Discipline for myself

Luis Camara, my college professor once said, “If someone told me that I shouldn’t be a filmmaker, I would tell them to fuck off,” and “No one wants to make YOUR film.” These are two lessons that have stuck with me from my studies in the Cinematic Arts Department at California State University Monterey Bay. The former speaks to outside criticism of the life of an artist and the latter is a reminder that you have to say, “Yes” because for other people “no” is the easy answer. While this is true for filmmakers, it can be applied for any artist or writer. Therefore, an artist or writer must find a means to their end. But thanks to the internet, in the year 2016, there are more outlets for artists than ever.

For me, I never saw myself as an artist or filmmaker. I am Jaeson Daniel Amarillas. Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Director, Editor. I fit more into the category of an artist but I never liked to be a self proclaimed artist. It seems too self-indulgent and vain. The irony is if you only knew the narcissist in me, you would think that I would be the perfect artist.

“Only be a writer, if there’s nothing else you want to be.” — Dave Goetsch

That said, I recently took a course with special guest artist Dave Goetsch, a writer and executive producer on The Big Bang Theory. He give a quick spiel about breaking into the industry. He said, “ Only be a writer, if there’s nothing else you want to be.” He suggested that a writer should start to write and share their work immediately online.

So here I am, on the crossroads of finishing school and heading into the industry, and I need to write now. If I cannot say “yes” to myself with discipline and practice of a craft then how do I expect anyone else to give me the same vote of confidence. Even more than that, I am going to work to make myself an unavoidable force to make people want to say “yes”. So for better or worse, here I am, writing. It’s my goal to write on Medium, to give glimpses of scripts, to tell you a few jokes, and to share short stories. All in which I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for saying “yes” to reading my first post. Hope you come back again.