LESSONS FOR PROS

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  • #46
    Re: Ham....

    Wow. Ham's post really hit me hard. I went through a very similar phase... and I can say that it's not just a personality thing. I am about one of the least "entitled-feeling" people I can think of... But I fell into a similar trap.

    If you are someone who always feels their work is nowhere near where it should be... someone who can only ever see the flaws, or how this one scene doesn't have quite the effect you wanted, or what you would have done if you could go back and do that shot over again... that first wave of over-praise can blindside you. In the face of so much praise, you can start to think you're wrong... Maybe you're crazy and somehow, against all odds, you are as good as they say. Why else would people spend so much time lying to you? (This is, of course, tempered by the other inner voice telling you that you've only managed to fool them one more time...) You remind yourself not to get excited, that it happens to a million people... but that same inner surety that got you started writing/directing/whatever -- that same blind faith that you were going to pursue this no matter what and that you've staked everything and will be the one person, despite all the odds, to make it...

    Starts to make you believe. Not necessarily in the hype, per se, but in the idea that maybe your inner voice is flawed. That maybe you've only imagined all the things that your work didn't accomplish. And what people are saying/what you want to believe starts to matter just a bit more than that inner critic.

    This is coupled with the fact that now you have an agent, you had meetings, you have all sorts of things that seem just about to happen. Your agent is telling you how all these big things are happening, and as a result, I found myself doing less. You have someone doing things for you the official way, and start to lose a little of that utter self-reliance which is usually the only way of actually realizing a film. (I guess I'm talking more about directing now than writing, but... same principle.) I'm not talking about laziness... I probably have done more writing in the last year than ever before. But a lot of that -- too much, maybe -- was in the form of preparing pitches and takes, trying out for assignments I wasn't all that into. Because you start to feel there's a path, an accepted way into the career you want.

    It took me a while to remember there's no official way of doing anything and that the most valuable thing you probably have is the thing you're most likely to discard in the very beginning stages of recognition -- your original ideas, the script/movie you would make for free, and without any hope/expectation of what it could get you.

    i feel like i'm waxing poetic now, and unnecessarily so... Just wanted to say that i completely identified with you, Ham, and i too wish i hadn't lost the time I did. Hopefully, if anyone else is going through the same process we went through, we'll have saved them a little bit of time.

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    • #47
      Re: Ham....

      On a subconscious level, if you believe
      the adulation, you'll also believe the
      eventual derision.
      Well spoken indeed.

      The difference of understanding what truly drives you, external or internal.

      The inner voice must be the master of the world around you.

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      • #48
        I know this is an old thread, but I just stumbled onto it, and wanted to add to the chorus of "thank yous" to Tao for the effort. I'm at a time in my life and career where I have the good fortune to consider such advice seriously, and I deeply appreciate the lifeline of information you've thrown down to us budding talent "below."

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        • #49
          Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

          Great thread that needs to be bumped to the top.
          Reaction time is a factor, so please pay attention.

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          • #50
            Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

            Originally posted by Han Shot First
            Great thread that needs to be bumped to the top.
            Agreed. thanks.
            Don't repeat it; create it.

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            • #51
              Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

              I miss reading Tao.
              A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is an ability to articulate human relationships.
              Gore Vidal

              "Aisatsu Yori Ensatsu"
              Money is better than compliments.


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              • #52
                Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

                They all come back eventually.

                Except when they don't.

                "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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                • #53
                  Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

                  You need a hug, Comic?
                  A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is an ability to articulate human relationships.
                  Gore Vidal

                  "Aisatsu Yori Ensatsu"
                  Money is better than compliments.


                  Comment


                  • #54
                    Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

                    Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.
                    https://actbreakdown.com

                    Comment


                    • #55
                      Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

                      Thanks for posting all that-- what a mess.

                      Hurray for Peter Hedges.

                      And people like Katie Holmes.

                      Why are people so *^%*^%^* idiotic?

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                      • #56
                        Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

                        Thanks to Done Deal for moving this up so that newer users, such as myself, could read it.

                        As daunting as the process is, I doubt that any of us will give it up based on what we've read.

                        The thing I can't understand is why competition doesn't rule the filmmaking marketplace the way it does, say, auto insurance or cell phones. Why isn't someone coming up with a way to make quicker, cheaper movies that still have the quality of pricier fare?

                        "Until the Lion writes his own story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." -African Proverb

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                        • #57
                          Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

                          Originally posted by writerly
                          A famous professor said success in this business will be determined by how well you can tolerate despair.
                          This is true, though I'd substitute the word "failure" for despair. When I first started writing (and I'd begun as a novelist about four years before I wrote my first script, and that out of economic necessity), my mentor--a former professor and much-published author (and very dear friend), recently deceased--told me that I shouldn't despair so much over the fact that my early efforts weren't getting read or were being passed on; that one day I'd fall to my knees and thank God no one ever had the chance to read them.

                          Of course at the time I thought they were nothing less than brilliant. Well, guess what? They weren't even good, and they certainly weren't publishable. But rejection, as my mentor told me, is necessary only to help you savor your successes.

                          The novelist and great short-story writer John Cheever wrote in his journals (which should be required reading for any writer, especially any married writer): "If we do not taste death, how will we know the winter from the spring?"
                          Last edited by Jake Schuster; 06-01-2006, 06:53 AM.

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                          • #58
                            Re: LESSONS FOR PROS

                            especially if we're living in alaska.

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