Shoot First: The Trials & Errors of a Wild 2023

2023, you cruel, beautiful mistress, where do I even begin?

All in all, I’d love to call this year a raging success, which it was, but that would only be half the story. The reality of the situation is, with every little win came a loss, but a necessary loss, so was it really a loss if it was technically a win? I’m getting distracted.

For the purposes of this article, let’s call those undercover wins “losses”, and unpack the little gold nuggets to be found with each one, broken down per each of my 3 main projects of 2024: the Help Me I’m Stuck! proof of concept trailer, The Oracle short film, and the Unreal Weekly Roundup itself. Have no fear non-filmmakers (aka mostly everybody), I tackle this from a philosophical angle and keep the lessons applicable to anyone.

So without further ado, let’s get started.

Part I: The Help Me I’m Stuck! Proof of Concept Trailer

I left world-renowned talent agency, WME, at the end of 2023 (which you can read about here) with the hopes of getting my own script made. At WME, I saw firsthand how titans of the industry were having trouble getting theirs made and if they were having trouble, I was absolutely screwed.

It was for that reason that I set off to produce a proof of concept trailer. The purpose of this trailer would be to provide a visual aid for potential buyers / financiers to go along with the script, as opposed to just the script itself, which a million Joe Schmo’s can and do have. In short, I wanted to stand out and cut through the noise.

Through this process came an entire array of wins:

Win #1: I had the most fun I’ve ever had in my life (and made a ton of friends along the way)

Making a movie, no matter how small, is a lot like going to summer camp; you’re with these people 24/7 for days on end, working together on a common goal, and leave as friends for life. The common goal of summer camp is to have fun. The common goal of making a movie is to make as good a product as possible for you and everyone involved’s career, while also having fun.

By the end of our 3 days on set (15 hours Friday, 10 hours Saturday, 13 hours Sunday, don’t tell SAG), we had felt like we have known each other for years, and are still very much in each others lives today after not collaborating on anything since (…yet).

Win #2: I “found my calling”, and it wasn’t what I thought it was

God, I can’t believe I just said “found my calling”… Too much time in LA, let’s get back to Bama.

I went into this project with the goal of propping up my writing career. In fact, being a director was so far out of the realm of possibility for me for whatever reason, that when we got to set, I asked my co-producer, “So am I supposed to say ‘action’ or what?” He laughed and said as if it were blatantly obvious, “Uhh yeah, you’re the director”. Flash forward even just 20 minutes later and I’m balls deep in stage direction, character motivation, and visual subtext. Life comes at you fast.

Writers get screwed a lot of the time in Hollywood, and this always scared me. You pour your heart and soul into a script, only for you to wave goodbye as it is taken off your hands and altered sometimes to the point of unrecognizability (just made that word up). Being a director put me back in the driver’s seat, while also allowing me to utilize some of my self-proclaimed strengths such as communicating on an emotional level with others, big-picture thinking, and steering the ship.

During my 3 years in corporate America, I felt perpetually repressed, like I was walking on eggshells every time I was in the office. Being on set I felt anything but; not only did I feel free to let my true self fly, but it was encouraged and positively reinforced.

Everyone’s heard the cliche, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”. Well, this weekend proved that that might just be true.

Win #3: I found my freedom

There is nothing more important to me in this world than freedom; freedom of speech, freedom to go where I want, freedom to do what I want. This project helped me achieve that freedom.

My brother and I were raised in a fairly traditional household; my Mom is a nurse and my Dad is a plastic surgeon (visit www.drsherwyn.com for facelifts, breast augmentations, and other beauty needs). You know, stable, adult jobs. It was for that reason that nothing outside of medicine or law was really presented to us as an option growing up. Film? Forget about it.

The deal was I would produce this project, and if nothing came of it, I’d get a job at a production company working for a producer or something of the nature and get back to work. In hindsight, I can’t believe I even had the cojones to ask for such an arrangement. Turns out, I underestimated them... severely.

They saw how hard I worked on this project - harder than they’ve seen me work on anything in my life before - and, when they saw the final product, they never once asked about a “real” job ever again (I hope this article doesn’t remind them to do so). I do everything in my power each and every day not to take their unyielding faith and support for granted; I am extraordinarily blessed to have them in my life and could not do any of this without them.

So I made the proof of concept trailer, walked into a corner office at 20th Century Fox, was handed a check for $5M to make the movie, and everyone lived happily ever after, right? Yeah, no. Not even close.

With these wins came a swift kick to the ‘nads back to reality via a big old-fashioned capital L.

The Loss: We received precisely zero (0) funding or offers from any studio, producer, or financier

After the trailer premiered to a fantastic reception, I sent the script, trailer, and pitch deck out to numerous producers, agent assistants, entertainment lawyers etc., some of which I met at the premiere. I was met with what some people call the “LA promise”: “For sure bro, I got your back, I know just the guy.” If I had a dollar…

I peaked the interest of a couple financiers who were willing to put up finishing funds, but they gradually disappeared, along with every single one of the others, despite my numerous, “Hey __, just circling back!’s”. Ouch.

Good thing your boy is fluent in the language of loss and can turn those L’s around like its breakfast. Here’s what we got:

The Lessons:

1. You’re not [as] special [as you think].

I say this rather facetiously as there really is only one “you” and there are 10,000 ways to leverage that information and use it to your advantage. The point I am trying to make, however, is this:

A million people have tried to do what you’re doing before, a million people are currently trying to do what you’re doing at this exact moment, and a million more will try to do what you’re doing whether or not you succeed or fail. Don’t expect special treatment or for someone to roll out the red carpet just because you showed up to play; that is the bare minimum.

2. Do not underestimate the competition.

Hopefully you haven’t been able to tell, but I have been in a lifelong battle with the good ol’ ego, and what I’ve learned time and time again, oftentimes painfully, is that the minute that you let that grandiose voice in your head win is the minute that the real you loses. Within reason of course; you need some ego to do this afterall. But just make sure that reality’s hand is also on the wheel.

Like I said before, there are millions of people trying to make it in this business, a lot of them really talented. You can’t put even 95% effort into something and think that no one will notice that it’s not 100 or that it will be good enough to the point that it won’t matter. Trust me, someone will, it does matter, and the person putting in 110% will one-up you 7 days of the week, even if they are less talented. If you end up being lucky enough to sneak one by them, they’re still winning the other 6. Don’t sleep on the other guy, use their existence to push you to be even better.

3. Whatever you think you know is not enough.

After working at the top 2 talent agencies in the world for a total of 3 years, I thought I had enough knowledge in my arsenal to get this project made. I couldn’t be more incorrect. The response to the project (or lack thereof) forced me to reflect on my blindspots and dive deeper into how this hotdog is made. I put myself through The Blake Sherwyn School of Film and Fine Arts, which consisted of a gauntlet of industry-specific books, 1 movie to be studied through an academic lens a week, and over 100 hours of the Indie Film Hustle Podcast (I’ll break all of this down in greater detail in a future article), learning more in the few months after the project’s completion than I did in 3 years at the agencies.

With the knowledge I accumulated through this process, I kick myself a bit because, if I had I done all the necessary homework from the start, I truly believe I could’ve gotten the film made. For better or for worse, that’s just not how the world works. It takes experiences like this to teach you the things you need to know; you don’t get the luxury of hindsight while you’re in it. All you can do is take what you learned and put it into the next one, which is exactly what I did…

Stay tuned for Part 2.

PS:

Help Me I’m Stuck! will return.

Help a brotha out: