Until You're Famous

I’ve been in LA less than a year, and if there’s one thing I’ve noticed it’s that people here just don’t ‘get it.’ People think they can make others care about what they’re writing, shooting, acting in, or creating. And yet, no one I talk to ever seems to care much about anything anyone else is doing. There’s some kind of weird disconnect; once the smog hits their lungs, people become self-involved, self-absorbed and care only about how to advance their own careers. Somehow, they seem to forget success is a two-way street.

How many filmmakers do you know that put every cent they have (plus a bunch they don’t) into making a movie?  They work their ass off putting in an ungodly amount of hours, obsessing over every detail, until, after a year (or five), they finally get to the end of it. The movie’s finished, and if they’re lucky, it’s the movie they set out to make. After a brief period of thinking, “Thank God that’s over. Wow, I’m really proud of this,” they realize…NO ONE GIVES A SHIT.

The economy is in the toilet. The independent film market is dead. Everyone is afraid to buy anything. And, while your friends and family are supportive, how many friends do you have?  If your family doesn’t work in ‘the industry,’ who is going to distribute your film and get you out of bankruptcy? The reality is, the only way to get people interested and excited about what they’re doing is to care what others are doing – by sharing, collaborating and helping each other out.

So how do you do that? How do you build a collaborative, supportive environment so that you are NOT alone at the end of the line? You work towards creating a community that promotes people other than yourself, and bury the notion that the entertainment business revolves and you. It doesn’t. Get over it. You can either bang your head against the wall wondering why you aren’t at the Oscars, OR you can start taking advantage of what you do have going for you, and build a foundation that will ultimately help you achieve your long term goals.

In case you’re wondering, the above is a real life example: mine. I recently finished producing and editing the independent feature film, How I Got Lost. The film is making its rounds on the festival circuit.  And the thing my fellow filmmakers and I realized quickly, is that there are A LOT of indies out there, and not a lot of distributors with funds to buy them.  So we decided to be creative.

We came up with a monthly workshop to build community to keep us moving forward. We call it, “Something to do on a Wednesday ‘til you get really famous.” The idea behind it came from the realization that, while we didn’t have any money left for publicity, and the festival circuit is overcrowded, we have one thing going for us. We know a lot of writers, directors, and actors with projects, who need a place to show off their stuff, develop it, and meet more creative people ‘doing it.’

We had our first meeting in May. And, as we had hoped, people were into it. They just wanted to do something that didn’t involve all the bullshit. This workshop is about making other people’s work better, drinking some wine, hanging out, and, in some small way, doing something for the reason we moved here: to make cool shit.  We followed that up with another workshop in June, just a week ago. We had three new writers, even more new actors, and were standing room only. All we are doing is reading scripts together! This workshop won’t get you an agent. It will not sell your movie. It will not make or break your career. But, this workshop WILL remind you that filmmakers can form a community out here, in Lala land, and that there are a lot of people that feel the same way we do about this town.

Our long term goal is to build a network where people talk to each other, and go to each others’ screenings, concerts, showcases and events.  We plan to throw our own events and invite you to join us. In turn, we want to help you promote your events. We want everyone involved to think and practice that mantra we learned in first grade, “I’ll come to yours, if you’ll come to mine.” And then just maybe, if we can get it together just enough, and we workshop our projects to make them good, the industry might sit up and take notice. And even if they don’t, fuck em, cause we’re going to have a great time along the ride.

Our little film, How I Got Lost, screened two weeks ago at the Dances with Films Festival at the Laemmle 5 on Sunset.  We had a packed house.  That was not an accident.

To contact Sam Mestman email: samfilm777@mac.com
Or visit: http://www.howigotlost.com