This is Why 90% of Filmmakers Don’t Succeed

whether you're interested in film making as a hobby or you want to do it professionally we pretty much all want to succeed what success looks like is going to be different for all of us but whatever your goals are I think we can all agree it's frustrating to fall short but over the years of working in the industry and coaching a ton of filmmakers through one-on-one calls and my documentary cinematography course I've realized that for a lot of people out there success isn't coming nearly as quickly as it could and I found that what separates those few who rise to the top from those who never seem to get anywhere really just boils down to two simple things and if you apply them over time you'll be doing more than 90% of the filmmakers out [Music] there before I dive in here I want to start out by comparing two very different filmmakers the first one feels like they've been treading water and getting nowhere for years while the other one went from being a commercial fisherman to a full-time filmmaker with multiple retainer clients and a publication in National Geographic and they did all that in under year the first filmmaker has thought about getting more serious with their film making for a while maybe even years they've watched everything they can find on YouTube and they've invested in some gear maybe even a lot of gear and they have a notebook or a Google doc jammed with all sorts of ideas for projects they're going to make one day yet it seems like month after month things never really go anywhere and it's kind of like they're banging their head against a brick wall this is the most common type of filmmaker I run into online and I'm going to arbitrarily say that this makes up about 90% of the early career talent pool and don't misunderstand me here there's nothing at all wrong with being inexperienced and I've got nothing but respect for anyone who's going after what they want but in my experience the vast majority of these people aren't getting anywhere or at least not nearly as quickly as they could now let's look at the second type of filmmaker this person started in the same position as our other example maybe even around the same time but somehow they just seem to have shot up out of nowhere to find success way faster than makes sense like somehow over the course of a year they've been able to quit their day job get their work and do a publication of their dreams like Nat Geo and they're booking $10,000 gigs but unlike the first filmmaker who I just made up based on my experiences working with lots of frustrated people out there the second example is a real person my mentorship student from last year dwe when dwe and I met he was working as a commercial fisherman and had barely made any money at all through film making but by the end of the year he'd gotten his work into National Geographic like I said he booked a ton of well-paying jobs both one-offs and retainer clients and was working so much he's able to to rent an office for his brand new production company I mean I don't even have an office you're a disgrace I'm not saying any of this to take credit for dwi's Success because seriously he did all of this on his own he wasn't born with some crazy once in a generation talent and he didn't have a trust fund to support him he was essentially just a normal guy with a dream and a good eye so what did he do what was that secret well for starters he took action he didn't just listen to my advice he acted on it he made things happen and he was relentless and don't worry this isn't one of those two steps I'm not going to say just take action and then send you on your way here but before I get into those steps I wanted to stress that without action none of this matters knowledge and theories are great but if you don't actually act on them you're going to get nowhere it's easy to be infatuated with the idea of being a filmmaker but the people who are able to make it work actually do stuff and don't just take my word for it listen to what the legendary Adventure filmmaker Pablo danana had to say on this I think people romanticize the idea of being like an adventure filmmaker but like how willing are you to get out of your tent when it's howling and negative 40 and get out to maybe just get one shot but that's you know an important shot to get and um yeah it could be brutal I totally agree with Pablo here the filmmakers who stand out don't live in the world of hypotheticals they absorb the ideas yes they get inspired by them sure but then they act on them without that none of this stuff will work and I can't say any more strongly than that one of the only things I know about that will work without much effort is saving 70% on royalty-free music through this video sponsor audio nailed that plug but more on them [Music] later so the first thing I see new filmmakers not doing is a bit of a head scratcher to me but if you're one of those few who's actually doing this the good news is that you're way ahead of the curve one of the most common interactions I have with people trying to find their way in this industry goes something like this hey Luke I'm writing to you because I've always had a dream of being a filmmaker and I have a few great ideas for projects I'd like to shoot I recently bought such and such a camera with whatever lens plus I have a drone and a gimbal or whatever and so on I don't have any finished projects yet but I have some big plans for this year and I was hoping you'd be willing to talk to me and give me some tips for how I can grow my career can anyone see the problem here now my issue isn't with people reaching out to me and I'm always happy to hear from people who have film making dreams so it's not like I'm complaining about the initiative that these filmmakers show when they send that email we all need mentors and we all need help along the way God knows I've had a ton of it myself over the years but the issue is that they haven't even tried to do it on their own and they're essentially asking someone else to do it for them honestly it's no exaggeration that nine out of 10 people I hear from haven't even finished one short project even about their neighbor or their best friend or their dog for that matter yet they seem to think that someone else me can give them the secret to success I'm sorry but this is all wrong let's compare that to dwe who when he came to me had shot several shorts on his own and even though they weren't as good as he wanted them to be he taken the initiative and gotten started it's a huge part of why I chose them in the first place it's not that these shorts were the greatest thing I'd ever seen but they showed me he was actually committed then over the course of the year we worked together he shot like six more or something crazy like that and each of them was a little bit better than the last one by the time the mentorship ended he had a bunch of work samples to show what he was interested in and what he wanted to do were they as good as he wanted them to be no probably not did he want to make them better sure sure of course but did he wait for permission to start no he just made stuff and as he did he proved that he was going to make this stuff work whether I helped him or not now a lot of his stories were about sports and athletes cuz that's what he's interested in and it didn't take long for a few of those shorts to be seen by other professional athletes living in his area and when they saw how dedicated and passionate he was and they liked the work he'd already shot they asked him to start making things for them and they paid him some of them paid him really well now that's how it's done you have to take the initiative yourself before anyone else can help you and if you're approaching clients or production companies or mentors with a blank website you're just not going to get anywhere you have to prove to other people that you really wanted as badly as you say you do because no one is going to take your word for it just because you say you're willing to do whatever it takes to make it in this business the expression show don't tell is repeated all over the storytelling World from books to film and the same is true of a film making career show people that you're doing it on your own and that you're going to keep producing stuff whether or not they're interested in getting involved at the moment and then they'll respond that's when people will want to help you and hire you not when you're just coming to them with dreams that you can't back up with any sort of evidence at [Music] all and this just doesn't apply to people starting out either this is a process that we all need to do whenever we're trying to grow in New Directions like when I moved back to Canada after almost 15 years working overseas and I wanted to get a little more commercial work to supplement the doc stuff I didn't get anywhere with the Branded content agencies until I went out and shot a commercial on my own I mean it makes sense even though I have a ton of experience as a professional DP why would an agency want to work with someone who hasn't proved what they can do on their own I know I probably wouldn't take that meeting if the roles were reversed as I've gotten more and more curious about the narrative world as well I had to do the same thing yet again by volunteering on a proof of concept shoot to get some scripted stuff under my belt before I started asking for meetings with bigger players but whatever the genre and Niche you're trying to break into the process is exactly the same make work on your own put it into the world to show others that you're serious then and only then will you start to see results if you do this you'll be way ahead of the pack we're just sitting there waiting for things to be easy and as you make these projects you're going to need music and that's the perfect time to talk about the sponsor of this video audio there are tons of these royalty-free music sites out there but especially for early career filmmakers I genuinely think audio is the best option out there for a couple of reasons but one of the biggest is because of the insane Val value at that stage in your career money is tight and shelling out 200 bucks a year for music access when you're not even really making money from your films and you're probably trying to save up to build your kit it's just a lot with audio though you can get access to their full library of thousands of royalty-free tracks for just $59 a year using the code Luke 70 that's like a 70% discount over the regular pricing and if you do happen to have a $200 budget for music instead of just getting a year of access like most other services audio will give you a lifetime access for just $199 9 using the code Luke 199 getting lifetime access to anything these days in the age of the subscription model is pretty rare and considering the library just gets bigger and bigger it's like an investment that's going to pay off more and more over the long term so as you get out there and start shooting which we just established you absolutely have to do get the music you need without getting sued and not spending a ton of money either use the link in the description and use either of those two codes to save a ton of cash and support this Channel at the same time okay back to the video so let's just say you've already separated yourself from 90% of filmmakers out there and you're actually out there making work on your own and sharing it what's next well you've probably heard the expression it's not what you know it's who you know and even though this is just as true in film making as it is in any other business the majority of filmmakers I work with are just not networking the right way film making is a team sport and if you want to go far you can't just work in a vacuum film school can be great at building connections and the people you meet there can be your collaborators for the rest of your career but I didn't go to film school and I'm guessing a lot of you didn't either so don't worry you don't need to spend 100 Grand to do well in film making but you do need to take action and build your network on your own but since starting this YouTube channel I've been on the receiving end of a lot of really ineffective networking attempts and I want to make sure you don't make the same mistakes because the reason it's not working isn't what you might think in just a second I'm going to show you the brutal reality of what real networking looks like by showing you exactly what I had to do to land a 50-day international feature dog shoot this year but first let me describe what I see most people doing so let's say I get an email or maybe I'm on a one-on-one consultation call with someone and they'll tell me that no matter what they do they can't get anyone to respond to their networking emails there's almost this tone of helplessness there like I'm doing everything I can why can't I get anywhere and I feel for them but then when I asked them a few more questions it turns out that they only sent one email or maybe two and then they gave up when they didn't get an immediate response and while I do recognize the courage it takes to reach out in the first place I'm sorry but this just is isn't enough and before you start thinking that's easy for you to say let me just open up my emails and show you what networking looks like even for me even with over a decade of experience in a pretty decent CV for context when I sent the first email I just moved from Vancouver to Toronto and landing in a new city means making new connections so I started combing the internet for producers production companies and directors whose work I respected and a couple of them stood out one of them in particular who I'm not going to name had done some work I really liked and so I reached out with an email introducing myself and gave a little bit of my experience and why I wanted to connect with her especially and then I waited if you're interested in some tips on how to approach emails like this I made a free networking guide you can download in the description but it was a pretty standard intro for my playbook eventually I got an equally standard response back from her saying that she was glad to meet me but she was traveling and would have to get back to me later so essentially a brush off a polite brush off but still trying to get rid of me now at this point you might think well I tried and then move on maybe a little bit more depressed than before at the idea that no one is interested in in your work this is a mistake and it's why you're not getting anywhere and honestly I think she was trying to brush me off and hope that I would go away but unfortunately for her that's not my style instead I made a note on my calendar to follow up exactly when she said she'd be free again and that's what I did 2 months later now Flash Forward 10 days after that I got another brush off I'm at capacity right now and let's Circle back in a month so I made another calendar note waited a month and reached out again another 10day silence then the same response I'll Circle back to you within the next month the month came in went and I didn't hear from her so I followed up this time it took her nearly 4 months to get back to me but this time it was to tell me they were interviewing DPS for a new project and she asked for a couple more examples of my work which I sent 3 weeks after that she asked me to get on a zoom call with her and her directing partner where they asked me some questions about my Approach and my experience then another month of Silence before they finally asked for some references and then another month of Silence before they eventually offered me the job that was in December over 10 months from when I first reached out I followed up five times even though everything in her responses indicated that she wasn't interested fast forward to now and we've already shot the first International leg of the project and we have follow-up shoots scheduled in Africa the US and Eastern Europe and it's shaping up to be one of my biggest and most exciting jobs of the year now if you were to just look at my schedule and see three international shoots on the books it's super easy to say it must be nice to have it so easy and then dismiss the effort and persistence it took to get there and that's the typical response because it's so much easier to think that other other people have made it while you can't get any traction after someone didn't reply to that Instagram DM you sent at 2 a.m. if it was easy then everyone would be doing it and not to Hype myself up but if I have over a decade of experience and a pretty damn good resume and I still have to spend 10 months chasing someone down to get a meeting then what does that tell you about your networking have you really put all your effort into it or have you like like 90% of people out there just put in the bare minimum be honest now there's a fine line between persistence and being annoying but I think that example is useful because most people are lying to themselves about how hard they're trying I'm not saying to email five times a week don't call people on their home lines don't be annoying if people don't answer you after the second or third attempt that might be a sign that they're not going to get back to you but if you do get a response and that hit rate is going to be super low but for those people who do get back to you show them that you're really interested by following up respectfully but persistently because it really is that easy to stand out in this business just those two steps showing people that you're committed by continuously making work on your own over a long period of time and then networking the right way that's all you need to be doing more than 90% of the people out there ideas without action count for very little so take initiative and make things so others know you're serious and then don't just send one dm and then complain that things are helpless follow up stay on people's Radars and be persistent without being annoying results take time but if you're creating regularly and getting your name into the world and then you stick with it over a long period of time like years not months you're going to be in the top 10% of filmmakers and you will rise to the top in time see you [Music]

Channel: Luc Forsyth

Views: 44,772

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Id: 65pN0mlSnOA

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024