So you want to Achieve Your Dreams in filmmaking. I don't know what your specific dreams may be. You may want to be a film Producer. You may want to be a working (or famous) actor or actress. You may want to be a director who shares his or her vision with the world. You may want to be a writer who gets his or her screenplay produced into a major motion picture. Or you may want a combination of all of those!
When I was young, I wanted to work in Hollywood. I wanted to be a working actor. The Producing and Writing weren't early dreams, but they formed as my life went on. And for almost 20 years, I have raised money, produced films, sold films and as a result, I have not worked outside the movie business.
The WHY and HOW
When you're looking to achieve your dreams, you're going to run into something: Obstacles. There are all types of obstacles: Time, effort, confusion, beliefs, energy, and luck. And one of the first things you'll need to figure out is “HOW.” Learning how to do something is essential. And at times, the entire filmmaking process can feel overwhelming. The good news is, there's lots of filmmaking training in our membership to help you figure out the HOW. But that's only part of the equation.
The problem is, even with all this knowledge, many filmmaking dreams don't come to fruition because people don't take action. And one big reason for this is the WHY. Why do you want to achieve these goals? Supposed I asked you to climb Mt. Everest. Assuming you're not a professional climber, you'd say to yourself, “How the heck am I gonna do that?” And you might find out that the whole challenge is just too much work.
Take the same scenario and pretend that someone added a major reason WHY. “If you get to the top, you'll get $30 million dollars.” Maybe that's not a motivator for you. But for me, I would spend the next two years training so I could get to the top and collect my payday! Once the WHY is magnified, figuring out the HOW to achieve your dreams becomes a lot more doable.
Achieve Your Dreams: The WHY?
I remember the first film I financed. I had quit an IT job and I just found out my wife was pregnant. So now I had no source of income and a baby on the way! My WHY was HUGE. I needed to raise money for this film I was producing and make sure I had a secure income in movies. Because the WHY was so big, the HOW became doable.
I'm not saying it was easy to achieve my dreams in filmmaking. It took me a lot of trial and error. But I eventually figured out how to raise money. And I've gone on to produce quite a few films since. Each time I had to first figure out WHY I needed to succeed. Once I did that, figuring out the HOW for each project simply became another step in the process.
So what is your WHY? Why do you want to make it in the film business? And if you're finding the HOW is scary and seems unobtainable, then I suggest you take time to increase your WHY. It could be as simple as saying, “I'm giving myself one year to make a film happen.” And then sticking to that plan, day in, and day out. The Why must be something significant. The moment it is, How becomes a piece of cake.
