04.29.20 – If y’all haven’t met my friend, Betty Buckley, you are missing out. She is a firecracker! She’s a seasoned Producer with IMDB credits as long as my arm on such cool projects as Wishbone and Green Homes Today and Jurassic Fight Club, etc, etc. But more than that we worked together in the Corporate Video trenches at Trailblazer Studios in Raleigh, NC sometime around 2005 or 2006, as I recall.
Anyway, among everything else she’s got going on she’s currently a Film Lecturer at Texas State University. About once a year, she arranges for me to talk to her Business of Film class in what I imagine is a “Scared Straight” sorta “don’t end up like this guy, David, go be an Actuary or a Fireman or anything other than a filmmaker! Please!” situation.
It never works.
They always wanna know more about how to get entry level jobs in Hollywood, how I ended up at Disney as an Editor, how to grow a cool beard like mine. Stuff like that. I mean, less beard talk, but more Hollywood shop talk which is cool. As you can see here by the picture of our zoom call it’s a good looking class. I assumed that the blacked out students were out on some sorta prison work-release or CIA witness protection program but you know Hollywood is accessible to everyone with a dream, so I prattled on.
We talked for more than an hour but my takeaway for them was this:
Hollywood is a very specialized place where you can be really good at one thing and make a great living at that one thing your whole life. But for starters they needed to try a BUNCH of things right now because they may not know what parts of Production they like and what parts they hate. More importantly, what parts they have a sweet spot for where skill and interest converge.
I reminded them of the phrase “Jack of all trades and master of none!” and the fact that that’s not how it actually goes, dummies! It’s actually “Jack of all trades and master of ONE!” Changes everything, doesn’t it. It means try a lot of things, but be really good at one or two things.
For me, that is Editing. Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve gotten my first work as an editor because I’m fast and good and have a beard. I really encouraged the girls to look into beards because it really increases marketability.
Now that I have full-time employment as an Editor, then I can branch out on my own time to pursue hobbies like Scriptwriting, Book writing, Voiceover Narration, Standup Comedy, etc. See how that works? Get you the job first that will keep you eating and clothed and housed and in town. Then, start honing your dream skill and working those connections.
Anyway, I have to be nice to all the students because odds are one day we’ll be working for them, but beyond that I really felt these Texican yutes had a lot of potential, even if their faces were naked, I could tell their heart-beards were full!
Let’s make a movie!
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