Over the past few weeks I’ve been traveling almost non-stop for family events, location scouting, and the NAB conference. After these were done, I had planned to buckle down and get this upcoming short film ready to shoot by June 2nd.
I could really feel the clock ticking, we were weeks away and still had a LOT of details left to sort out. With so much of my time, energy, and money invested in this project – the last thing I wanted was a sloppy shoot.
And then we decided to make some script changes (again), erasing some of the work we’d already done. Now it felt like we were moving backwards, while my anxiety was barreling ahead.
I thought, “Okay, it’ll be tight, but I still think I can get all this done in time…”
And then life happened.
I got word that we lost a family member… in Australia.
I wish I could say it immediately put the stress of this project in perspective… But to be honest, after the news sunk in and I realized I’d lose another week traveling to attend the funeral, it was the last straw for me. I was totally overwhelmed and had a little pity-party meltdown.
There’s not enough time. This film is going to be a catastrophe… a very public catastrophe.
I give all the credit to Toni for talking me off the bridge and getting me to do the one thing I needed to do all along…
This issue of Friday Film Notes is sponsored by: Milanote
Milanote has totally transformed how I prep my film projects. Its intuitive, visual interface makes it easy to brainstorm scenes, track timelines, and collaborate with my team in real time. It keeps all my creative ideas and planning in one place—I love it.
Asking For Help
The big problem holding up the film was I was shouldering too many producing responsibilities. Even though there are 2 other producers on this project, it was easy for me to tell myself “But I’m directing this thing, I need to step up and lead by example.”
In reality, they needed to be tasked with their own responsibilities and empowered to tackle those tasks proactively. And I needed to let them know I was struggling to move the ball down the field fast enough.
Once we had this conversation (that should have happened weeks earlier), suddenly things started happening. Deadlines got created. A new master spreadsheet turned nebulous to-do’s into concrete tasks. In a matter of a week, the script got revised and LOCKED. Long overdue phone calls were made. More people joined the project.
In other words – the production is relying less and less on ME to move forward.
Which is how it should be – this isn’t MY film, it’s ours. We’ve all invested a lot into it.
In fact, as the director I need to start spending more time thinking creatively about this project and less time in the weeds of the nuts and bolts of making it happen.
So I guess the moral of this issue is – It’s easy for asking for help or admitting you’re overwhelmed to feel like an admission of weakness or incompetence in making your film… but if it ultimately helps the film, who cares? Protecting your ego should never be as important as protecting the film.
And at the end of the day, there’s not much independence in independent filmmaking. It usually takes a village to make something worthwhile.
So now I’m typing this on a plane high over the Pacific, as Toni and I accompany my mom to a funeral on the other side of the world for 10 days. And for the first time in weeks, my anxiety about the film is gone. I’m confident it’ll be ready in time, and I can spend this week being present with the Australian side of my family.
By the way, if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s my recent video about putting our storyboards for this film to the test in a black box theater style test shoot:
Of course with the recent script updates, lots of these shots are obsolete 😅
Let’s make some movies.
-Kent