Jason Satterlund, Filmmaker: I know a lot of directors who have
been in the industry for many many years who well let me rephrase they want to be directors
they fantasize like myself they grew up and they saw Back to the Future or Jurassic Park
as kids and went ah that's what I want to do I want to create that and now they're
editing for reality television or shooting wedding videos and not doing what they dreamed.
You have to get experience directing and if you were to ask yourself how many hours
have you actually spent directing like beyond this is not on set this is not on set as a pa
or editing or even writing how many hours have you spent actually directing how many hours would that
actually be that is so vital because when you get your shot when someone does open that door for you
you better hit the ground running and know exactly how to do it well it's kind of a maddening thing
to think about right well I don't have any experience directing how do I do that well you
don't always need a camera one of the things that I tried that really transformed a lot of what I do
is I wanted to get better at working with actors so I invited a couple of actors to my studio
I gave them a scene from a play I had no cameras and no lights and I just had the two of them
reading the screen scene to each other act out the scene and I tried to see if I could get them to a
better more connected performance that's it and it's important to say that this was not a scene
I wrote this is just a scene out of a play that the actors just got on the spot reading through it
do the scene together and it's so awkward and so hard for that just the actors okay I'm seeing
the awkwardness I'm seeing the fact that they're trying to read the lines and remember what to say
I'm seeing that they're not connecting how can I make them connect how do I do that
it is terrifying it it I would have massive anxiety before each time I
would have them come over to try it but it changed everything for me because now
because that's directing that's sitting there in the chair for hours
all right actors try holding hands and see if that helps connect you more or sinking them
into their environment painting pictures for them imagining that you're having a picnic on a blanket
right now and there's a storm cloud coming and the rain pellets are just starting to fall like feel
the rain smell how the ground is feeling and now action and see what happens this is all directing
and I would say that if you don't have any hours doing it this is one way that you can increase
the amount of work that you're doing so it's so important and you have to can you have to be very
relentless about it constantly finding like if you find that you're in this been in this
business for more than I don't know six eight years and you've got one short under your belt
it's you it's time to step it up and figure out a way to get something else done
another thing that I've done that's helped me is I had a shoot once where it was just a little
corporate thing this shoe was on a Friday we had a little grip truck of grip and
lighting stuff in the truck well that couldn't return the truck until Monday so that weekend
I took the truck with the camera that I'd rented and on a Saturday we just went and
got a couple actors and I wanted to experiment with some intimate like a love story
I'd never tried that before I'd never done like a love scene I didn't know how to do it even but I
got some actors that I trusted and they trusted me and we just tried stuff and just I mean like a two
a couple falling in love and just what how to shoot intimacy and just create this beautiful
little love story we didn't even have audio we just had visuals it's on it's on my reel it's
just like as something that we played with and tried it's it's putting work out there that is
super important because when the window comes and it will there will come a time when someone
decides to give you a shot you got to have something to show them you got to have
some sort of real they have to believe in you somehow so
hopefully you're not trying to scramble the night before to
put something together like this is how you do it
another way to be working is you have to you have to aggressively expand your network
now that people hear that and they think the word networking and that is what I mean but that's
not totally what I mean I i think the better way to phrase it would be making more friends
usually when people think about expanding their network they think about going to a
networking event which I think is one of the worst places I mean that can be great but it's
one of the hardest places to actually network actually builds your network I think one of a
really good place is actually a film festival and the key to things like festivals screenings
things like that is not just meeting someone at an event it's following up so
my the feature I just shot the reason one of the big the first things that got going as far as got
got that feature off the ground was me meeting the screenwriter at the Austin Film Festival
and the only reason that I ever even got the screenplay from him so his name is Dwain
Worrell he was speaking on a panel so I'm just an audience member I didn't even have a project in
the festival I was just there to attend to meet people to do exactly what I'm talking about to
aggressively expand my friend network Dwain spoke on this panel because he had written
it was an award-winning film through amazon called the wall John Cena's in it Jason Aaron
Taylor Johnson guy from I'm blanking on his name he's quicksilver anyway directed by Doug Liman
who did The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith so wow Dwain wow he wrote this wow what a guy so
I'm super intimidated but I go up and I introduce myself and we hit it off okay but I made sure to
get his contact information so that I could follow up with him later which we did once we both got
back to la which is one of the reasons to live in la because a lot of people live here anyway
so we went out to dinner and that was where it was really important to
just be a person not a desperate you're so great Dwain I want to work with you it was just what do
we have in common he likes sports he like he likes sci-fi action we just kind of bonded over common
interest and we became good friends and then it was when we had this connection then he sent me
the script for the abandon and when I read it it was like wow that's the best script I've ever read
then I took that script went to another film festival and I met a couple of producers
from the I did the same thing same exact thing met them saw that they had made a couple of films that
were lower budget after the festival was over I followed up said hey would you like to go to
coffee sometime we could chat about whatever ken made a connection hung out with the guy said I
just came across this script that I really liked passed it to him he read it and said let's do
it let's make a project all of that came about because of just aggressively making sure I was
constantly meeting people I will put on task lists each week to meet more industry people
usually it's by a month like this month I need to meet three new people make three new friends
and I would say I don't limit it to has to be a producer or an agent
it could be anybody in the industry really because you just don't know who
ironically I i made a friend in a writing class that I'm in this is a super nice guy
that's really humble soft-spoken guy and he I let I learned he just moved to l.a so I was like
oh he just moved to l.a he's a director like me he's right a director guy and just
just seemed like a nice guy and I kind of felt bad for him like oh you probably don't know anybody
in l.a you want to grab a coffee sometime yeah sure so we went out to coffee me and my wife and
just hung out with him for a bit like what does your wife do oh she's an actress like oh yeah
I think I said something like trying to make it in the big time huh
and I'm like well man it'd be fun to hang out with all of maybe go on a double date or whatever just
being friends just again expanding the network being friends making connections growing the
thing I said what we're having to cook out at my place you want to come over like you you're new
to town you probably don't know anybody come on out meet some friends it'd be great to have you
he shows up and his wife gets out of the car and she is like
very a very known golden globe winning actress and I'm just like
he he I had no idea who his wife like it was it's hilarious thinking about it but it all came about
because of this constant push to continue to make more friends grow the network because that
is how jobs get made people the jobs that rarely don't happen because of the meeting
they happen because you're hanging out at someone's birthday party and we're like dude what
I've got this idea for a comedy horror we should you want to do it we should do it like
that happens all of the time all the time that's how you get things made is by having
all these friends if the only friends that you have are your mom and just your couple
of buddies you went to film school with you it's gonna be a lot more difficult for you to actually
get past where you are you have to push beyond that boundary what about nepotism though we hear
we see in the comments we hear from people all the time that you really can't get any meaningful work
unless you're related to someone I have heard that myself nepotism is a real thing especially
if you live in a big hub city like LA, New York and you're competing against Kevin Costner's kids
or whatever Spielberg's son who wants to whatever that is the reality that's who you're dealing with
well I think it's really easy to fall back on that excuse
and say well I can't because I'm not anyone's son I grew up far away from Hollywood now I'm not
directing marvel films at the moment but that doesn't mean I'm not working right so you
your future and your career is something you have to grab a hold of we can make a thousand excuses
all day long about the reasons why we're not making it if that's what you're doing with your
creative time then that's probably why you're not making it yes good for them Steven Spielberg's son
I don't know a statement good for that guy like he's got a connection and a good in
well then maybe you should become friends with someone like that maybe you should
find a way to make invent your own nepotism like become best friends with a showrunner if you can
like that's how because look to be honest like I would function the same way we like to like
throw the blame on this oh it's all politics and it's all who yeah and I do the same thing
when I hire a project and I need a DP who do you think I'm going to call do I call
some demo reel that I've seen online of a DP I've never met or am I going to call
sally who I know is awesome and she's super talented and we've worked
that's what I'm going to call because that's how we're all like that right we all want to work
with our friends and we all want to have this solid team of people so it goes back to just
making sure that you are connected to the right people I mean that's really it sounds simple but
that's really and rather than making excuses as to oh I'm not connected to anyone I'm not so-and-so's
relative I think that's just an excuse to not go out and actually do the scary work of becoming
friends with these people my personal humble opinion but so when you've been to networking
events it's kind of reminds me of like these like singles dances back in like the 80s and 90s that
I would hear people go to and like okay hey I'm here to meet someone and there's like this weird
desperation and awkwardness whereas if you're at a film festival or taking a writing class
you're engaged in something else and then if naturally something happens or you approach
somebody that's a speaker it just it seems like there's just a different way there's
less pressure maybe yeah the nice thing about yeah because networking events I'm not saying never go
because there there is value in them but it is exactly like that it's speed dating
and it's generally you everyone is coming up to each other going how can you advance my career
it's a very self-centered way to meet people it's I mean imagine if you were
trying to date somebody and you were going I'm really looking for a wife or a husband
I mean the other person is going to be like sure slow down there cowboy like
I don't even know your name right what do you do jason that's right yes yeah it's and
I'm looking at your watch and the car you're driving if I'm it happens and I'm not even like
anybody and if people find out I'm a director and then they're an actor ah
you're a director like you could just feel the energy of like this it's a it's a hard place
because everyone is essentially feeling the same way now and if I were in that same plane
and I've got actors coming at me from this way but I look over there and there's a an investor
now that's you doing oh hey you want to make a movie it's that same I mean it's human nature yeah
it is human so I think finding I think
in if you are at the networking event there is a positive way to go about it and I think that
would be to try to remove the desperation from it go to the event without the mindset of I have
to get a job just like you wouldn't go on a date saying I have to find a partner it just puts so
much pressure on this precious little connection that you're trying to make if you just remove that
from the equation and just say I'd like to just make a friend that is so much easier because oddly
enough some of the best connections I've made at things like that are usually someone like
the the person that's serving the hors d'oeuvres like hit it off with so-and-so and like isn't
this whole thing such a crock I know man people come down here they're so desperate
what do you do oh I'm my name's johnny and I I'm a dp and I actually just I'm just doing this for
extra work what you are no way and then all of a sudden your friends oh it's so much easier
to do that do it that way to take the pressure off this desperation
but a film festival or writing class those are great because the focus is not on you as much it's
on either their film or your film or writing class is a good one because it's like you're
focusing on a craft of like getting better you're meeting other people also with similar goals
they're all there to improve their craft and and driving towards this direction not this direction
I mean yes we're all trying to make it but we're all looking this way and you
just happen to be looking at the person next to you and you're just kind of becoming this
making a bond that way so it's a much easier way to make friends and to build a team.