How do I not let other people discourage me out of my goal?

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Basically I want to get into a career as a film director, and have decided to make my own feature film after saving up a lot of money. But people think I am crazy for wanting to do this, and everyone is telling me absolutely not to. I talked about it before on this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=358146

But now since then, and now that I am closer to getting the ball rolling, the pressure for me to quit is so much higher, and I feel like everyone is just at my legs trying to pull me away. Even my parents think it's a huge mistake and waste of so much money as the movie will never sell.

What can I do to try to ignore everyone better, or how do other people do this when trying to achieve a goal, that everyone is trying to talk them out of?

I've had moments where I thought I had a good story too, I even wrote part of it out. The story was awful, kind of like a twilight with elves (way before twilight actually) .

I'm inclined to tell you the same thing others have told you because I'm worried it'll be bad like mine. I mean, even if your first attempt is good, it still has to outshine all of the other good movies.

You seem determined to do this. I personally wouldn't invest my livelihood in something as fickle as the entertainment industry, but that doesn't mean it's a bad path for you.

One of the other posters encouraged you to make a short first, I recommend that approach. The odds of a first time success are seriously against you, you'll be forced to deal with aspects of movie making that you never thought of. They won't be as budget hungry as a feature length film either, so you'll get more chances to develop your talent; not to mention explore different approaches. Even if your vision doesn't come to fruition, practical experience with putting a film together could open doors for you.

Sorry, that didn't exactly answer your question. When it comes to keeping your resolve, exercise really helps, it's a physical template for testing your resolve. A good way to do it is set a small goal, then follow through; you can slowly add to it as you do it more.

There's also getting a good work-flow setup, such as knowing what equipment you need, and where to keep it. Minimizing work chaos and clutter always helps me stay on task. Are you going to manage people? Edit film? Set up scenes? Direct? From personal experience, the hours or days spent setting up will go a long way towards a project's success.

So in a nutshell, exercise will help nurture your resolve, and preparation will help your resolve go a lot further.

i have another question, how do i let people encourage me to my goals xD i just dont believe when they say "u can do it"
sorry for offtop
aint got a steady answer here for obvious reeasons but i wish u manage.

Okay thanks. As far as short films go, I have already made three, going on four. But I feel that people will try to stop me no matter what though. I already own quite a far amount of equipment. When you say "where to keep it", what do you mean by that?

I didn't know about your portfolio, how did your projects go? When I talk about where to keep it, I mean where you keep things when you're not using them, and where you stage things when you are using them. Do you have to get up and move around a lot to do your work? Would you rather have your stuff all in one place? Is there information you routinely have to reference? Maybe you could post it in your work area to save time. They sound simple and mundane because they are, but small things like that have a big impact on how you get your work done.



That sounds like your friends are being polite and friendly, which I don't find helpful. Feedback on something you've done is one thing, but polite encouragement is just a conversation filler. Management goes a long ways, I have a difficult time with self-management, I wouldn't be here if I didn't. I have persistence though, and that gets me places too.

Film directing is cool, i've studied film and photography but I gave up years ago on ever working in the field because it's extremely hard to get anywhere as it's a very popular field to work in and you have to be good at talking and pushing yourself forward and be good at marketing yourself. I see it as a hobby now. I was thinking of filming a documentary of some kind with an old friend but my friend was not as into the idea so it never happened but it's still a dream of mine that i'll try to make happen once I find someone willing to do it with me.

I say go for it but don't put too much high expectation into it. There are films about all kinds of things, documentaries about the most random of people that get popular and people watch it so of course it could work. There has also been a lot of flops, many "best worst movies ever" because the acting, script and quality of the movies are so bad so pay close attention to those things and don't make the same mistakes.

In the end it's your money, you use it however you want just don't get yourself broke. Be wise about it and have a backup plan. This is a risky thing to do but if people let that stop them all the time then there wouldn't be any movies at all!

Oh well the first short film went okay. Some turned out good, some bad, over all a mixed bag. The second went pretty bad I felt. It was for film school, and when you are done the project, they send it away to have the audio mixed, but it came back pretty bad I thought, compared to me picking my own post production sound mixer.

The third turned out much better I got much better opinions on it so far from others.

As for where I keep my stuff it really all depends. I have places at my home where I keep it in packs, and then when I get a shooting location, it really all depends where it needs to be.

You're a lot further along than I imagined. I doubt there's much I could tell you about taking on a project that you haven't already learned for yourself.

I stand by the exercise, even though it'll exhaust you and make you feel weak, it'll build momentum and confidence in the long run. You'll be less susceptible to doubt.

I recommend a book called Mastery. The author of this book studied the lives of talented people throughout history and distilled an approach that others can follow in order to maximize their potential as well. Of course the biggest thing is non-stop work and determination, but you already seem to have that. Maybe you can find something in his work that can help you on your way.

okay thanks. It's just people tell me that I am not nuts and that a few short film projects, is hardly enough to blow so much money on a feature film hoping that it just might get picked up. I'm choosing to run before I've barely learned how to walk, and you just can't take short cuts like that and hope to still succeed they say. Do you think that's true?

Simply avoid the people trying to hassle you about it; or tell them in no uncertain terms to shut up, even being rude if you have to.

Okay thanks, I guess I just feel that they are most likely right and that there is a 98% chance I will fail since finding success on the movie actually being good enough to sell, is like finding a needle in a haystack, so I fear that they will be right.

I thought you might find this interesting. This guy filmed a feature film and this is his account of what he learned from the process and how it turned out. He had won awards for his short films and was expected to do well... spoiler alert... his film tanked... but he learned a lot in the process

That's a very good video, thanks for showing it to me! I am actually very scared of loosing a lot of money so I hope that it goes well.

Film Director or Film Producer?

Directors direct (and have EXCELLENT executive functioning skills in order to plan & direct MANY others into doing the things necessary to bring a film's vision to life.)

Producers.. well, basically, they're the $. They finance films. They're the source of funds that pays the bills and they have to have a rather good understanding of what type of film is going to make money And then hire all the right people to make it happen.. otherwise they're taking their money and essentially throwing it away if the film is unsuccessful. MANY movies get made.. few movies end up in theatres. Movies go to a sort of prescreening festival where theatres and others might bid on them for purchase. If no one buys is there, then they might be sold to some direct to DVD/BluRay distributor if they think they can make money selling it.. otherwise they might get sold off to a TV station to put on some movie channel. The price they might pay for a movie vs. a cinema chain is typically much lower, since there's much less money to be made. Then there are tons of movies made, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars - or even Millions - that never get sold to anyone and whoever paid the bill for it essentially gets exactly $0.00 in return.

As for Directing films.. that's not a job you pay for. That's a job others pay You for because you're worth it, good at it, experienced, and are the right man/woman for the job to bring a particular film concept into reality. It's a job many in film aspire to and few rise to. It's a job role that many celebrity actors take up after years in the business and a reputation for doing certain work. Sometimes they direct their own movies that they wrote & produced (paid for), other times they direct for others who trust their ability to manage the entire project and ensure that a script goes from good writing to something on film that someone will put in a theatre, on time, on budget.

It's not impossible for someone to write, produce, and direct their first movie and have it be a success. It has happened in the past. But it's EXCEEDINGLY RARE, and the probability of it happening is pretty much about as common as being struck by lightning. Your friends and family are not trying to be rude; they're trying to save you from financial ruin, stress, heartache, disappointment and all of the things that come with having good intentions & an inability to turn a project into something tangible, of saleable quality, that's going to make you a return on your investment vs. put you in the poor house.

Just read more of this thread and realize you have some experience & knowledge vs. just a blind idea.

Yes, I think that's true.

I have a cousin that is a Production Manager. She studied broadcasting in university, has worked in film for more than a decade, and has been in charge of film budgets up to $20M, IIRC. An old coworker of mine made a short film and wanted to leapfrog into a feature film. Her advice to him was to keep making short films, keep applying for grants, keep submitting shorts to film festivals. Basically, work your ass off. Hone your skills. Make mistakes and learn from them. Get better with every project. And eventually, you start to get noticed.. it often takes creating DOZENS of shorts/film festival shorts etc over several years before someone notices your work and decides that they're going to entrust you with their money to make something bigger - a feature length movie. It almost never ever EVER happens after a few shorts. I was sitting at the table when she told him all of this and that when you see someone's "debut," as a feature length film director at even a lesser known film festival, what you don't see or know is that before they got to their first full length film, they worked their ass off bringing DOZENS of other smaller projects to life before their "first," film. Be persistent, put in the hard work, carry on making ever more shorts & never ever EVER give up.. and That is how you get into the feature length film production biz. It's not done by simply wanting to be in that position.

Further, especially in film, it's about who you know.. and without knowing people you'd have to create something truly magical for someone to buy it w/o being associated with a better known name. At least with years of creating shorts you'd be making industry contacts and associating yourself with the right names to get noticed, too. It's a very social industry that way. Sure, a film should stand on it's own two legs in terms of quality & desirability for sale.. but it most certainly does help pave the way if a Somebody is promoting it vs. completely unknown names.