is over. Where do you go from here?
Forward. That's the only answer I have. I don't know that our movie will get picked by any festival. That someone who can make a difference will see it and get behind us and champion our movies and our careers. But I have to believe that the "slim to none" chance exists. And moving forward is the only thing I can do to make assure us that chance will find us either by accident, fate, or just dumb luck. Hopefully a combination of all three! I don't play the lottery but I do make movies. Probably the same odds but at least with movies I've got some say in the final results.
Then the day approaches. Shit it's here! You're busy on the phone making any and every contact humanly open to your existence and need, you rush around like some crazed lunatic, you meet, you greet, you make new acquaintances, you show the film, you get praised, drink too much, stay out way to late and then it's over. This is no pity me session, mind you, just the reality of setting up a local premiere. The real question comes after that wave you've been riding has crashed and now you are churning in an violent undercurrent of uncertainty tossing you around and slamming you on the shore. You lie there sore and in pain but you smile because it was worth the ride.
The fact of the matter is, that could have been the first and last time you ever show that movie to anyone. That's the long and short of it.
You see when I was a singer in a rock band(s), there was always the next song to write, the next gig to play. Not that they were always packed shows but there was always one just a few weeks away. The people would come out wether they liked you or not, shit it was in a bar, so someone was bound to show up. That's the part of making music I miss the most. Not the off handed chance that I would become a rock star but the simple fact that I could just get a few people together, rehearse a bit and then put on a show.
In the movie making business it's the complete opposite. You are hoping for that BIG break! One shot to make something of what you spend so much of, not just your time, but your life on. But that's also the best part. That opportunity can be right around the next corner. And you've got to believe in that or you are just wasting your time. Music I made for me, movies I make for others. I mean I make movies for me too, but I think about what my audience wants now before what I want.
I had a good talk with a guy I know who lived, worked and made money in Hollywood as a writer. He had the perks, the success and living what for most of us we would consider "the life." He doesn't do it anymore, he still writes, just in a different medium. He said he hated Hollywood and doesn't miss it, he's a New Yorker through and through. He did say what he does miss the most is the fact that the next big break could happen any second. It's such a hit or miss business but it can happen. And he told me that you have to believe in what you are doing and not downplay your work. You work hard so be proud of it.
So now the premiere is over. Where do you go from here?
Forward. That's the only answer I have. I don't know that our movie will get picked by any festival. That someone who can make a difference will see it and get behind us and champion our movies and our careers. But I have to believe that the "slim to none" chance exists. And moving forward is the only thing I can do to make assure us that chance will find us either by accident, fate, or just dumb luck. Hopefully a combination of all three! I don't play the lottery but I do make movies. Probably the same odds but at least with movies I've got some say in the final results.
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