Welcome to this week’s Sunday Evening edition of The Backlot. These newsletters will include stories from my recent experiences working in indie filmmaking, helpful resources for emerging filmmakers, and other posts covering topics in the film industry.
NOTE - This version of the newsletter is free. The mid-week version, which includes the Documentary Series, is now a paid subscription.
This week, we’re talking about the idea of “loving the process” and what that means for filmmakers…
🎞️ Learning to Love the Process
🎬 The “Niche Down” Fallacy
🗞️ Three Movie Recommendations
Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of introspective thinking and meditating on the process of making a career as a filmmaker.
At a time when the world is reeling from the advent of new technology, making a career as a filmmaker can feel like a neverending battle. Truthfully, despite all the success stories and the mystique of filmmaking, succeeding in film is hard.
In my journey, I have encountered many failures and mistakes, which have left me disillusioned with the process and feeling down about the work. I’ve lost clients, poured hours into grant proposals that were outright rejected, and been forced to let go of certain projects because of a lack of time, resources, or capabilities to execute.
Now, I’m not telling you all of this because I want to scare anyone away from this path—filmmaking has given me so much over the years, and I still love this career and am beyond excited to see where it takes me in the future.
But the reality is this isn’t an easy career path. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, resilience, and support.
Lately, I’ve really been thinking about what it takes to be successful and whether that’s even really something that we should be aiming to accomplish. I mean, success is subjective, and this practice and career is about so much more than the end products.
I’ve started to think that maybe I should look at things a little differently and focus less on the destination and more on the journey.
Let me explain a little more. To do so, though, I want to use slightly different terms than filmmaking and liken this process to another one of my passions—running.
In running, the process of completing a marathon (or ultra if you are insane like me) isn’t the product of a single achievement. It’s not like running a marathon is an isolated effort that requires one single burst of energy or action.
Instead, running a marathon is a compilation of thousands of split-moment decisions committed to over the course of 26 miles (42 kilometers). It’s a conglomerate of hundreds of rapid, isolated actions made one by one in pursuit of an ultimate destination.
A marathon is the final outcome of those decisions—the continuous commitment to take another step, keep pushing forward, and keep going despite the pain, doubt, and fatigue.
And let me tell you, if there is one thing I’ve learned from running, it’s that you have to love this process if you want to have any chance of reaching that finish line.
No one wakes up, goes on their first run, and completes a marathon. It takes weeks, months, and years of continually making these decisions to even get to the point of being capable of contemplating running the distance of a marathon.
The more you choose to keep moving, keep showing up, and keep taking that next step, the more you’ll eventually start to enjoy the process. You’ll start to love each step, look forward to the next challenge, and get excited to overcome the next mental barrier.
Soon enough, the process will become your favorite part of the act, and you won’t even care about the finish line. You’ll just be doing it because you love doing it.
Filmmaking isn’t much different.
In the process of trying to create a career in filmmaking, you have to continue to choose to show up, move forward, and keep going. You’ll be confronted by the decision to quit over and over again. Yet, you have to find a way to persevere and keep going.
Over time, you’ll get better, and you will start to love the journey more than the destination. At the same time, your films will get better, the process will get easier, and you will start to see the results of all of your hard work.
Until then, though, you are going to keep encountering many failures, frustrations, and learnings. Therefore, learn to love the process. Just like running, learn to love each step you take and learn to appreciate each moment for what it is, not where it’s going.
To sum this up, I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my songs by one of my favorite artists, Frank Turner.
“If you are all about the destination, then take your f**king flight, we’re going nowhere slowly, but we’re seeing all the sights”
So, see the sights, enjoy the journey, and love the process. There’s beauty in being a beginner and navigating the rollercoaster of life and progress.
You’ll get where you are going one day, but for now, you only get to live this journey once, so learn to love it while you can.
The “Niche Down” Fallacy
Okay, if you can’t tell, I am on a bit of an existential heater this week. For that reason, I’m going to propose a new idea about something I have gotten extremely tired of hearing on the internet—the idea of “niching down.”
When I first started as a freelancer and creative, I read countless blogs that told me I had to pick a topic, become an expert, and make it my entire personality. They told me that choosing a “niche” was the key to success and that making that topic your expertise would help attract more clients, land more pitches, and set you apart from the masses.
In the creator economy, this is known as “niching down.” Now, don’t get me wrong, there are benefits to becoming an expert on a single subject, and I am not knocking anyone who has followed this path; I have too.
What I am saying is that we’ve overdone things a bit. We’ve transformed this idea into something that makes people feel like they have to constrain themselves to a single box or idea.
I’ve been told, “You can’t be a filmmaker and a biologist. If you’re going to write about pop culture, you can’t write about travel and environmentalism too. These things aren’t allowed. You have to choose one subject.”
Well, I’m here to offer another perspective. You don’t have to choose. Learning about a variety of topics, roles, and skills is an incredibly valuable experience.
I believe that if you have the ability to learn about something, and the passion to do so, then you should follow that feeling. We should be encouraged to open our minds to new subjects, try to learn different skills, and follow a curiosity for the world.
I think that’s where my problem with the idea of niching down truly lies - it doesn’t foster curiosity. We are meant to feel like we have to pick one or two things, and we aren’t allowed to deviate from the boundaries of this topic because it may harm our brand image or the idea of who we are.
Shouldn’t we be doing the opposite? Isn’t it better to learn about the world around us in a way that fills us with passion, excitement, and inspiration? And shouldn’t we be able to share that with our audience, even if it’s different than our normal expertise or deviates from our brand image?
I think, in many ways, film taught me this lesson because, as an indie filmmaker, I’ve had to learn about a ton of different topics in the film industry. I’ve had to wear many hats alongside the other members of my team.
Through this, I’ve learned how to be a better producer, how to rig lighting setups, how to interview subjects, and how to write grants, all while working in the same role. These skills, normally reserved for isolated positions, have helped me develop a wide understanding of the entire filmmaking process.
In this way, they’ve also taught me that we shouldn’t feel like we have to niche down and limit ourselves to a certain topic, skill set, or idea. We are explorers; it’s human nature to want to know more and be curious about the world.
So, let’s follow our passions and try new things, whether they’re considered “important” to our careers or not. There’s no bad knowledge in this life, and everything we learn only helps us become greater versions of ourselves.
Three Movie Recommendations
Okay, well, let’s keep with the existential theme of learning to love the process in this week’s film recommendations…
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
Easily one of my favorite documentaries of all time, Jiro Dreams of Sushi follows sushi master Jiro Ono, who runs Sukiyabashi Jiro, a three-star Michelin restaurant located in a Tokyo subway station. The film chronicles Jiro’s everyday process, documenting their efforts to prepare the shop, craft their dishes, and work together as a family.
The film is a beautiful ode to the passion of doing what you love and learning to appreciate every aspect of the process. It teaches you to enjoy the little things, dedicate yourself to loving the small steps, and to appreciate the present. The film is also a beautiful story about the family behind the business and the expectations placed upon those who are near to greatness.
The Crash Reel (2013)
Okay, this is a little different of a pick, but I think it’s one of the best examples of learning to overcome trauma and finding a way to love the process despite the odds. The Crash Reel, directed by Lucy Walker, follows the story of Kevin Pierce, a widely celebrated snowboarder who was the best in the world until a crash in the superpipe gave him a career-ending brain injury.
The film is a remarkable story and incredibly emotional, documenting Pierce’s journey from one of the best in the world to learning to walk and talk again. It’s a beautiful ode to finding ways to love the process of healing and finding ways to see the positive aspects of life, despite the circumstances. Peirce’s story is truly remarkable, and he’s turned the direst of accidents into something truly profound and beautiful.
About Time (2013)
Besides an incredible cast, complete with Bill Nighy’s magnificent performance, this is a truly special film. The story follows a young man (Domhall Gleeson) who discovers the men in his family have the ability to travel back in time. He then uses the ability to influence different aspects of his life, including helping friends with their work, rewriting embarrassing moments, and meeting the love of his life (Rachel McAdams).
The film starts as a romantic comedy but quickly becomes a lot deeper and starts to center on the story of the young man and his relationship with his dying father. Despite some time-travel plot holes, the story is deeply emotional and leaves you feeling both sentimental and deeply inspired. The reason I’ve included the film on this list is for the closing scenes alone, as the young man learns to appreciate every single moment, love every step in the journey, and cherish the reality of everyday life.
On Wednesday, we’ll be discussing …
🎞️ The State of Documentary Film - A New Dawn for Documentary Film
🗞️ Other Latest News and Updates from the Industry