If you’re on the fence about whether to try filmmaking, this is for you:
When I entered film school I found myself on the receiving end of a lecture indicating to me that this kind of work was an end-all be-all. Hard work. Inaccessible. It’s for people who simply can’t do anything else because passion etc.
I’m sure it was meant to be inspiring, but there’s hardly a lack of the harshly linear, masculine-minded approach to motivation in most fields, even the creative ones. Of course, I still love that approach. It’s hard not to if you’re a hard working person living in the US. But I just wasn’t feeling the lecture.
It’s not that it scared me away from film, but I was irritating by the sense that it was trying to. It wasn’t for me. It was for people who don’t know that they have to work hard, but I don’t see how hearing they they’ll have to is going to help them. Hard work is its own filter. Delivering a speech like that is usually more for the benefit of the speaker than the listener.
I say this because it’s that kind of attitude that kept me away from film for so long. It didn’t matter how many resources landed in my lap as long as I heard all this stuff about filmmaking:
>You have to know the right people
>You have no control over your own ideas
>It’s a male dominated meat market
>You can only break in through porn
>You have to meet an agent in LA
>You have to avoid a lot of sabotage
>It’s too expensive (note that I’m not saying it isn’t expensive, I’m just parroting the judgement that it’s too expensive)
>It’s not worth the time and energy
>Aw, you wanna be a director? That’s so cute!
>Are you like a writer? Is that a notebook? That’s so cute.
Here are some of the cool things that you don’t hear as often from filmmakers:
>I get to share a story as I’m making it
>I get to experience leadership from within a group that is united by that story story
>I get to play pretend and/or help others get to play pretend
>I get to buy stuff for my imaginary friends in the story
>I get to meet sensitive, creative people
>I get to help those sensitive, creative people find their part in the story
>I get to keep a record of me and friends playing pretend to deliver a story
I don’t know what else I can say, here. What could be more fun and healing than telling a story?
Peace,
Ayah
#DeltaPhiFilm
