Standard Story Company

Filmmaking and… Chicken Fingers?

As a filmmaker it’s tempting to want to be everything to everyone, but it’s ultimately going to hurt your work.

Bear with this fast food analogy – I promise I’ll bring it back to narrative filmmaking.

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What’s Your Filmmaking Menu?

Raising Cane’s menu has 5 meal options, 5 a-la-carte side options, and 4 drink options. 

At the end of the day, they only offer their customers 14 menu items, and most of them are based on ONE product: chicken fingers.

McDonald’s currently has 145 menu items, ranging from burgers to salads, breakfast burritos, milkshakes, and much more.

Who makes more money? Obviously, McDonald’s. Just the real estate their stores sit on is worth $42 billion.

But to me Raising Cane’s, while much smaller, has the better business.

Why?

There’s a line around the block at any hour of the day, at any store location. 

Demand is always high because they intentionally limit their expansion. 

Plus, their business is much less complicated (only 14 menu items).

Their focus is on doing as FEW THINGS as they possibly can, and doing them VERY WELL.

By narrowing their focus to essentially CHICKEN FINGERS, FRIES, and ICED TEA, how could any of their competitors ever hope to beat them in those areas? Even their ice cubes are honed in and named (Cane’s Ice).

McDonald’s is spread way too thin by comparison, and their stores get less traffic, so they have to make up for it with VOLUME.

LOTS of stores, LOTS of options = lots of total sales.

But damn, that’s a lot of work to still have your customers think your food kinda sucks.

Meanwhile, Cane’s has hoards of Caniacs – hardcore fans who will happily drive across town for it.

 

The Cane’s of Film

It’s tough for us to grow out of DIY-ing our films, because we inevitably start out by doing everything ourselves. But as we grow, we need to recognize where to best put our energy, and eliminate everything else.

Don’t try to be the best writer, AND cinematographer, AND director, AND sound mixer, etc, etc.

The more you can focus on what YOU love most about films, and what YOUR strengths are, the higher your chances of making a great film.

If you’re reading this, you probably have an interest in writing and/or directing. In that case, your goal is to be a creative decision maker, not a technician.

So don’t fall down the rabbit hole of gobbling up all the new gear that’s just been announced at NAB. It’ll deplete your wallet and distract you from being the best writer/director you can be.

Instead, be Raising Cane’s.

Your menu consists only of creating scripts, creating a vision, and leading other hungry specialists to elevate it.

But I think even that is too broad a focus…

 

1 Caniac is worth 100 McD’s Customers

Something I preach about in WRAPPED is creating a film for an audience of one.

Don’t ever try to please everyone. You’ll end up with a McDonald’s film – something easy that got the job done, but nobody will rave to their friends about it later.

You want to move people, and get under their skin right? Generic films ultimately just become noise – something passively watched and immediately forgotten. A McChicken sandwich.

Instead, try to make a film that’s hyper-focused on knocking the socks off a single specific person – maybe that’s your best friend, your dad, or yourself.

If you can do that, you’ll end up with something that’s way more unique, which ironically makes it appeal to MORE people than your bland, one-size-fits-all Mickey D’s film.

You’ll end up with…

That’s a tasty film right there.

Favorites this week:

📺 TV: Fallout

Just started this series and really enjoying it so far, but I’m biased since I’m a big fan of the games and anything Walton Goggins does.

📹 Video: No CGI is Really Just Invisible CGI

What an awesome series of videos. They shed a ton of light not only on how common VFX shots are executed in films, but also on why CGI has become a swear word when marketing films, even though it is EVERYWHERE – even on films that used “no CGI”.

That’s how we got to the point where Barbie intentionally disguised the bluescreens from THEIR OWN BTS FEATURES so more of their VFX would appear to be practical. I guess they figured this would give the film a more prestigious look for awards season. We live in strange times

 

That’s it for this week.

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent

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