Film Courage: What’s the difference between having a big ego and a strong ego as a director?
Kenneth Castillo, Filmmaker: That’s a great question.
Well having a big ego comes from insecurity right?
Having a strong ego is being confident in what you are doing.
You don’t have to beat people over the head with it.
One thing I said with my latest film is I’m not trying to beat people over the head with
my film.
I’m trying to break their heart with it.
And it really comes down to approach.
But it really is essentially about a fine line between arrogance and confidence right?
And people know the difference.
But the problem is directors are fed that ego on set whether they know what they are
doing or they don’t, they are fed that.
Because people just assume that they know what they’re doing.
For me I don’t like to manipulate actors.
I don’t feel I need to manipulate actors.
I don’t need to cause havoc between two people to get a performance because the audience
knows only what I show them right here.
They don’t know all of this, they don’t need to know all of that.
So to me confidence is not even the right word.
If there is a better word for confidence I would just say being able to communicate your
vision in a very clear and concise way.
If you know how to do that you don’t need to be that flamboyant.
But a director is one thing.
An actor to a director, they are never going to call a director on that you know what I’m
saying?
Whether he is arrogant or confident, a director is never going to be called out on that, whether
he is arrogant or confident, a director is never going to be called out on that on a
professional set.
Everyone assumes that they are there because they are supposed to be there so you have
this kind of advantage.
But where it really starts to boil down is how you communicate with the actors and when
my crew starts to engage, then I know we have something.
I always come by the crew because they see a million things right?
They see a million movies, they are on sets a million times.
So if I see them engaging and watching the actors performance, then I’m like “Okay,
we got something.
The crew is interested, we have something here.”
Or they are trying to make it better, they are trying to take it and make it a little
bit better.
But that is essentially it.
I always tell every filmmaker, I go there are three tenants I live by and I formed them
by watching other directors that didn’t go on to do anything.
And one is “Don’t let your ego be bigger than your career.”
Two - “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, especially to cast and crew.”
And the last one is “When it’s all said and done better let there be more be said
than done.”
Lead by example.
Especially in the social media age a lot of people can post anything about everyone.
Everyone is a producer, everybody is this, that or the other.
But when you look beyond it, is the work there?
That’s what I always tell people, don’t look at the surface, look deeper.
Don’t be so fooled so easily.
You can tell…someone asked me recently “This guy is a producer.”
If he’s a producer, then what has he produced?
He’s like “Well I don’t want to ask him that.
It would be insulting him.”
And I’m like “Why are you insulting him?
You’re only insulting him if he doesn’t have anything.”
I go “Then you know.
I know it feels good to have someone go I want to help you, I’m a producer.
I know that feels good but don’t be fooled by that.
But just ask them “What have you done?”
We get asked that question all of the time.
When I tell someone I’m a filmmaker “What have you done?”
“Well I’ve done this, this and this.”
“Where can I watch it?”
“You can watch it here, here and here.”
“Oh, okay.”
But if someone says they’re a producer and you go “What have you produced?”
And they get upset and they get their ego damaged that’s because they haven’t done
anything.
So don’t be fooled by that.
Film Courage: What if we took it a step back and we see the difference between ego and
sort of a strong sense in even wanting to be a filmmaker?
Kenneth: Well…look…you have to have…there is a certain amount of narcissism you have
to have.
To me it’s about controlling that and there is a certain amount of maybe even arrogance
to say “I’m going to make something that people are going to care about.”
So you have to have just a tiny bit of that.
But more so than that what I say is it’s more of a naivety and I think that having
the naivety during your first film is a strength, it’s not a weakness because you don’t
know what you’re up against and that’s a good thing because if you knew that maybe
you would never get started and maybe that would save you a bunch of time, heartbreak
and money but if this is what you want to do and you don’t know what is ahead of you,
you don’t know what is involved, that will drive you to the end of your film (at least
your first film) and then when you get to the end of it you may be like “Wow, I’m
not going to do that again.”
Or you are going to be like “I can’t wait to do that again!”
Regardless of where it goes, if it went to Sundance or it got distribution, regardless.
If your attitude after that is “Man that was hard as heck but that was awesome.
I have to do that again.”
Then A - there is something wrong with you and B - your a filmmaker, then go, go, go.
Film Courage: And it’s okay to have there be something wrong with you because there
are degrees.
They say that all artists are crazy or selfish (whatever).
But there are degrees of it.
It’s not all negative.
It means they want to create something.
Kenneth: I have a balance because like I said I have a family and I’m one of the few.
I’m one of the few people I know that has a family and has done both.
That’s the other question I get asked is “Well how do you do it?”
And well I ask them “Do you have a family?”
“No.”
“Do you have a job?”
“No.”
I’m like “Okay?
You have no responsibility and you’re asking me how to do it?”
I go “You go do it.”
I go “Do you have one of these?”
And I grab their phone.
“Go do it.
If you want me to tell you how to make a million dollars?
Do you want me to tell you how to get into Sundance?
Do you want me to tell you how to get into a theater?
I don’t know how to do those things.
But the fact that you are sitting there asking me when you have time, energy and a cell phone,
make something.
Is it going to be great?
Probably not your first time out.
But that’s part of it man.
You’ve go to do the crap to do some cool stuff.”
I’ve done seven films.
Not all of them are great.
The ones that aren’t great, that was my fault.
No one is to blame accept me on those ones you know.
But everyone of them is a learning experience and everyone of them feeds the next one.