Another Civil War Term: Scalawag
Jun. 18th, 2011 02:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueWas talking with Dad about Civil War terminology that entered the lexicon and stayed there, and one of the words that came up was deadline. Dad says that in a prison camp you had a fence, but before you reached the fence there was the deadline, the point at which you crossed too close to the fence and ran a high risk of getting shot. Knowing the origin adds a resonance to the idea of being past your deadline; it doesn't seem any different than the day or minute that came before, but you sure aren't free and the project's likely to get killed. It also makes staying on deadline sound less appealing; I sure as hell wouldn't want to be anywhere near my deadline, let alone continually on it.
Ciro has now been in Dallas a week, and it's another three weeks before the film needs to be finished. We still need the credits sequence, soundtrack and score, and final grade and mix. This is normal, but stressful for the producer, and I think especially so for Ciro who has not been through a similar post-production process before. It is also the case that because of distance various creative decisions fall on him that would not usually; normally the DP and Director would have final say on the grade, and the Sound Editor and Director on the mix, but since we are not there we pretty much say "oh Ciro we trust you; you're great at sound and at image." This is necessary. It is stressful for Ciro. It is why the producer collects the Best Picture Oscar*.
I am not worried at all. I am mostly wearing my Executive Producer hat and making sure that funds are in place whenever Ciro needs them, while hopefully providing the necessary psychological support and conversational springboard - being the producer's producer, essentially. As it goes.
However, because we are so close to the end, it is hard to keep conversations away from the next stage, which is distribution - selling the picture. I mostly try to wave off these conversations because there's time for them when the film is finished, and while we have time to finish before crossing deadline, we don't have time to be distracted by things that don't need to be ready yet.
The other reason I wave off these conversations is because I think most people who offer advice in this area don't know what they're talking about. Most of them are people who failed. And most of them failed because they weren't good enough. It's true that many people who succeed don't deserve it and succeed because of money or a big name or a connection. You can succeed and not be good enough. However, if you failed, you were not good enough.
I don't need this film to succeed; if it never makes a dime, it will still have done what I needed it to do, which is to prove to me (and future investors) that I'm capable of completing a watchable feature. It has the added bonus of giving Ciro a picture to learn on as a producer. We did not spend any money on it we couldn't afford to spend. It was a quarter the cost of the average wedding in the U.S. I don't bet money I can't lose or buy things I can't afford.
But it's starting to piss me off to hear people who failed tell me** I'm going to fail and it's one in a million odds and various Puddleglum hyperbole, all presented as a simple fact of all films and not related to whether my film is good or bad. (None of them have seen it or met me.) I'm sure it makes them feel better to think that quality doesn't matter. I'm sure they think they're protecting me by showing me the harsh truths of the world. But holy crap I've faced steeper odds than this in other situations and come out on top. I've been in the 99.9th percentile on every test ever. I've gotten into the tough schools even if I decided not to go there. I've pulled down the one-in-ten-thousand scholarships. I've been the genius among geniuses, the special exception, the game-breaking high score.
I've pulled off all kinds of stuff that's supposedly impossible; I just don't tend to find it interesting to talk about, and what I'm aiming for is rarely fame or money, so meeting me on the street it's invisible. Yeah, I fail sometimes, never disastrously; it's part of the process and it's not terribly scary. (And it's the part I tend to talk about, because it takes more thinking. Also, I do always think I could be appreciated more, but this is a quibble and partly something I do to myself.)
This film is going to succeed. It's obvious. It may have to succeed the hard way, but I don't think it's going to take the hard way (and in some ways I find the hard way more compelling and more in line with my long-term objectives). It is going to succeed because in this area I am actually exceptional. The odds are not threatening because the odds don't apply. I'm not egotistically delusional; the delusional people are the ones saying that skill and point of view don't matter.
* Sort of. It's why now the producer collects the Best Picture Oscar, and in fact the Academy has recently gotten aggressive about trying to make sure it's the real producer up there (yes there is really only one) and not the co-producer, line producer, associate producers, and producers in name only (as this is a common vanity credit you give to people who are important investors). However, initially the Oscar went to the head of the relevant studio, because when the Oscars started there was no such thing as indie movies and independent distribution, and it was all just an industry party shared by the major studios, not much different from morale awards given out at any other big company you could name.
** More accurately, they tell Ciro. People who talk to me are very confident. And goddamnit don't try to demoralize my producer when he needs to get shit done. Let's all go to track meets and shout to the runner in the lead on their final lap that they'll probably trip. We will be helping.
Ciro has now been in Dallas a week, and it's another three weeks before the film needs to be finished. We still need the credits sequence, soundtrack and score, and final grade and mix. This is normal, but stressful for the producer, and I think especially so for Ciro who has not been through a similar post-production process before. It is also the case that because of distance various creative decisions fall on him that would not usually; normally the DP and Director would have final say on the grade, and the Sound Editor and Director on the mix, but since we are not there we pretty much say "oh Ciro we trust you; you're great at sound and at image." This is necessary. It is stressful for Ciro. It is why the producer collects the Best Picture Oscar*.
I am not worried at all. I am mostly wearing my Executive Producer hat and making sure that funds are in place whenever Ciro needs them, while hopefully providing the necessary psychological support and conversational springboard - being the producer's producer, essentially. As it goes.
However, because we are so close to the end, it is hard to keep conversations away from the next stage, which is distribution - selling the picture. I mostly try to wave off these conversations because there's time for them when the film is finished, and while we have time to finish before crossing deadline, we don't have time to be distracted by things that don't need to be ready yet.
The other reason I wave off these conversations is because I think most people who offer advice in this area don't know what they're talking about. Most of them are people who failed. And most of them failed because they weren't good enough. It's true that many people who succeed don't deserve it and succeed because of money or a big name or a connection. You can succeed and not be good enough. However, if you failed, you were not good enough.
I don't need this film to succeed; if it never makes a dime, it will still have done what I needed it to do, which is to prove to me (and future investors) that I'm capable of completing a watchable feature. It has the added bonus of giving Ciro a picture to learn on as a producer. We did not spend any money on it we couldn't afford to spend. It was a quarter the cost of the average wedding in the U.S. I don't bet money I can't lose or buy things I can't afford.
But it's starting to piss me off to hear people who failed tell me** I'm going to fail and it's one in a million odds and various Puddleglum hyperbole, all presented as a simple fact of all films and not related to whether my film is good or bad. (None of them have seen it or met me.) I'm sure it makes them feel better to think that quality doesn't matter. I'm sure they think they're protecting me by showing me the harsh truths of the world. But holy crap I've faced steeper odds than this in other situations and come out on top. I've been in the 99.9th percentile on every test ever. I've gotten into the tough schools even if I decided not to go there. I've pulled down the one-in-ten-thousand scholarships. I've been the genius among geniuses, the special exception, the game-breaking high score.
I've pulled off all kinds of stuff that's supposedly impossible; I just don't tend to find it interesting to talk about, and what I'm aiming for is rarely fame or money, so meeting me on the street it's invisible. Yeah, I fail sometimes, never disastrously; it's part of the process and it's not terribly scary. (And it's the part I tend to talk about, because it takes more thinking. Also, I do always think I could be appreciated more, but this is a quibble and partly something I do to myself.)
This film is going to succeed. It's obvious. It may have to succeed the hard way, but I don't think it's going to take the hard way (and in some ways I find the hard way more compelling and more in line with my long-term objectives). It is going to succeed because in this area I am actually exceptional. The odds are not threatening because the odds don't apply. I'm not egotistically delusional; the delusional people are the ones saying that skill and point of view don't matter.
* Sort of. It's why now the producer collects the Best Picture Oscar, and in fact the Academy has recently gotten aggressive about trying to make sure it's the real producer up there (yes there is really only one) and not the co-producer, line producer, associate producers, and producers in name only (as this is a common vanity credit you give to people who are important investors). However, initially the Oscar went to the head of the relevant studio, because when the Oscars started there was no such thing as indie movies and independent distribution, and it was all just an industry party shared by the major studios, not much different from morale awards given out at any other big company you could name.
** More accurately, they tell Ciro. People who talk to me are very confident. And goddamnit don't try to demoralize my producer when he needs to get shit done. Let's all go to track meets and shout to the runner in the lead on their final lap that they'll probably trip. We will be helping.
