Would you like to know the single most important thing you can do to advance your movie career?
Set clear, specific written goals.
Goal setting is something very few people do and is absolutely essential for achieving anything extraordinary throughout your profession, whether working in movies or not. From my own experience I have always had dreams and desires (in my head) of things I wanted to accomplishment in my career but the problem was that they remained just in my head. With my dreams and desires just floating around in my head it became quite easy to be sidetracked, forget or simply give up on achieving anything worthwhile. My struggle and frustration from my lack of progress in my movie career had me searching for answers.
Was success in the movie industry really based on luck? Maybe I was not lucky? Maybe making movies was not my calling? However, everything changed for the better for me once I read a book by Brian Tracy called Goals: How to get everything you want faster than you ever thought possible. I strongly recommend that if you are not currently in the habit on setting goals for yourself and your career to read this book.
Basically, the book details how we as human beings are fully responsible for creating the type of life or career we want and the single best way to guarantee our success is through setting goals. Here are the benefits of setting clear goals for your career:
6. CLARITY
You will have more CLARITY: You have to know where you want to go to get there. Setting goals requires you to develop clarity. This is the first and most important step to creating a career that you love and want.
5. FOCUS
You will develop a stronger FOCUS: Whatever you focus on your get more of: if you have clear goals and focus on them, you will get more of what you DO want (your goals) and less of what you don't want.
4. EFFICIENCY
When you get clear about where you want to go, you set up steps and actions to get there. This increases your efficiency because you are working on what is really important. When you work on what is important, you will accomplish more than you ever expected.
3. DREAMS
You will get what you really want in life, rather than settling for whatever comes you way.
2. INCREASED SELF-CONFIDENCE
As you set and reach your goals, you become more confident in your ability to do what you say and get what you want in life. Success breeds more successes.
And the number 1 benefit of setting goals is:
1. RESULTS
There are numerous studies that prove that less than 3% of people walking on the face of this earth have written goals, and according to research, these people accomplish 80% more than those who do not. That is an astounding difference,
is it not?
Your goal could be as simple:
I finished writing the first draft of my screenplay by July 20th, 2009.
Or
I directed my second feature film by October 10th, 2009.
I know for a fact that since I started setting career goals for myself starting back in 2008 that I have achieved more in my film career within the past 12 months then I have in the previous four years combined without having any writing goals.
What about you? Are you happy with the progress or stage your career is in? Do you want more or feel you have the talent, drive or ambition to accomplish more?
Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals
Aristotle
For more filmmaking tidbits check out http://filmstop-online.blogspot.com/
I'll second all of that AND add, "Know what you're really getting yourself into." What I mean by that is, while it is imperative to set specific goals....
.... don't just say, "I want to be a filmmaker"... instead say, "I want to be a feature film Director" or "I want to be a Director of Photography" or "I want to be an Editor.... The industry is VERY specialized and very few people do more than one thing... BE SPECIFIC about what you want to do for a living....
So, while it is imperative to set specific goals, set them based on actual knowledge about what that specific job really is like. Find out what it takes to get there. What kind of education do you need? How much money do YOU have to invest in your own education? What kind of supplies do you need to do the job and how much money do YOU have to invest in purchasing those things before you go do that job? Find out what a typical working day is like, as in, what time do you get up to go to work? What do you actually do when you get there? What kinds of people do you have to work with and can you handle that? How long is the typical work day? How many days or nights a week do you typically work? How many days a year WON'T you work and can you handle that lack of income? If you want to "move up" to the next job in your department, can you and how do you do that?
The point being, often jobs seem like they might be "cool" but the realities can be unexpected when it comes to income and life-style and geography (where you have to live to do it), etc.
Learn EVERYTHING you can about the job you think you want BEFORE you embark on that path. It would be a damn shame for you to invest thousands of dollars and years of your life in school only to find out that "Hey, this sucks!"
How do you do this? Talk to working professionals. Internet forums are a nice way to connect, but not all working professionals have time or interest in participating online, so find them in real life and go talk to some. Try to get an internship and/or volunteer to work with working professionals whenever you can. You may be carrying heavy cases, but the chance to observe a real set is invaluable. Read "day in the life" books, like "What I Really Want to Do: On Set in Hollywood" and websites with REAL information like, "?url?www.wordplayer.com?/url?."
So, first FOCUS on what you specifically want to do. Then LEARN everything there is to know BEFORE you commit to spending money and time into pursuing it. Once you do determine what it is you're going to reach for, attack it with everything you've got. PASSION and PERSEVERANCE is incredibly important. More people SAY they want to work in the movie business than those who actually succeed. If you want to be one of the few successful ones, don't rely on luck and blind enthusiasm. Sure, you could luck out...it happens. But why gamble with your life like that? Life is short. Wouldn't you rather live your life doing the thing you want to do instead of working your whole life, chasing that dream and maybe never achieving it?
Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com
Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com
Nice written guys. Very motivating stuff. Keep up the good work 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5vNMPSPnGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5vNMPSPnGo
Thanks for the tips! 😕
JOHN 3:16
JOHN 3:16
Well, I'm just a newbie as far as film making is concerned, But i have the confidence in me that i would become a good filmmaker one day...Even i have set goals for myself and now your tips will help me a bit more in achieving my goal...?:)?
Sampath kumar
Sampath kumar
An aspiring filmmaker.
