Jason Satterlund, Filmmaker: I’ve been on sets where I'm watching a director work and I'm
like how in the world did this person land that? They have no idea what they're doing?
Film Courage: How do you become a professional director if no one will give you a chance?
Jason: That's such a good question and I think that's the question
that everyone asks every day like how in the world do you do it?
I two nights ago I was just having dinner with two filmmaking friends, one was a producer/director
the other was a director. We asked ourselves the exact same question (the maddening
question) of how in the world do you get in break in, get work?
I do think that there are ways to do it but the first thing
I think there's multiple steps and the first step is to understand that there is no way, there is no
path. If you want to be a doctor, if you want to be a lawyer, there is a set A, B,
C, D to do it. You go to school for x amount of years, you get your residency, you do your entry,
you they have mapped it out for you that's not like that in film and I'm often asked how do you
how did you do it well or someone will say should I go do the DGA program and
like go up that route sure that there is that way of doing it you can go do
there are certain courses that they'll have lined out like different networks will do it
like Warner Brothers might have their little internal program and you can go in and study under
somebody and work your way up if that works great that is a way yeah should you make an indie film
yes sure if you can do it and pull that off and that is a way like but it's not a guaranteed
way that's super important to understand there's I i heard a screenwriter describe it once as it's
like we're all blind men with our hands against a wall trying to find a way into the magic kingdom
and we're all feeling our way along and one of us will oh we'll find a crack and we'll slip through
but the problem is the crack closes behind us so we can't turn around and tell anyone behind
us oh get in that way no that that was the yours specific weird path in getting in and that's it
so I think how do you get in I think the first step is understanding that there really isn't a
set path it's just however you can get to point b do that that's so vague I know that's vague I'm
aware and it's maddening I think there's a second important step to this I would say that do not
the trap that I fall into and a lot of us filmmakers fall into is the well how did john get
that job that thing it's john hasn't I’ve been on sets where I'm watching a director work and
I'm like how in the world did this person land that like they have no idea what they're doing
the minute your brain starts to go down that path especially when you're around your artist friends
and you all start to spiral in this how in the why in the world is so and so working and I'm not
it is a maddening exercise it is a exercise in frustration and there is no joy at the
end of it and you will never find an answer because it doesn't make sense
I think it's very important to watch your mental attitude when it comes to that kind of thing
and the reason why is because if you start thinking about that kind of thing all the time
you are going to start to project a negative kind of energy
and that's the kind of thing people pick up on if you're interviewing for that gig
and you're feeling extremely frustrated that no one's brought you on it you may not even talk
about it but it's going to be there if you've allowed your mind to circle around that drain so
I would say immediately you got to turn that off and stop trying to make sense out of this madness
more practical steps though I think
that the first thing is you have to generate a lot of work now that's going to sound like
what do you mean I thought the answer I'm asking you how do I get into a place where I'm generating
a lot of work yes in order to generate a lot of work you kind of have to already do it on your own
but that doesn't mean movies that doesn't mean you have to be making movies or television shows
because a little secret my reel that you can look at the vast majority of the things on that
reel are not movies or television shows they are other side projects other little things
that look cinematic they're just not part of any kind of project that you will ever see
and there's really cool ways to do that and I had a really big epiphany and I know last time
I was interviewed here I talked about this where I had been trying to be a filmmaker for a hundred
years I was just struggling and just and I found that I was angry all the time like just I was so
I was shooting a lot of live corporate events where I'm just literally the camera guy in the
middle of the arena like panning left and painting right by some speaker walking back
and forth on the stage giving the annual report on boring corporate I'm wearing a suit and tie
I am so far away from being on set where it's exciting and there's explosions and all of this
I am just twisted and angry and it was not a life it was not an existence
that I would ever want to go back to and I realized one day as I was in the middle
of making a training film for I think it was for like a shipping company like how to like
package something it was like as dry as it gets and then I watched the movie jurassic park and in
jurassic park that movie came out when it was late 90s is that safe to say somewhere early 2000s late
90s somewhere it's over 20 years old right there's a scene in that movie about how dinosaurs are made
remember this scene mr dna the little dna cartoon comes out and it's explaining to the audience
how dinosaurs are made and the characters in this in the movie are all sitting in their little seats
and it's like a little roller coaster ride I don't know if you remember that scene but they're all
asking questions to the animated thing and the the host of the park is talking to the cartoon well
65 million years ago a mosquito would land on a dinosaur and suck out some of the blood and
that mosquito would get trapped in the sap of a tree well that sap is now called amber what
that is is a corporate training film directed by Steven Spielberg here's the amazing thing
about that scene that film is like 20 some years old and it's a scene that most people remember
it's stuck in their mind you get things what stands out to you from jurassic park well when
the t-rex breaks through the gate and the whole velociraptor's chasing them oh yeah in mr dna
that one stands out and at the moment when I was watching it back then I was like I wonder
if Steven Spielberg was all pissed off and and angry when he had to direct this part of his movie
I'm pretty sure he wasn't I think Spielberg went okay I have to find a way to communicate
boring material to my audience any superhero movie has to do the same exercise by the way any
any sci-fi fantasy you have to do the same thing you have to explain the tech or the superpower
to the audience in an entertaining way it's no different than
I have to talk about harassment in the workplace video that I have to these are the same these
are the working professionals have to do this kind of stuff and I realized that
well what if I in my training film just pretended that it was part of a larger narrative
what if it just so happens in my little film about how to make properly how to properly
package a shipping container what if I made that and pretended it was part of jurassic park
how would I approach that differently if it was it was an internal switch but at
that moment everything changed because when I would show up to shoot it I wasn't just going
oh just throw the light over there and we just got to just pan and scan the boxes no it became
how can I make this box look cool it's a box how can I like maybe if I brought a little dana dolly
or do a little swooping camera move with some sound effects and like you just all of a sudden
you're directing a scene that's direct and it became it changed the look of my little tiny
corporate films it changed how and the clients started to see this excitement when I would come
to shoot their product because how cool is it for them that someone is actually thrilled to be there
shooting the most boring dry stuff you can imagine it changed everything for me that one decision
started to open the door to other projects just like it and eventually and even today I now have a
niche where I create narrative films for corporations they're like little short films but
they're big budget short films that I'm getting to it's no different than a movie working with actors
writing a script coming up with concepts shooting and I got a thing coming up that's set in 200 a.d
with roman soldiers like all because it's a corporate thing it's all because of that one
decision to I'm going to pretend that everything I'm doing is part of this fun magical cinematic
universe even if it's an interview with a CEO is there a way I can make this how would Deakins
shoot this CEO talking about how he started the company
you're it's fun suddenly it becomes fun and great and and that kind of thing can
immediately start adding a lot of work to your reel.