How I Set Goals for My Career
The process of setting career goals and a quick note on finding your story
Welcome to this week’s Sunday Evening edition of The Backlot. These versions of the 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 is the free version of the newsletter. This version will continue to be free, with the Wednesday version moving to a paid subscription in May….
This week, we’re staying a little more broad and talking about a few things I’ve learned about working as a creative in the industry…
🎞️ Setting Career Goals for 2024
✍️ Finding Your Story
🗞️ 3 Movie Recommendations for This Week
The Process of Setting Yearly Career Goals
In filmmaking, the stepping stones of a career are usually measured in years rather than weeks or months.
Working on your first film, finishing your first screenplay, getting accepted into your first festival - these are all things that take a lot of time.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve had to remind myself of the necessity for patience on many occasions. In a society that so often focuses on success and productivity, long-term goals can be hard to manage mentally.
I started thinking a lot about this idea recently and trying to find ways I could keep myself grounded while working towards this career in the film industry. Then a friend suggested a yearly goal list - something I had implemented for other parts of life but never thought to include for my film career.
Therefore, in the beginning few months of the year, I took some time to really think about my future and what I wanted to achieve by the end of the year. So far, this list has been instrumental in making decisions, choosing my projects, and developing my roadmap for success.
And I wanted to share this process with you.
The Two Lists
Now, I don’t know about you, but I am a dreamer. I’ve got big ideas and even bigger ambitions. I am constantly thinking about the life I want ten years down the road and the many things I want to achieve in my precious time on this Earth.
In many ways, this is one of my favorite parts of myself, but it also tends to be a little unrealistic because who knows what's going to happen - a year, five, or even ten years - from now. Life is unpredictable.
That’s why I’ve broken down my annual career goals into two categories - attainable and ambitious.
My attainable career goals are readily achievable within a calendar year. They are stepping stones on the journey toward my larger success.
On the other hand, my ambitious goals are the pipe dream goals that are ten years down the road. These are the ones that fulfill the grand plan.
And both are part of a larger process that plays off one another.
Creating Ambitious Goals
I’ve always made the “ambitious” goals list first. The reason being is simple: You need a recipe to figure out the ingredients.
The process of setting ambitious goals is pretty straightforward. I will ask myself, “Five or ten years from now, what do you want to have accomplished?”
Then, I have some fun with the question. Maybe you want to be an Oscar-winning director, maybe you want to be a paid writer, or maybe you want to run a distribution company.
Don’t limit your ideas here. The point of these goals is to be limitless, making them more fun and exciting to develop. It’s the pie-in-the-sky idea of what you want your life to look like and who you want to become.
For example, a few of mine include writing and producing a feature-length screenplay, premiering a film at Sundance, and getting my career to the point where I have the means and ability to tell any story I want.
These goals excite me and give me something to work towards, and when you create yours, try to do the same. Find your dream and write it down. Then, we can use that to create some yearly goals to start working toward this future.
The Realistic Goals
The “realistic” goals are where we take our ambitions and start to create a roadmap to make them a reality. These include anything that works toward those previously listed ambitious goals while being attainable within a single calendar year.
These are the building blocks; they are the stepping stones that inspire confidence in your career path and help move the needle toward your dream.
To come up with these goals, we can take a look at those ambitious dreams on the other list and work backward.
For example, one of my ambitious goals was to write and produce a feature-length screenplay. Therefore, I ask myself: What skills do I need to achieve this goal? Which of those skills are within reach over the next year?
For my goal, I would need to develop my skillset in screenwriting and producing. To do this, I’ve made myself a realistic goal of writing and producing a short film by the end of the year.
This process doesn’t only apply to filmmaking; it can be used in many different contexts. In fact, in his recent book, Will Smith discussed how he views these smaller types of goals like building a brick wall.
“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don't say, ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”
The yearly goals are your bricks. That’s why we have to choose goals that help build that wall and concentrate on fulfilling those as best as we possibly can. In that way, you will feel the satisfaction of achieving your ambitions while also working toward the future of your dreams.
Finding Your Story
When you start conceiving an idea, there are two critical things to consider when coming up with the types of stories you want to write or tell: what you know the most about and whose writing you are inspired by.
I know a lot about the natural world and the ways our planet’s ecosystems work in relation to our cultures. For this reason, I’ve used this expertise to influence the vast majority of my writing.
When I started screenwriting, I thought about how these fields of expertise could help me write better and could be the foundation for my stories.
So, ask yourself the same questions—what do you know a lot about, and what do you enjoy thinking about? Whatever the answer, take it and see if you can come up with a story that fits that mold.
This is important because you are going to be spending a lot of time with these subjects in the future, researching, learning, and talking about them. Having prior knowledge and fondness for the subject can be critical to writing a good story.
The next question is to look at the artists and creators you are inspired by and analyze their works. Why are you drawn to their work? What makes them inspiring to you?
The purpose isn’t to imitate these artists but to understand the things that you feel passionate about. Whether it’s witty dialogue, suspenseful action, or creative narratives, finding your connection to these works can help you find your connection to your own work.
For example, I’m very inspired by the work of writers such as Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, who both use horror in unique ways to address different societal issues.
This helped me realize the things I love about screenwriting and filmmaking, making me feel connected to my own ideas. Their work helped me find my own voice and start constructing my own story, just as I am sure their predecessors did the same for them.
NOTE: This is one of our first forays into discussing screenwriting. I want to dive more into this in the future and discuss different aspects of the process. I’m learning more about this craft all the time, and I hope to share my thoughts and experiences along the way.
Three Movie Recommendations
This week, we’re delving into the minds of creatives with three films that will surely make you think…
Adaptation (2002)
A Spike Jonze film starring Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Brian Cox playing screenwriting guru Robert McKee, count me in. Throw in a script by Charlie Kaufman about his own struggles to adapt Susan Orlean’s non-fiction novel The Orchid Child, and you’ve got a fascinating insight into the mind of a writer. Worth the watch for any writer or creative who has struggled with the pressures of writer’s block, imposter syndrome, and the challenges of creative work.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
This is hands down one of my favorite movies of all time, despite the director. Midnight In Paris is a writer’s wet dream. The film follows writer Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) as he goes on vacation with his wife (Rachel McAdams) and in-laws in Paris, France. One night on a stroll, Pender jumps into the backseat of an old sedan, only to be transported back into the roaring twenties, where he confronts some of his favorite artists, including Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film is a fascinating commentary on the idea of meeting your idols, losing yourself in your work, and getting caught in the nostalgia of the past.
Whiplash (2012)
Damien Chazelle’s masterpiece (only second to Babylon) was one of the most lauded movies of 2014. The film follows ambitious jazz drummer Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) as he is pushed to the limits by his teacher Terence Fletcher (J.K Simmons). The film is a cautionary tale about the toxicity of perfectionism and the idea of the embattled genius. It’s a riveting film led by two outstanding performances, leaving you anxious and uneasy for days after watching.
On Wednesday, we’re diving into our The State of Documentary Film Series with the first episode…
🎞️ Overview of the upcoming Series
🗞️ The State of Documentary Film - Starting with the Present
🎬 Other Latest News and Updates from the Industry