When did everyone become an award-winning filmmaker?
Have you also noticed that every filmmaker has become an “award-winning” one on Twitter and Instagram?
What happened?
The Internet; letting you know about your friend that is doing better than you. And now everyone feels the need to claim they are award-winning filmmakers too!
School Award? It works. Audience Award from an obscure film festival that was packed with your friends and family? I’ll take it! Online Award won on a random voting system? Give me that one!
Let’s face it, we live in a world where people love to hear about your failures once you’ve succeeded. They don’t want to know how hard it is now. They don’t care! (And why should they?)
We are under the constant pressure of having something to show for ourselves, something that our banker friend can understand. Either you have money or you are famous. If your banker friend hasn’t seen your film, tell him you’ve won an Award, it will put his mind to ease when he’ll mention to his other friends that you’re a filmmaker. Make him look good!
The Internet has become a curse and a blessing for us, filmmakers. Every day a new site, a new festival a new streaming service to showcase our work. But every day also, thousands of new voices, probably younger, probably with more time on their hands, fewer mortgages, and a higher capacity to adapt to new technologies, flood the Internet with their work and their voice.
In other words: yes, it’s easier to create a story, but you better have a unique way to say what you want to say to cut through the noise.
There’s a running joke I’ve been hearing a lot since I’ve started my own company: filmmakers don’t spend money. And I think it’s true. We’re so used to living and fighting DIY-style that we’ve learned not to spend unless it’s for gear or festival fees. Maybe.
My blog mentorless.com is built on the free knowledge I’ve curated over the last six years, so I know.
But I also know that there comes a time when investing in your creativity becomes a necessity, especially when you’ve hit the burnout wall.
You might not call it “a burnout”, but if you’ve been struggling to do the thing that you used to do without thinking twice (creating), even though it’s now supposed to be your full-time occupation, you’ve probably hit that wall.
And once you’ve hit that wall, things can spiral down pretty quickly.
And if you lose the connection to your inner creative voice, you’re f*cked.
Binge watching video-essays, reading articles, watching movies and writing screenplays are great things to do for filmmakers.
But to “write about what you know” you better be connected to who you are, what you have to say, and how to say it in your unique way.
Those things you can’t learn in a video-essay.
It’s with all these considerations in mind that we have created 10.28 Detox™.
It’s an exploration within to gain focus and energy, find ideas, and use your voice. For 10 minutes per day for 28 days, you will collect seeds of ideas and stretch your creative muscle.
You will also be encouraged to fail. Because that’s when unique ideas and voices come out. Trying hard and failing hard.
You brush your teeth every day, use your creative muscle every day.
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Nathalie Sejean is Activate® Creativity co-founder, a company dedicated to help you reconnect, stretch and nurture your creativity. Click here for more.
