Presentation on 'The Art of Perseverance in Australian Feature Filmmaking'
Australian International Documentary Conference
'Net > Work > Play'
February 2015, Adelaide
By Nick Bolton
www.theartofperseverance.com.au
8. APS 2012 Key findings
1. 4,000 âproducersâ which clearly isnât sustainable in a country
the size of Australia
2. A producer is generally very well educated and experienced
in other sectors and has generally aware of the notion of
psychic income.
3. The lack of interest in financial success was extremely
shocking.
4. Most producers self-describe themselves as creative
5. A lack of familiarity in legal, financial and technical
requirements.
6. A desire to improve their skills
10. The selection policy
By region Australia only
By format Feature & documentary only
By role The Originator
By credit Film in Production or
distribution
Industry Expert
40 x 1 hour interviews, most filmed
11. So can we define Perseverance?
Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an
individualâs passion for a particular long-term goal or end state
coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective
objective.
Source: Wikipedia
24. Rebecca Barry
Producer, Director, Media Stockade
I am a Girl, The Surgery Ship
Sue Maslin
Producer, Filmart Media
The Dressmaker
Ideas that matter,
Miscarriage of justice
Missing gaps in
history
A social justice theme
25. Rebecca Barry
Producer, Director, Media Stockade
I am a Girl, The Surgery Ship
it has a social impact, to change the way people
think, act or feel about the world
26. Michael Budd
Director
Love of my Life
Horror has a huge online audience.
I donât particularly like horror but it could get revenue.
29. Rebecca Barry
Producer, Director, Media Stockade
I am a Girl, The Surgery Ship
Sue Maslin
Producer, Filmart Media
The Dressmaker
I went on a ten day
course, where we had to
give up coffee, alcohol,
sugar and other
stimulants, and learn how
to switch off, to learn
how to sleep.
Best thing I ever did.
30. Enzo Tedeschi
Producer, Distracted Media
The Tunnel, Event Zero, AirLock
My wife and I
mutually agreed on
me becoming a full
time filmmaker as
we started âThe
Tunnelâ
I cant fuck it up.
or sheâll kill me.
31. Rebecca Barry
Producer, Director, Media Stockade
I am a Girl, The Surgery Ship
I was filming all over the world on âI am a Girlâ often in
war ravaged countries
My partner and I agreed to speak to each other every single day
34. Enzo Tedeschi
Producer, Distracted Media
The Tunnel, Event Zero, AirLock
I was so honest
with everyone, Look
mate, I cant afford
you but I love your
work, I think youâll
like this project and
I think we can do
some great work
together.
35. Rebecca Barry
Producer, Director, Media Stockade
I am a Girl, The Surgery Ship
Sue Maslin
Producer, Filmart Media
The Dressmaker
I take the same
approach with my
crew, especially Heads
of Department, as I do
in the auditioning of
cast.
They are as, if not
more, important.
38. Marshall Curry
Writer / Director, Marshall Curry Productions
Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls
If you are at a party, and three people tell you are drunk and
should go home, then maybe you should go home.
39. Rebecca Barry
Producer, Director, Media Stockade
I am a Girl, The Surgery Ship
Loving your project is the key, but thatâs not enough.
You need to know it inside out.
40. David Court
Head of Screen Business, AFTRS
I can see it in someoneâs eyes when they are unflinching
in their resolve and have an answer to every question.
42. Amin Palangi
Writer / Director, Palangi Productions
Love Marriage in Kabul
Make sure all
your revenue
streams are in the
film industry such
as teaching, even
if that does make
other peoples
drams come true!
44. Rebecca Barry
Producer, Director, Media Stockade
I am a Girl, The Surgery Ship
Sue Maslin
Producer, Filmart Media
The Dressmaker
Always allocate the
Opportunity Cost of
lost wages on the
bottom line as a loan
to the company.
46. Rebecca Barry
Producer, Director, Media Stockade
I am a Girl, The Surgery Ship
It took years to get funding for âI am a Girlâ until gender inequality
came to the fore, into the zeitgeist.
Sometimes its best to wait for the right time.
47. David Court
Head of Screen Business, AFTRS
Even if its all signed, it can still fall apart.
The deal is only done once the money is in the bank.
48. The easiest and the hardest
Perseverance DEV FUND PRE PROD POST MKTNG DIST
Easiest 0 0 2 23 6 0 0
Hardest 9 14 0 0 4 2 2
Thank you Marcus and welcome everyone
Whenever I mention the words âThe Art of Perseverance in filmmakingâ, I get the same reaction, a knowing giggle or snigger, and a look upwards for heavely intervention
Everyone here has persevered in filmmaking
Infact you would be quite familiar with this
Weâve all had these thoughts during the creative process
The little voice
The doubting voice
Its such a dangerous voice
NEXT SLIDE
The British psychologist Dr Steve Peters calls this little voice the Chimp Paradox. We all have our chimp nattering in our brains. We need to control the chimp
I urge you to read the book. Many Olympians credit Dr Peters for their success.
How do we get ourselves off the ropes when things are going bad.
How do we regroup and get ready for the next big project?
Career sustainability is a big issue in the creative arts and especially in film
NEXT SLIDE
Screen Australia researched this and looked at the number of credits given to writers, producers and directors over a 43 year period. Thatâs a very long long time
Explain the results
Not the best
What are the reasons, talent drain overseas, lack of financial reward, demand exceeding supplyâŠ.
Wouldnât it be great if we could tap into the insights of the experienced filmmakers and see if we can learn from them, and enable more first timers to make, 2, 3the filmmakers with one or two films to make more films.
What inspires a filmmaker to undertake a film project?
Out of all the art forms, the film is the big daddy of them all.
I generalize and simplify, but a poet could write a poem right now and perform it in the foyer at lunch, so could a painter, a singer songwriter. They are solo pursuits requiring little financial input or indeed return.
Recorded music, opera, theatre these are longer pursuits dependent on many many people and much capital investment.
The feature film take the longest, requires the most people and the most investment.
NEXT SLIDE
Now we all familiar with the traditional filmmaking process Interestingly marketing has pushed itself to the beginning due to the disruptive nature of the internet
The bottom line shows the average time for each part, development and funding typically taking over 50% of the time of the film. This âfunding gapâ is the bain for many producers. How do you fill it with income.
The average feature film take seven years on average to complete. That is a long long period in someoneâs life.
NEXT SLIDE
Seven years ago in 2007. twitter was launched and this man launched a thing called the iPhone.
So why do we subject ourselves to seven years of our lives to make a film.
The odds of âsuccessâ both critical or commercial are stacked against us, yet weâre all drawn to it.
I was introduced to the Australian Producers survey done by Deb Verhoeven at Deakin Uni, David Court at AFTRS and few other clever clogs
NEXT SLIDE
After the success of the small pilot survey in 2009, the second âwaveâ or survey was produced in 2012, it surveyed over 450 producers in Australia as to their motivations.
Deb summarized the survey to me with these 6 key findings.
NEXT SLIDE
There are 4,000 âproducersâ which clearly isnât sustainable in a country the size of Australia
A producer is generally very well educated and experienced in other sectors and has generally aware of the notion of psychic income.
The lack of interest in financial success was extremely shocking.
Most producers self-described themselves as creative
A lack of familiarity in legal, financial and technical requirements.
A desire to improve their skills
Itâs a lengthy document over 120 slides, so I wont go through it but this slide is worth some time
This table asks
How much does each of the following drive or motivate you as a producer?
If Dark green is âdrives me a lotâ and light green is âdrives me a bitâ, look how 100% of recipients state satisfying creative vision is highest
Criteria such as âachieving critical acclaimâ , âpressure and excitementâ âcontributing to the art formâ all rate highly
The first red bit we see, which means âdoes not drive me at allâ is a âsteady income streamâ 5th out of the 14 options
âreliable working arrangementâ âinfluencing public opinionâ âhelping others realise creative visionâ âbeing well connectedâ â winning respect of othersâ â winning awardsâ âbig hitâ
The worst performing criteria is âbeing well known to the publicâ with 42% saying they are not driven,
But look at the penultimate criteria
â making a lot of moneyâ has 51% of producers saying it is a neutral driver or doesnât drive me a bit or not at all.
Now the report is very quanitiative in nature, very data heavy, very black and white
I wanted to hear a voice
I decided to ask the industry.
NEXT SLIDE
I received some sage advice from Deb Verhoeven in restricting your sample to a series of criteria so you identify trends much easier.
I have stuck to Australia only,
I am only interested in feature and documentary, not TV, web, etcI am only interested in the person who has generally driven the project from start to the beginning â whom I dubbed The Originator. The entrepreneur.
They must have a credit
I also spoke to Industry Experts.
NEXT SLIDE
But first I wanted to research perseverance
And Wikipedia provided this definition of Grit which is what psychologists call Perseverance.
I thought perseverance was an intangible feeling, an unmeasurable thing, so I was surprised to hear you can measure it
NEXT SLIDE
Do check out the work done by Angela Duckworth at Penn University
I have put the link up on the Message Board on the Net Work Play Pathable â go and do the test!
Check out some of the questions
I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge
New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones
My interests change from year to year â not very helpful if a film takes seven years to make.
Setbacks dont discourage me
But the Grit Survey is not very specific to film,
And The Australian Producers Survey looks at motivations for sure, but still doesnât tell me, or advise me, as to how people get through the filmmaking process.
I wanted to expand on this, explore the colour compared to the black and white data, to find their soul, I wanted to hear their stories.
NEXT SLIDE
What is it that makes Werner Herzog persevere for 12months in his attempt to push a steamboat through 1km of Amazon rainforest, to make his film FitzCarraldo. Thatâs not 12 months of âproductionâ to make the film, thatâs 12 months to clear the jungle and many may men to pull a steamboat by hand.
Les Blanks film âBurden of Dreamsâ documents this madness and is well worth a watch.
By the way you now the game where we all have a famous person lookalike,
NEXT SLIDE
well Werner Herzog and AIDCâs Joost den Hartog must be relatedâŠ
NEXT SLIDE
So I started to talk to people, and started to jot down the types of perseverance, and was able to categorize them
Now this isnât a finite list, but itâs a good starting point.
Lets start with Personal Perseverance
Burn out is a recurring theme, how do we feel physically
How do we feel mentally, inspired and driven or under pressure and stressed?
And then I was interested in the personal perseverqnce with your partner, or kids. If they are outside to the film industry, the perseverance is madness, it is insanity
A feature film is a huge step up professionally and lots of risks are taken, so how does one perseverere intellectually, learning about new technical requirements, collaborating with key creatives and leading a team across many many disciplines
And of course the element of financial persevrerance needed to be explored.
Working through development and funding stages, usually unfunded, there is an opportunity cost of the lost income of not applying your skills and expertise to fee paying projects
And if you are the champion of the film, you are paying out capital to secure the pre sales.
Then there is perseverance required to source the funding from the investor, all the rejections, and then all the negotiating from a low position of power.
And even if you do secure the funding, there is then the pressure of paying back the investors, if you can, before you get paid.
And amongst all these perseverances, there is trying to maintain creative control, how do fulfill your creative vision. Maintaining vision amongst the creatives, against pressure from the investors and other stakeholders,
And then issues during production, or post production meaning the vision has to be compromised.
So now I had my four categories of perseverance to map against the filmmaking process.
So what did I learn from these inspiring filmmakers
Is it possible to define âThe Art of Perseverance in Australian filmmakingâ
PLAY TRAILER:
So there you have it - The Art of Perseverance of filmmaking is all about chocolate, job done.
John was making the shrewd point that you need to know your audience. Just saying Chocolate isnât enough, There are lots of sorts of chocolate
Milk chocolate may be the most popular but sometimes its better to go for dark chocolate a less crowded sector but still with many many fans.
Yes you need to love your project but if you are the only one who loves it, then its just a passion project.
So before I investigated my four types of perseverance
I asked everyone what was the reason for pursuing their particular project
What was the X Factor for their project
What possesses Terry Gilliam to pick a project that he had to paint the flowers yellow.Do watch Lost in La Mancha, the documentary about Gilliamâs quest to make Don Quixote
Itâs a simple premise but often an overlooked one.
Taking the job for the cash isnt the same as wanting to tell the story
Really really ask yourself if this project is for you. If you can justify the seven years, that justification is a great driver
Some practitioners only pick projects because it fits on certain criteria.
If it doesnât, then they donât pursue it.
They create a âbrandâ for themselves of projects that complement each other.
Having that âcreedâ helps determine your project selection criteria,
Only one of my interviewees, Michael Budd, admitted commercial reasons for making his first feature film:
Michael said âThreatrical distribution is so hard so I looked at what sold online. Horror has a huge online audience. I donât particularly like horror but I could access a community who were prepared to buy it online.â
So lets get into the four types of perseverance.
First up personal perseverance, I used this iconic image of Sam Burgess, he bust his jawbone and eye socket in the first minute of the Rugby League Grand Final, carried on, inspired the Rabbitohs to their first title in decades, got man of the match,
With a minute to go, with the game won he broke down in tears of joy.
Now Samâs efforts during the game are impressive but itâs the years of training and dedication that enabled him to do that.
And in some ways filmmaking is the same. Mark Grentell had the foresight to realise he had to be in top shape if he was going to lead a group of people through the filmmkaing process. He got himself physically fit
For her film The Dressmaker, Sue Maslin was negotiating with seven different lawyers in four different time zones. She was up all hours and it was taking a toll
Her partner advised she wasnât firing on all cylindersWhich leads me to the next important element â your partner.
The role of the partner cropped up a lot. You can see what drives Enzo on a day to day basis.
Filmmaking is a selfish practice. If you have family and children to support and provide for.
Mark Grentell had just had his first child when I interviewed him. He commented how he could not have done Backyard Ashes if he had a newborn during the process.
Your partner can be the one person to drive you through the stresses of the process.
Bec and her partner communicated for emotional support and as well as security.
Lets look at professional perseverance.
I love this image.
The lesson to take out of it is that as the leader, you are often the big hippo and feel you have to do all the supporting
But this research revealed that sometimes you can be the baby hippo as well.
Collaboration is key to building a team of better individuals around you:
You cannot do it on your own
Many a first time indie filmmaker tryâs to do too much on their own and spreads themselves too thinly
Enzo tried to source the best people he could even though he had miniscule budgets for The Tunnel.
His project was so out there and disruptive that may wanted to join him on that crazy and successful ride.
At the other end of town, The Dressmaker will be one of the biggest films made in Australia to be released in 2015.
Sue gets the best. She collaborates with people far more experienced than her in their department. She trusts them to do their job.
Mark had never directed before Backyard Ashes. I loved listening to him how he used his naivety to empower the crew.
He was so switched on to how important culture and morale is in getting better results.
The passing of learnings down the chain is very important to him.
But with this tam how does one maintain their creative vision.
No this isnât a shot from last nights Opening Party but it does reference a
Last year at AIDC I interviewed from twice Oscar nominated doco maker Marshall Curry on The Art of Perseverance
We were talking about perseverance in post, during the edit and the fine line between sticking to your guns and listening to feedback
Marshall said,
NEXT SLIDE
if you are at a party and three or more people are telling you are drunk and should go home, then maybe you should go home. â
So you need to have a vision.
And Weâve already established that love and passion of your project is the key
But thatâs still not enough
Creative perseverance comes from knowledge of the subject matter. Being able to articulate every aspect of the project to anyone at any time.
Because if you do know it inside out, you can answer every question
You canât get caught out
You have no doubts in your mind and so no one doubts you. No investor, no cast or crew member, no distributor, no interviewee can doubt youThey can see your passion is backed up with knowledge.
David court has seen many a pitch in his extensive career and says
And the benefit of knowledge for your subject matter is that It builds that momentum which Iâll get to.
First we need to look at financial perseverance.
The legendary Apocalypse Now was planned as a 90 day shoot and eventually went for 298 days, A $12m budget escalated to $46m, and that was in the 70âs
It was initially a critical and commercial failure, now its an iconic film,
Do watch the doco about it :Hearts of Darkness - A Filmmakers Apocalypse.â
How do we persevere as filmmakers, stumping up all the cash at the front end, rejection after rejection for investment, if there is interest you have little negotiating power, youre the last to get paidâŠ.
Everyone mentioned how they MAKE SURE they HAVE MULTIPLE REVENUE STREAMS:
amin chose to have all of his within the industry, lecturing script assessing, writing study guides,
so he was surrounded by like minded folk.
but many had part time jobs outside of the industry
The âgapâ in lost income we talked about earlier does have a value
Sue Maslin puts the value of that Opportunity Cost into the Balance Sheet as a loan.
I talked about momentum briefly in Creative Perseverance, and many filmmakers talked about it
Getting the train to leave the station is the hardest thing
Jumping on board the ship
Persuading the stakeholders to jump on board creates momentum which helps with funding so much
Backyard Ashes funding started with a fundraiser in Wagga Wagga, the film is set there, and Mark credits that small event as the catalyst for all the funding that eventually led to deals with Cricket Australia and many brands. It started the ball rolling.
Creating momentum is incredibly important
You need to be aware when you dont have it, or you have lost it
ITâS ALL ABOUT TIMING as well as Momentum.
The project might not be right, right now, it might be better to put it on hold and wait for the world to catch up.
But a word of financial caution from DC.
Its very easy to commit to costs once a deal is signed. Its only really done when the money is in the bank.
So there are just a few insights. I could go on for hours. The filmmakers were all so generous with their time and honesty and I thank them very much for their support. Many are here this week so do go and talk to them more.
My take on it is that Perseverance is a double edged sword. Yes you have to be very focussed and but also flexible and nimble to adapt. To stay strong to your beliefs but open to suggestion and feedback.
To wrap, I did ask a few quantitative questions as well. Small sample size noted
One of which was to ask where your perseverance has to be at the highest eg hardest, and lowest, eg easiest
What does Hard and Easy mean you may ask. You persevere physically during long Production shoots but that seems to be less stressful than financially persevering during Development and Finance
I guess no real surprises here in that filmmakers love the Production bit the most and had to persevere the most during Development and Funding
So I hope this project might help to stop the little voices in our heads,
And next time you are at stage 3 or 4, You can take solace that we all go through the same issues, we all have the chimp nattering away
I hope The Art of Perseverance can help stop the doubt in our hearts
Will give us all the confidence to get back on the horse and pursue our dreams
And help reduce the burn out and brain drain
My project didnât end with a thesis. Far from it. Its just the beginning.
Itâs a website, itâs a social community
The documentary is in post production and I hope to release if it a few months time.
Itâs a speaking presentation and itâs a Panel Session at events where I interview more filmmakers
I am also developing an educational outreach program taking the format around the Schools and Unis and indeed the corporate boardrooms of Australia
If any of you in the audience can see this benefitting your organisation, or if you can help me get it out to as many people as possible, then I would love to talk further
Iâll take questions in a minute.
Thank you for listening, I hope you didnât have to persevere too much.
As I went through my research and interviews, I asked people to sign my promotional postcards (one of which is in your delegate pack )
I asked people to sign them with a word or phrase that sums up perseverance to them.
Iâll scroll through them as I take any questions as they give interesting perspectives!
Many thanks for your time and I hope the insights keep you persevering with your art.