11 Feb Your Essential Joy
Many people have dreams of breaking into the world of film. For some, they fantasize about achieving fame and fortune. For others, it is to make a film that is of real and lasting importance. There are also people who are attracted to the circus life that comes with a vagabond existence. If you’ve been in the industry for a while, you’re likely still cycling through all three.
As you go through the ups and downs and all the unpredictable turns in your career, the most important thing that you need to do is identify what makes the journey truly essential to you. I point this out because it will likely take many years of your life, struggling to find some modicum of success, to actually ask yourself, ‘What is my real reward?’
Every project you do will feed your ego enough to allow a little self-delusion. You might talk about how your film will be a festival darling, or it might catch a commercial wave like (fill in the blank film) or even how it will be misunderstood by audiences, but the critics will get it. A little self-delusion is essential to point your sensibilities in a focused direction. Self-delusion is also the fuel that keeps you working when others around you are just talking about launching a project.
However, I suggest that you stop for a little while and really try to identify what is your essential joy when you plan on starting a film. The answer can truly shape the way you focus the rest of your creative life.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen so many hardworking, talented people not find their essential joy, even after a decade of working tirelessly to build a career. My personal realization is that I allowed myself to get diverted, at times, by projects and partners not tethered to my essential joy: the sacredness of the filmmaking process. That doesn’t mean that the commercial outcome or the final product isn’t important. To the contrary, the sacredness of the filmmaking process creates the opportunity for the best final product.
A film set that has a symbiotic work environment invites the best from everyone, and that shows up on the screen. Obstacles are more easily overcome because you are starting on the same path, heading toward the same goals, even if they seem impossible.
This idea was brought home to me recently when I reconnected with an actor who played the co-lead of a micro-budget feature film that I made over ten years ago. It was shot in 5 days, on a budget less than most film catering budgets, and included a cast of 25 people. Further, the whole crew for this film was the cast of another micro-budget feature film that we shot two weeks later with the crew & cast from each project flipping positions.
The nature of our conversation was about the thrill of the process and the lack of doubt we all had, even though most people on the outside saw our mountain of ambition as insurmountable. The focus of that recent chat was not about whose career launched from the films or how much money was made. Not even what we would have done differently if we had a real budget and more time. The reminiscence centered on the essential joy that we still had in us to this day about that experience and all the personal and professional lessons we learned in taking on such an endeavor.
Between that time and now, we’ve each had illness, financial ups and downs, and a wide range of life obstacles. But the lasting impact on each of us (and I hope for many of the 50+ other participants) was what we learned about ourselves through the life-altering lessons of the process. It was a reminder to me that big budgets, movie stars, cranes, drones, explosions, car chases, and film festivals are all great, but they don’t measure up to the self-discovery and essential joy that came from that experience.
It inspired me to not give up on attempting to foster a similar work environment for all my future film projects. It is my sincere belief that if you identify your essential joy now, you’ll find the right partners to build your aesthetic, your career, and valuable memories full of substance and value.
