5 Ways to Become a Professional Filmmaker

the subtext is always someone Heiner means it's the question mark are you interested the you of what's gone on any muggle today I am here with Matt and orange these two are basically working directors that are wrapped in Los Angeles and today what I want to talk about is five different ways to break into Hollywood at least you run a podcast called the just treat of podcast where you guys have literally interviewed probably close to 200 directors that have all broken in and gotten their start into actually making movies what I want to ask if there's a lot of filmmakers in the world all over the world and they all want to kind of break into doing near to work and how do you break in and what are sort of the five most common ways or like the most realistic ways to get into directing a studio movie what I like about our podcasts we have really different perspectives I think on this because Matt went to film school and kind of came from like the artistic side I went to engineering school I can't came in from the technical side you're the funniest technical person I know if I've not a compliment on this topic in the creative industry I think what we've seen is like nobody is like trying to hire a generic creative person they're always trying to hire someone who makes interesting work so you can never go and say like hey can I do you have a job for me the first way Matt calls it the lottery ticket way it's being at the right time the right place with the right talent and the right package if you spend your whole life working towards buying one lottery ticket then it would maybe be a more apt metaphor but on the kid coming out of high school where my moves to make sure work yeah I mean I think you probably start with like a fancy schmancy film school or some sort of real training maybe like you're around other artists and like you're interning early it's really like cutting your teeth in a significant way early on really right so then from there what are they what are they doing in film school that's different mm-hmm that makes this lottery ticket work I think that oftentimes they have a very clear point of view and voice they come in a little more fully formed right so you watch was interested in short film from college and you're like this person though has known for a very long time exactly what kind of man she wants to make yeah so we talked about like Ryan Coogler is this perfect example right he went to USC his story I think a lot of us know it he had a pitch Creed right which is a movie about Apollo Creed son from rocky through his film Network he got it to the Sylvester Stallone and Sylvester Stallone was like this is an interesting page but I don't know who you are but then he made Fruitvale station he made a personal story it wasn't about him but about someone from his neighborhood in a place he knew and understood what's interesting to me about the Kugler model just as an idea he's then the next film running back to creed basically Independent Spirit Award right yet so I think now you go back to Stallone you're like hey remember that pitch you like now the filmmaker has made this award-winning film yeah now I'm special a bit right and we call it the lottery ticket because it's your first indie film right out of film school yeah happens to be good all the stars all our home gods like smiling right the audience has to be ready for it like it has to be zeitgeist II in a way that you can't really predict I think the next way is a little bit more replicatable for PBS right a second model is like I like to call it the be in the building model it's like me around do good work create opportunities for yourself it's that's the journeyman model of like just work your way up basically and we've had so many people on the podcast that started out as assistant editors then got became editors then we're giving notes the directors then asked if they could direct an episode you want a self school maybe done maybe not yeah get a job in the film industry in some way if you're born in a smaller market and like moving to a big city is maybe not financially reasonable yet um being in a smaller market kind of gives you the opportunity to do a lot of different things you know like when you're in places where there's not you know mm dolly grips right like you can do a dolly grip one day and then you can be the artists system the next day you know so you get to kind of dabble a little bit more learn what you like gather a few more skills as well for the being around model there's are like two main ways right like either one kind of like coattail with like someone that's like big then that brings you along to show you up each step or two it's a some doesn't show up right sure man yo is an editor today tomorrow you're the editor because the editor quit right then you have to be ready right you have to be prepared to be like well yeah I can't operate a camera because all my weekends I've been shooting about it uh except where I've been assistant editing but I've been actually being an editor on the weekends as well - so editor didn't shelve I'm ready to go right it's such a sprint like just make yourself the easy choice yeah you know like if your bosses are like working 18-hour days haven't seen the kids you know since they were five you know the assistant costumer is available and your head department head is gone like okay just promoter because we don't have time to think about it do you I don't I mean if that's kind of bring up the point that applies to all these things that you just you'll never make it if you're a slacker if you're phoning you're in or if you're just not don't seem like you care about your job even if it's bringing coffee everyone can tell right like you watched the PA who's hustling their hardest and they will move they move up immediately so that everyone knows it number three let me looking at here DIY yeah I was the lone wolf this is like you know you're out in whatever market you are in right and you grew up in this town this may be the hometown film right and you're pulling together a community of people to make your film make your vision but it's not like you have studio backing or you have like LA auspices in anyway like you're not waiting their permission to make them an executive because the biggest part of that and most of the time I think what makes this different than me be around model is that you are not around you're probably working an unrelated job yeah I'm at McDonald's yeah let's shoot a movie when I'm not working absolutely and when I will eventually slowly but surely get better at it to over touch sure there's so many good examples of this there's I mean the older ones are like shane carruth made a movie called primer that was a huge Sundance hit he starred in it wrote it directed it deep end it and did the music for it and edited it Brit Marling and Sal Batman they made it sound of my voice they made another earth I mean all these like under $700,000 films then they made a movie I or against Michael Pitt and then now they have a show on Netflix two seasons of show the Oh a they just made movie after movie after movie for no money sure yeah tell someone noticed the thing I love about a DIY model a micro budget model you know I don't love talking about budgets because I think that puts expectations on an audience it's not interesting whether or not you made a movie for ten thousand dollars or a hundred million is a good movie you can fail in private right you can make a hundred terrible movies no one's ever gonna see him that's fine when you get to your good one will notice practice makes perfect and so that DIY model is a way to facilitate part of this DIY spirit is that because you're not trying to connect with like powerful people in Hollywood you can really do it everyone how can I build a community yeah online yeah I think just one burger love the mumblecore movement you're up to happy whether in class brothers go into the woods just make a movie by yourself with your brother shirts and they start with the short - they had like this short called scrapple that wasn't sundance and then that is short about a guy just leaving an outgoing message on his voicemail and it's like answering machine you can find that one online and that that's their breakthrough right so moving on from the DIY model what else do we got after that well something that we've seen it's a model I've tried to emulate myself many times is really amazing the effects artists that make something amazing looking for no money again they just get noticed by Hollywood in it we're talking about the effects that's what I focused on mostly but you've seen it with like fine artists with musicians with choreographers like Trish C who choreographed her brothers band Ok Go and a dance in the backyard and it made her like a giant music video director she ended up directing pitch perfect 3 2 and you know she's now a big studio film director where I'll go there showing off her choreography skills in the backyard cue to all these people is that when they make their work everyone's looking at samples of your work their sample is just different on another level because they have some added skill whether it's fine arts your choreographer be affectionate and I would say also the other thing just to keep in mind is the thing your look at home thinking like well I don't do I don't do animation right don't do the effects there is something special that you do do and that maybe is something we haven't seen before like the weirder it feels the better off you are we had the creators and stars of the movie greener grass which was a hit at Sundance this last year and they started with a short film right and it's kind of just like an offbeat sort of comedy but the thing that makes it stand out is its tone its Sensibility like they have braces there's like weird spit stuff the sound is very strange it's super gauzy and like very like colorful but it's just this is for it's like oh what's my weird sensibility yeah what's the thing that I like that no one else likes can be that sort of core composition so this is the final why what are we talking about digital right so I mean this is one of the most common things we see nowadays there's high maintenance there's drunk history there's broad Sydney there's all these shows that came so we know mystery guitar man he made a movie that played a ton and we're talking about his first feature Arctic correct yeah yeah yeah I had a very popular YouTube channel that right where he made all these amazing musical montage right and he moved into like doing some commercials and things like that but he was signed at CAA before Arctic was a part of the conversation at all and then kind of realized that he wanted to hone different skills really did its homework and then kind of used his team to kind of put things together but he wouldn't have had those resources or those skills frankly or the money to live if he hadn't started in YouTube we see him real clear line from the web series to the TV show like Adam ruins everything everyone a lot of people that directed that as a web show directed that as a TV show I got another was a Vimeo TV show a Vimeo digital show yeah and gets picked up by HBO I know a lot of guys that run Russian companies that that is the model let's start influencers and small nerd of contour and put it online and that's why we call branded content Authority so it's just like look common things between these five methods the number one thing is make right like you have to practice your craft you have to get better you have to have things to show people that is it like if you can be the most charismatic capable brilliant person in the world if you can't prove it to anyone then there's nothing they can do and I will say one other thing that I'm realizing more and more the longer I do this is that I think a lot of people go into the business saying they want it direct right they want to be like they not or whatever and that's the be-all end-all of everything and just the longer I do this the more I realized that like being a good editor being a good producer being a DP or good writer for me can sometimes be more satisfying like it's become less and less important for me to have like the name as the the director credit on things and just more important to like make things I'm excited man thanks for coming on podcast and if you guys are new questions go bug them on just read a podcast yeah where that just you just pawed across all social media yeah and they do have the green light tea some questions and be annoying and brother you guys I am you're an agent and your questions get in it and send them your spec scripts and your short films don't say yes absolutely do it good day goodbye thank you this is not an exaggeration yeah I have done a lot of cat food commercials yeah absolutely and I was up for a dog food commercial and didn't get it because I hadn't worked with oh my goodness that's a big difference you are too good for it that's true

Channel: Indy Mogul

Views: 81,874

Rating: 4.9587798 out of 5

Keywords: film industry, getting noticed, film school, career advice, how to become a director, tips for beginning directors, crash course, filmmaking techniques, how to write and direct, no budget

Id: cy9nSo8H5lo

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 24 2019