Sunday, October 6, 2013

Moviemaking and lemonade stands are a lot alike.



Who had a lemonade stand as a kid? OK, who knows the concept of a kid selling lemonade for 25 cents a cup?

Filmmaking isn’t that different from lemonade making. To make lemonade you don’t just say, “I’m going to make lemonade and sell it in the front of my lawn.” and POOF!it happens. To be in the movies you don’t just say, “I’m going to be a Director/Actor/Producer.” and it happens. Though that would be nice, right? “I want to be a filmmaker!”. POOF! “Get me Stallone and Rachel McAdams for my next picture!”

A lemonade stand takes effort, supplies, planning, specific tools, products and services to get that little paper cup full. Little Suzie Q’s mind doesn’t wrap around the fact that the cups have to be bought by the Executive Producer(Dad) and you’ll be lucky to get the cheap paper cups nevermind the red party cups. The lemons have to be picked from the tree or bought at the grocery store(by Mom the Producer), and it takes a while to build a stand(by you the Set Construction). The sign has to be made that says you are selling quality lemonade(again, you as the Art Director).

Now if you’re lucky and Mom the Producer calls all her friends to come buy a cup you’ll be doing good. But if you and her just hope for the best you might not make it. You might get lucky and a random stranger comes by kinda thirsty. Your selling skills on how good this lemonade is will be paramount. You are giving information to the potential customer about your service and how it will benefit them in the long run. Do you see? The customer can be both the ACTOR and MOVIE WATCHER. You are the DIRECTOR.

What’s the point here besides how great lemonade is? Use the tools as a filmmaker to make a great movie.

Actors: Your tools of trade are you mind and body. Hit the gym or go the park and workout regularly. Get your body do as you command. Read as much as you can, and no Entertainment Weekly doesn’t count. Take classes. Practice your craft. Work in as many movies as you can, whether paid or not. I regularly visit sets and on occasion will find an actor that I can see working with at a later date. If you’re not on set, how will someone know how good you are and approach you?

Crew: Be on movie sets. It doesn’t matter what you are there doing, just be there. Practice makes perfect. In one week, I went from Directing a commercial to Assistant Directing a short film to PAing a TV pilot and finished off the week by being a Camera Operator.

Writers: What did I do with my free time away from being on set? I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. Every feature film I have written shows improvement. Each one is better and better. I sell my writing here and there, and I feel lucky about it. Here is how I feel about luck. Being lucky is the culmination of hard work, treating people well & staying positive during times of insecurity. So work a lot, be nice, and good things will come.

Back to lemonade and moviemaking. Lemonade selling is a business. Movies are a self-selling business. Think about sales. Sales works for selling products from internet to wireless phones to gym memberships and if you can sell that, sell the idea and your self-worth to people.

It can be pretty sweet to be in this business. Sugar is what makes lemonade sweet but it only brings out the natural lemon taste. Too little sugar and lemonade becomes sour. Too much sugar and it spoils the lemonade. With just the right amount of sugar, magic can happen. Movie magic.

Go out and make the best movies (and lemonade) that you can!

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