Filmmaking. Filmmakers.

I've been in the business 22 years.

I've seen filmmakers come and go, and they always seem to fit into 4 categories.

#1. I've seen talented filmmakers succeed with their first or second films and not know why. So they get arrogant. They get stupid. They're the one hit wonders.

#2. Then there are filmmakers who have the talent to create the art and the maturity to understand that making movies is a business. They stay on top. They learn. They change. They improve. They succeed. They are the filmmaking legends and giants.

#3. Next are the filmmakers who have 50% - 100% talent but zero work ethic. They are the lazy. They expect opportunity to fall in their lap if they keep hanging with the same group of loser filmmakers, making worthless short films to be discovered on YouTube or at stuffy worthless local or regional film festivals that no one's ever heard of and no distributor's acquisition exec will ever attend.

They reject any form of criticism. You'll find them huddled together in online forums where they can pat each other on the back - blind leading the blind - and snicker at any producer who has the nerve to ask them create a movie that must work within specific parameters. (I've been on the producer end of that stick, and believe me, these people get nasty.)

They want education for nothing and at seminars, they're the ones who fold their arms and look down their greasy little noses at professionals who try and teach them how to succeed. But they won't succeed.

Why?

Because these filmmaking wannabes espouse the attitude of,

"They don't understand my art."

"My films mean something."

"They're cutting edge."

"Relevant."

"I can't compromise the artistic integrity of my creation."

"Now why won't anyone give me money to make my movies?"

They reject professional criticism and instruction because then they would have to admit they have invested time and money in their own failure, admit they were wrong, and to proceed from that point would require change, and change would require...you got it...work.

It's laziness disguised as arrogance, or confidence without a cause. Converting raw filmmaking talent to pure filmmaking talent requires honing, focus, discipline and education from both books and experience.

These filmmaking wannabes, who assumed from the womb that it would be easy because the director's commentary on the DVD made it seem so, then return unmoved to their local circle of losers, trying to be the big fish in a tiny pond, hoping to become Independent Filmmaking's next "Cinderella" story, all the while living their own "Emperor's New Clothes."

#4. Finally, you have the filmmaking wannabes who want no part of the typical loser's circle. They may have attended a 2 or 4 year film school hoping to gain the upper-hand, but graduate with a head full of theory and a pocket full of debt.

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