Film Courage: People who wait for a filmmaking career will never have one? Without of course
naming any names, can you think of some people in your life who are very talented but who
are waiting? Maybe this frustrates you? Maybe you see the opportunity in front of them but
they won’t take it for whatever reason?
Kenneth Castillo, Filmmaker: Yes, mostly colleagues. I won’t even say friends, just people that
you run into. But what I’ve come to realize is that (particularly those filmmakers who’ve
come out of film school) you are not going to have a crew of 30 on your next film. They
come out with these great thesis films and they want to get their feature made. But in
this age of independent filmmaking, no one is going to give you a million dollars to
do your thesis film.
And when I don’t see them working or trying to start from scratch whether it’s a feature
film (whatever it is) to continue to do the craft until you get that. I’m not saying
it’s not possible but I’m really blown away by filmmakers I know that have a great
thesis film from film school and are waiting to make their feature film. I’m like “Why
aren’t you doing something now?” “I don’t want to film something on my phone.
I don’t want to shoot something with a three-person crew.” I’m like “What are you waiting
for?”
It’s not something I can tell people. You’ve got to figure that out on your own. But if
you’ve been 10 years now (and I know filmmakers that are 10 years out of film school) still
thinking they are going to get 3 million dollars to produce their first film based off of their
thesis.
Film Courage: Why do you think this is? Do you think they feel they’re at a different
status level? They don’t want people...they want to have investors?
Kenneth: I think it’s a combination of that and people in this industry. I think everyone
looks at their trajectory going like this [consistent upward line] and it doesn’t.
You started with a thesis and you have a crew of thirty and all of this millions of dollars
worth of equipment that the school provides for you. You get out, do you really want to
film your short movie on an iPhone? The ones that work do. Because that’s ego. In my
experience having done as much as I’ve done what I’ve found is there are certain film
schools (and I’ve hired certain film school students)...but I won’t say the ones where
they have the least discipline but the ones with the MOST discipline have come from the
Los Angeles Film School. They have come with the discipline to work. It didn’t matter
how good their thesis film was. If my crew was small or whatever, they wanted to work,
they wanted to learn and they wanted to produce.
Film Courage: I know there’s a lot of backlash on Millennials that they don’t want to work
and things like that. I haven’t always seen this. I’ve seen work ethics differ across
many generations (even in Generation X I’ve seen varied work ethics). Do you think it’s
generational or a mindset?
Kenneth: It’s definitely a mindset, I don’t find it generational at all. If this is what
you want to do, you’re going to do it and you’re going to do it as often as you possibly
can. The thing I say to people who want to be writers, you have to be writing everyday.
If you want to be a director or filmmaker, you should be trying to make something or
shoot something every month, every week if you can, but at least every month.
It’s a craft, it’s like building a deck. The first step you build is not going to be
as fancy or as good. But the more you do it the better you get at it. And filmmaking is
no different so I don’t really subscribe to that philosophy of “Well I’m waiting
for this. I’m waiting for the right money, I’m waiting for the right people.” No.
I’m not a subscriber to that. You just kind of have to go forward. If that’s all you’re
banking on, if that’s all you have is that one script that you want to make perfect,
you’re going to have a difficult time.
Film Courage: Do you think the DIY mindset...because there are certain people who are really self-generating,
they just do, they rely on themselves. They don’t expect any handouts and they just
want to do something themselves. Whereas there are others where maybe they’ve had more
coddling or whatever there is, do you think that there’s a clash? Do you think those
two mindsets clash?
Kenneth: Only on a panel. Yes because to me it just comes down to the work. Can you produce?
So it can...there are certain filmmakers we follow. I think filmmakers try to model their
careers after other filmmakers. That’s not something I’ve ever done. I’ve never looked
at someone and said “This is how I’m going to do it like they did. Or “I’m going
to do this and this is how it’s going to happen.” My thing has always been just how
do I get my stuff made right now?
If I wrote a ten million dollar script I would have it but that wouldn’t be the first thing
I would try to get made. I would have a fifty thousand dollar script. I would have a ten
thousand dollar script. I would have different things. What can I do right now? And if that
does take, what do I have back here that is ready to go?