[Music]
ask yourself what if no one ever bought
any of my work what if I’m never gonna
sell a book or publish a book or a short
story are you gonna continue to write
and if the answer is yes because I have
to do then yeah then you are a writer
and whether you’re selling out I can’t
know but if their stories and you that
have to get out you want to put them
down in the paper with it but whether
you ever get the affirmation of a
contract or a book in your hand or being
on the bestseller list if you still have
to tell your stories then then your
writer if you can give it up then it
probably would be an act of sanity to
learn accounting or if you’re really
gonna be an artist with your own voice
and you want to do different things and
try you know not the standard thing then
you know the biggest balancing act you
have to pull isn’t really even being a
good filmmaker we’ll just say that you
have that is that balancing act between
sticking to your vision sticking to your
voice but not being some asshole that
could only hear the sound of his own
voice you know and that’s I mean it’s
all right there that’s it you got to be
able to listen to people you got to be
able to hear what they’re saying but you
also can’t just I mean when the when the
going gets tough not give up on your
vision
[Music]
everything I did I was following
something I really cared about something
I loved something I was passionate about
and I kept following that passion
whether it was cars whether it was
anthropology whether it was art
photography and eventually it led me to
my huge passion my real passion which
was making movies which combined all of
those things and I realized that had I
gone on to get my degree in anthropology
I would have probably made
anthropological movies in New Guinea or
someplace and eventually been on
National Geographic and you know the
History Channel and been than making
features and I had done Star Wars just
the same if I’d have gone into arts
centre and become an illustrator I would
have probably started doing animation
and doing animated films and making
animated things and then ultimately I
would have gone on and been right where
I was so no matter which route I took
because I cared about all of them they
all went to the same place had I done
what my father had wished me to do which
is to go into these office equipment
business with him which I knew like
Mozilla I knew I knew I hated them my
life would have been unpleasant and so I
think it’s very important not to do what
your peers think you should do not do
what your parents think you should do or
your teachers but to do what you inside
or even your culture of things but do
what’s inside you
[Music]
[Music]
you know it’s about bringing all the
elements together and if you are
fortunate enough to not be driven by
your own ego and not believe that all
your ideas are the only good ones and
are open to suggestion
and to criticism that’s not a good idea
don’t play it that way that doesn’t
serve the writing as long as as actors
and to a large degree directors our job
is to serve the writer serve the writing
if you serve the writing you will
ultimately serve yourself I think we
have gone through a couple of decades
where actors have been spending more
time serving themselves and they have
forgotten that it is about the writing
it is about finding out the world that a
writer wants to create and doing
everything you can to give director as
many choices as they possibly can have
an editing and collaborating and being
open about it and loving that aspect of
it because it’s so incredible if you a
trust the people that you work with and
and bring an atmosphere of openness and
humor to the proceedings so that
everybody wants to come to work every
day and do their best job so it is about
collaboration
[Music]
thank you know as a friend no priest
told me said you pay a price you know
when you pay a prices I just quite
honestly you know a personal life really
and relationships go by the board I mean
it was as if the Frank Capra quote it’s
like being like a drug or something that
you have to continue and now as I say
some people call that drives and call it
obsession something called just being
selfish and being not a very nice person
but the reality is that I just had to
continue that process
being an actor or even being an artist
and I had studied in school behind the
camera was not even in the vernacular of
my dreams I was raised 9 to 5 you go to
work your work you work your way up a
scale right and that was all I was able
to even like I said dream about so the
idea of living life and having a career
I was in the arts that was in the
storytelling business it was something
that’s really fun it was not something
that like said I even dreamed up
what we all are in the business of
storytelling I mean it’s not just
exclusive for people like me who are in
the entertainment business I think that
no matter what business you’re in no
matter what you’re you’re selling or
doing why is it certain businesses can
hover above their competition I mean use
Starbucks really serving the best cup of
coffee maybe not I mean I like a caramel
macchiato myself but is American Express
to really the best return rate on a
credit card probably not but it’s the
story they managed to tell and I think
that the more that we think about that
the more that we you know sometimes you
we see commercials and we see stuff and
we just go eyes so you need to turn off
that somehow those people that managed
to tell a story that managed to even
temporarily move us in a certain way
that we remember we don’t feel like
we’re being sold we feel like we’re
being told something that we can connect
to so I’ve always been driven by that
very idea that very notion
[Music]
I decided to go to film school because I
love the idea of making films on the
photography and everybody said it was a
crazy thing to do because in those days
nobody made it into the film business I
mean just unless you were related to
somebody there was no way in so
everything that’s silly you’re never
gonna get a job but I I wasn’t moved by
that I set the goal of getting through
film school and just then focused on
getting to that level because I didn’t
you know I didn’t know where I was gonna
go after that I wanted to make
documentary films and eventually I got
into the goal of once I got to school of
making a film one of the most telling
things about film schools you got a lot
of students in those days especially
it’s not quite so much today but
wandering around say oh I wish I could
make a movie I wish I could make a movie
you know I can’t get in this class I
can’t get any you know first class I had
was an animation class it wasn’t a
production class I had a history class
and an animation class and in the
animation class they gave us one minute
of film to put onto the animation camera
to operate it to see how you could move
left move right make it go up and down
and it was a test to see you know then
the teacher would you know had certain
requirements that you had to do you had
to make you go up man and me coming down
and then the teacher would look at it
and say oh yes you maneuvered this
machine to do these things and I took
that one minute of film and made it into
a movie and it was a movie that one like
you know 20 or 25 Awards
you know in every Film Festival in the
world and kind of changed the whole
animation Department and and meanwhile
all the other guys were around so well I
wish I could make lluvia which is a
production class
[Music]
I got a uh yeah I started working at
this video store it was pretty much what
you’re talking about around that time
and and it was great at first cuz I’d
always hated day jobs and stuff and so I
got a day job and it ended up being
pretty good but the middlee I was there
for five years at a certain point it was
a narcotic alright I didn’t have to keep
pursuing my dreams because you know it’s
not what I want to do but it’s sort of
kind of close and if I didn’t have an
artist soul burning in me I could have
made myself happy with that I could if i
if i didn’t have an artist soul burning
to get out I could have you know walked
backwards a couple steps and just done
that and would have been a fulfilling to
anybody else that would have been a
fulfilling life it wouldn’t been for me
because I wouldn’t know and I would have
had something to say that I didn’t get a
chance to say but it did put me to sleep
for a while and and I’ve always just
thought I mean what really got it got
everything kind of truly going for me
you could point out a lot of different
things but the bottom line is the fact
that I realized that the even the group
of people I hung around with they were
all great great great fellows and great
gals but you know I was easy for me to
think that I was doing a lot because I
was doing more to try to move myself
forward than they were but you know
that’s not yeah yeah okay I’m a big fish
in a puddle so what all right they’re
not doing anything so yeah I’m doing
more than them but um I realized that
actually I need to get my ass out to
Hollywood and meet other people who are
bill like they were in my category or or
working a little higher and and I should
be the weakest link in my chain that I
have and that’ll make me be stronger or
make me run faster I mean like an
analogy I’ve always used is alright if
you run the hundred yard dash but people
that can’t run as fast as yeah you’ll
win hands down you know that but if you
run with people much faster
you all right yeah you might come in
last every single time but your time
will be better because they’re making
you run all the faster they’re making
let me can you dig down just a little
bit more doesn’t matter that you and
your time is faster and that’s what I
knew I had to do I had to get out of
Loserville and throw myself into a place
where like this is what I do for a
living
[Music]
you know there was always this sort of
argument you sometimes see it in the way
movies are cut where there’s a cut every
three seconds because God forbid
something isn’t happening on-screen
something isn’t distracting but if you
go back and look at the great movies
there’s just a camera capturing people
in a space that is compelling and I
believe audiences actually at the end of
the day they don’t care about platforms
don’t care that it’s on Netflix or on
Instagram or of a six-second vine or a
13 hour miniseries on PBS they want good
stories if we give them great content
not just to fill the time but great
content that a great stories they will
watch it on whatever platform it’s on
okay if you get the passion if you get
the passion to do it and you do it and
it doesn’t like work out I worked for
got three years on a 16 millimeter film
that into becoming nothing with guitar
picks and uh and I was very disappointed
when I realized it wasn’t any good but
it was my film school all right and I
actually got away really cheap when it
was all over I knew how to make a movie
I don’t want to show anybody that but I
had the experience I had a lot cheaper
than I would have gone if I’d gone to
film school and it’s just a matter of
moving around until you’ve discovered
what it is a talent is a combination of
something you love a great deal does
something if you lose yourself in
something you start at nine o’clock
look up from your work and it’s ten
o’clock at night and also something that
you have a talent and it did not talent
for but skills that you have a natural
ability to do very well and usually
those two things go together
ask yourself what if no one ever bought
any of my work what if I’m never gonna
sell a book or publish a book or a short
story are you gonna continue to write
and if the answer is yes because I have
to do then yeah then you are a writer
and whether you’re selling out I can’t
know but if their stories and you that
have to get out you want to put them
down in the paper with it but whether
you ever get the affirmation of a
contract or a book in your hand or being
on the bestseller list if you still have
to tell your stories then then your
writer if you can give it up then it
probably would be an act of sanity to
learn accounting or if you’re really
gonna be an artist with your own voice
and you want to do different things and
try you know not the standard thing then
you know the biggest balancing act you
have to pull isn’t really even being a
good filmmaker we’ll just say that you
have that is that balancing act between
sticking to your vision sticking to your
voice but not being some asshole that
could only hear the sound of his own
voice you know and that’s I mean it’s
all right there that’s it you got to be
able to listen to people you got to be
able to hear what they’re saying but you
also can’t just I mean when the when the
going gets tough not give up on your
vision
[Music]
everything I did I was following
something I really cared about something
I loved something I was passionate about
and I kept following that passion
whether it was cars whether it was
anthropology whether it was art
photography and eventually it led me to
my huge passion my real passion which
was making movies which combined all of
those things and I realized that had I
gone on to get my degree in anthropology
I would have probably made
anthropological movies in New Guinea or
someplace and eventually been on
National Geographic and you know the
History Channel and been than making
features and I had done Star Wars just
the same if I’d have gone into arts
centre and become an illustrator I would
have probably started doing animation
and doing animated films and making
animated things and then ultimately I
would have gone on and been right where
I was so no matter which route I took
because I cared about all of them they
all went to the same place had I done
what my father had wished me to do which
is to go into these office equipment
business with him which I knew like
Mozilla I knew I knew I hated them my
life would have been unpleasant and so I
think it’s very important not to do what
your peers think you should do not do
what your parents think you should do or
your teachers but to do what you inside
or even your culture of things but do
what’s inside you
[Music]
[Music]
you know it’s about bringing all the
elements together and if you are
fortunate enough to not be driven by
your own ego and not believe that all
your ideas are the only good ones and
are open to suggestion
and to criticism that’s not a good idea
don’t play it that way that doesn’t
serve the writing as long as as actors
and to a large degree directors our job
is to serve the writer serve the writing
if you serve the writing you will
ultimately serve yourself I think we
have gone through a couple of decades
where actors have been spending more
time serving themselves and they have
forgotten that it is about the writing
it is about finding out the world that a
writer wants to create and doing
everything you can to give director as
many choices as they possibly can have
an editing and collaborating and being
open about it and loving that aspect of
it because it’s so incredible if you a
trust the people that you work with and
and bring an atmosphere of openness and
humor to the proceedings so that
everybody wants to come to work every
day and do their best job so it is about
collaboration
[Music]
thank you know as a friend no priest
told me said you pay a price you know
when you pay a prices I just quite
honestly you know a personal life really
and relationships go by the board I mean
it was as if the Frank Capra quote it’s
like being like a drug or something that
you have to continue and now as I say
some people call that drives and call it
obsession something called just being
selfish and being not a very nice person
but the reality is that I just had to
continue that process
being an actor or even being an artist
and I had studied in school behind the
camera was not even in the vernacular of
my dreams I was raised 9 to 5 you go to
work your work you work your way up a
scale right and that was all I was able
to even like I said dream about so the
idea of living life and having a career
I was in the arts that was in the
storytelling business it was something
that’s really fun it was not something
that like said I even dreamed up
what we all are in the business of
storytelling I mean it’s not just
exclusive for people like me who are in
the entertainment business I think that
no matter what business you’re in no
matter what you’re you’re selling or
doing why is it certain businesses can
hover above their competition I mean use
Starbucks really serving the best cup of
coffee maybe not I mean I like a caramel
macchiato myself but is American Express
to really the best return rate on a
credit card probably not but it’s the
story they managed to tell and I think
that the more that we think about that
the more that we you know sometimes you
we see commercials and we see stuff and
we just go eyes so you need to turn off
that somehow those people that managed
to tell a story that managed to even
temporarily move us in a certain way
that we remember we don’t feel like
we’re being sold we feel like we’re
being told something that we can connect
to so I’ve always been driven by that
very idea that very notion
[Music]
I decided to go to film school because I
love the idea of making films on the
photography and everybody said it was a
crazy thing to do because in those days
nobody made it into the film business I
mean just unless you were related to
somebody there was no way in so
everything that’s silly you’re never
gonna get a job but I I wasn’t moved by
that I set the goal of getting through
film school and just then focused on
getting to that level because I didn’t
you know I didn’t know where I was gonna
go after that I wanted to make
documentary films and eventually I got
into the goal of once I got to school of
making a film one of the most telling
things about film schools you got a lot
of students in those days especially
it’s not quite so much today but
wandering around say oh I wish I could
make a movie I wish I could make a movie
you know I can’t get in this class I
can’t get any you know first class I had
was an animation class it wasn’t a
production class I had a history class
and an animation class and in the
animation class they gave us one minute
of film to put onto the animation camera
to operate it to see how you could move
left move right make it go up and down
and it was a test to see you know then
the teacher would you know had certain
requirements that you had to do you had
to make you go up man and me coming down
and then the teacher would look at it
and say oh yes you maneuvered this
machine to do these things and I took
that one minute of film and made it into
a movie and it was a movie that one like
you know 20 or 25 Awards
you know in every Film Festival in the
world and kind of changed the whole
animation Department and and meanwhile
all the other guys were around so well I
wish I could make lluvia which is a
production class
[Music]
I got a uh yeah I started working at
this video store it was pretty much what
you’re talking about around that time
and and it was great at first cuz I’d
always hated day jobs and stuff and so I
got a day job and it ended up being
pretty good but the middlee I was there
for five years at a certain point it was
a narcotic alright I didn’t have to keep
pursuing my dreams because you know it’s
not what I want to do but it’s sort of
kind of close and if I didn’t have an
artist soul burning in me I could have
made myself happy with that I could if i
if i didn’t have an artist soul burning
to get out I could have you know walked
backwards a couple steps and just done
that and would have been a fulfilling to
anybody else that would have been a
fulfilling life it wouldn’t been for me
because I wouldn’t know and I would have
had something to say that I didn’t get a
chance to say but it did put me to sleep
for a while and and I’ve always just
thought I mean what really got it got
everything kind of truly going for me
you could point out a lot of different
things but the bottom line is the fact
that I realized that the even the group
of people I hung around with they were
all great great great fellows and great
gals but you know I was easy for me to
think that I was doing a lot because I
was doing more to try to move myself
forward than they were but you know
that’s not yeah yeah okay I’m a big fish
in a puddle so what all right they’re
not doing anything so yeah I’m doing
more than them but um I realized that
actually I need to get my ass out to
Hollywood and meet other people who are
bill like they were in my category or or
working a little higher and and I should
be the weakest link in my chain that I
have and that’ll make me be stronger or
make me run faster I mean like an
analogy I’ve always used is alright if
you run the hundred yard dash but people
that can’t run as fast as yeah you’ll
win hands down you know that but if you
run with people much faster
you all right yeah you might come in
last every single time but your time
will be better because they’re making
you run all the faster they’re making
let me can you dig down just a little
bit more doesn’t matter that you and
your time is faster and that’s what I
knew I had to do I had to get out of
Loserville and throw myself into a place
where like this is what I do for a
living
[Music]
you know there was always this sort of
argument you sometimes see it in the way
movies are cut where there’s a cut every
three seconds because God forbid
something isn’t happening on-screen
something isn’t distracting but if you
go back and look at the great movies
there’s just a camera capturing people
in a space that is compelling and I
believe audiences actually at the end of
the day they don’t care about platforms
don’t care that it’s on Netflix or on
Instagram or of a six-second vine or a
13 hour miniseries on PBS they want good
stories if we give them great content
not just to fill the time but great
content that a great stories they will
watch it on whatever platform it’s on
okay if you get the passion if you get
the passion to do it and you do it and
it doesn’t like work out I worked for
got three years on a 16 millimeter film
that into becoming nothing with guitar
picks and uh and I was very disappointed
when I realized it wasn’t any good but
it was my film school all right and I
actually got away really cheap when it
was all over I knew how to make a movie
I don’t want to show anybody that but I
had the experience I had a lot cheaper
than I would have gone if I’d gone to
film school and it’s just a matter of
moving around until you’ve discovered
what it is a talent is a combination of
something you love a great deal does
something if you lose yourself in
something you start at nine o’clock
look up from your work and it’s ten
o’clock at night and also something that
you have a talent and it did not talent
for but skills that you have a natural
ability to do very well and usually
those two things go together
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