Frightening for many artists is promoting themselves. They feel it is... artificial and not what we want to be known for. Yet if we start thinking about what we do as important and important to offer to people, not to sell... it allows us to shift the way we think about promoting ourselves.
In order to be artists we need to be in our studios, in our private rooms... in our private personal space... that sacred protected space, so we can make our work. That's the only work that's worth making, right? That's the place where we can be free enough and vulnerable enough to share what we have to share.
The unexamined life is not worth living. But if all you're doing is examining, then you're not living!
You can shoot and edit a movie from your iPhone and upload it to YouTube. Of course, what's not universal is talent. Are you making anything that anyone really should see?
At a certain point you have to make a decision in your life about where will you best serve, and I decided that I would best serve as a producer as opposed to a studio executive. There are many upsides to being the studio executive, but one of the downsides is that you get removed from the actual process of making the movie.
When we are in our studios, in our private space... we need to block out the outside world; we need to disbelieve anything that would doubt us, because - everyone will doubt us if we allow them that space.
How do I get it made? How do I get it seen? How do I get it in front of the people I want to serve?
The one thing that cannot be outsourced is creativity. We have to find ways to support creative people because the only way we are going to improve our laws... is by creating our way out of it.
Artists don't like the business side. None of us were born understanding money. We all had to learn how to do it. So it's just something creative people need to get familiar with... not really so scary.
The one word you should forget when you start a new project is the word 'I' - you need to replace that word 'I' with the idea of 'everybody else.
