Film Courage: What are some strategies that artists can
use to increase their visibility and success?
Khoa Le, Entrepreneur and Filmmaker: Are we talking about tasks? Are we talking
about strategies strategies and what's the difference?
The strategy is coming up within with like the chess moves thinking 20 steps ahead of where
you want to go to or your competition where it is to get there the task is how to execute them
and they're completely different and so each let's just say that it's so your strategy is
and I could talk a lot about that because I had a strategy of how I got my first movie it
wasn't unlucky for me it was a strategy of what I did and I planted those seeds for years to get
to the place of getting my first feature film gig not the perfect gig but I got it
and and it but it created about thousands of different micro tasks to get there I can talk more
specifically yeah I'd like to hear it so my first feature was Walt Before Mickey all right it was
the four big stars with Jon Heder, Jodie Sweetin, David Henrie and Thomas Nicholas right
and there is absolutely no reason for me to take on that director role there are
way more people qualified than I the most I've done was a short film that wanted this
small music festival in New York City I did a few music videos and I had a wedding company
nothing in there says I should be doing a feature film with those type of people
about Walt Disney and more the one of the more American movies that you can make
and so but I didn't sell myself as that director I sold my I sold myself as a director that had
this capability to that that the producers need the situation that there was another director got
fired right and I was in the position where I had branded myself in a way where there's that I could
almost fix anything I'm a troubleshooter I could I built the business from zero to a half a million
in the year right I was that type of guy and my peers my filmmaking peers all knew I could do that
so I because I knew they knew that I was going to be in the first in line to know that I was going
to be asked when something when when they needed help with something so that call came in said qua
there's an opportunity for you it's about shooting a movie about Walt Disney
and I go what's the catch like because there's no reason to ask me I said what's the cat they go
the catch is that you have to come down here in a week and a half no in two weeks and you have to be
able to start shooting and then in two weeks after that so within 30 days you have to start shooting
and and the the crews demoralized is underfunded and then they also might be running out of money
for any post-production so why would anyone take on that gig
everyone would say no to that gig right why would anyone do that but for me it was a position it
was positioning because I knew that first of all I knew that I was going to I would get those type of
opportunities just because I just knew that that's how it's going to happen but I also knew that if
I was able to fix this movie I was getting more opportunities so I said look I told the producers
I'll do the directing gig for 2500 bucks I'm going to it's only a 15-day shoot by the way
1920 piece for 1915 they shoot and I will take on all the post-production
I want all the coloring all the editing deliverable and I will also pay for yours
for the sound mix and the music I would have completed for you of course he's going to say yes
of course I think I said everyone's going to say yes to me on that one so that was a chess move for
me because I knew that that was an opportunity for me to take on the right opportunity now it was a
different movie not about Walt Disney I would have said no because why waste my energy why waste my
time for that but because it was the right project it was the one that Walt Disney I knew they were
going to sell that movie I saw that Facebook had a million followers already I saw that
it had the stars in place and they had I would say 99 of the crew was more experienced than me
and the only thing that could have stopped me was myself saying no because I was too scared because
I wasn't ready but I felt like I was ready to tell a feature film story and I felt like
I felt like this was the opportunity that I was going to
move my businesses forward and get me to the next stage of where I wanted to be so
I took the gig and and within shorts long story short within about two weeks after going to Market
it got sold domestically it got so internationally it was in Disney for 12 weeks sold out for four
four weeks straight in at Disney World right it was an AMC maybe 80 something theaters AMC
it got picked up by Netflix after it got after it tested the market it was invested for four years
and still today it still seen I had I had tons of views millions of views on it not it's not the
best movie but certainly it's not the best movie at all and I could tell you about how that I could
tell you why it is not but it's but that was a strategy and that was a very tactical strategy
I did so strategy and this is a task that's the long answer so so many questions here how many
weddings had you done before you stepped on set we've done 300. before when you took that that
position okay 300 so you'd been in high pressure I'm sure there's great weddings and then I'm sure
there's ones that are stressful whatever maybe the venue's bad or there's rain or something so
you'd already been in a pressure cooker sort of environment that's exactly right right as someone
who's worked weddings before but not just that it was the the pressure cooker from in music as well
deadlines the album needs to get wrapped up in the you you're doing a song a day writers coming
in and out people are paying me to get things done blah blah so pressure has always been it's always
been there my college days is all pressure too and so it's like yeah but the wedding for sure helped
but at the time when I took down the gig I wasn't even shooting weddings I had my team
shooting weddings a lot so it was more about it was more about how do I command that 80 people set
think about it there's a lot of videographers out there but it doesn't mean they could command
80 people set for me I was in a position to command that just because of me playing baseball
me playing in the music game and then I'm in the and I'm also in the gaming world and now you said
that they were that the crew was quote demoralized yeah how did you come in and and infuse new life I
don't want to I mean I had a speech with them and I had told them that look I'm this new filmmaker
and that you might look think of me as this this guy that doesn't that that's so new that might not
know what they're doing but I want you to just treat me with respect in the very beginning and
just just allow me to allow me to prove myself to you being really transparent to them and that that
we were that you guys announcement also because I talked to them saying that you guys want to
be here if you didn't believe in the project and we all want to move things forward as well
so let me do that if you think you and then if if I could prove to you that I could build
that conference for you that to believe in me then I need you to help me finish that movie
um another thing so that's just talk now everything is action at that point and so
on the first after the first week of the shoot the producers and the actors went to
took a private jet to Miami I was asked to go and I didn't go instead I took the crew out to dinner
and I was the one that paid for dinner and I think that was the Saving Grace for the film because
the crew had issues with production and look the production team was was very new like producers
were new and our respect the producers a lot right but they were new and for me I come from from that
the background of understanding how to take care of people and I knew that this is I think I'm here
to waste my time and I can't I want to bring home a film and so in order to do that I got to ensure
that my crew is on board they were just like a baseball I work I want to make my coach proud
I'm the coach of that film crew and I want the and I wanted them to look at me as somebody that they
want to be that that I could be proud of them right and I think establishing that environment
was based on my actions and the first thing I did was I was I'm the first one in on the set I'm the
last one off the set with the PA until he raps and I do that seven days a week no matter what I'm I'm
always just working looking out for everybody and then and then proving it topping it off is taking
out to dinner and connect with them like human beings and then and so one of the grips he used
to work on The Fast and Furious at the time fast furious six he says well my guys are working that
tell-off video I never seen them work that much for you and you what you said to them resonated
and I just want to just give you a hug and I it's not every day we see that because usually
in film environment is a very toxic environment sometimes at least what they're experiencing and
so you guys you seem to make this thing really fun for us and want to hang out and there you go
I hope I could do that it's but it's not all the time like that because there's a lot of the issues
around it but when they're around me they know that they could trust me and I got their backs
and as long as they understand that I got their backs they'll do everything to protect me
that's great so you came in and was very you were very transparent and then you also backed
it up it wasn't just talk you showed them that I'm kind of looking out for your best interests
as well you took them out to dinner you were human with them and it right at the ship yeah
and but that's tactical stuff they have to also believe in my skill set my talent too right and so
one of the first things that to prove that they could trust me that I'm going to take
care of them and move this project forward was that they had to know that I knew what the heck
I was doing on the set so right right on the I remember the first day we were three hours late
because makeup artists and costume was late and so my whole entire storyboard was out the
out the door because my timer was all off now and so I said all right we're going to do this we're
going to do this and we're going to have to change everything up and okay let's just make it happen
and so I reversed your your typical way of doing it your master to your then to your medium to your
close-ups and you have your structure instead I went the opposite way I said look we're going to
start with tights and get to the emotional moment and then we finish up with the master and we're
going to wrap that part up in three and we're going to do it in this three takes and we're
going to save you guys all this time did that and everyone was like floored by how we execute
it and right from there it was like okay business as usual the way with the trust that I was able to
execute so it was these pockets of moments where people it was just humans just test you to see if
they just they're they're this the sizing up and down all the time and they they're they're trying
to figure out can I trust him so every single minute every hour had to be me proving to that
crew that I'm trustworthy to be able to take this film to the next level and I think that
that's going back to it that's a strategy those are strategies because you if you are thinking if
you are the wrong wrong mindset if you're thinking about it's about my film they work for me but what
it would it would have failed right from the first day and then lastly you talked about doing post
and paying for different things you had that team in place okay great that's infrastructure building
so people think like yo what's this wedding videographer doing on this set like if it's
almost sounds embarrassing right but it turns out that if I didn't have that in place we would have
a finished film because I have my employees I was paying them and health insurance I'm doing I have
an infrastructure and the idea of my my mindset since 2009 was to build a team that could support
the opportunities the opportunity arose and I was able to support it
that's not an accident I just knew that was the leverage and I knew that was how I could get
it so because I know tons of people in the film industry and and they were from PA to
assistant director of all well I never get those direct opportunities in producing opportunities
and they they said and I get the score still today they said how the heck are you doing these films
why are you getting these opportunities we've been in this industry we can't even get these
opportunities to do anything we don't you can't get a budget to do that how are you doing that
it's kind of like you have to I said well it's hot how do I how do I explain that right I'm
explaining it to you that it was it started from the this ground up but they don't understand that
because they're not business people so for me it was a mix of business and create a creativity like
you always look at the big picture of everything you take on first always always I look at it as
I look at Utopia I look at building Utopia I look at what is the perfect world before I'm dead
what is what do I want to see I wanted to wake up one day and I want to know that that I want to
be the parent that says what you might not think about being a doctor he might want to be a writer
because I think it'd be a better career for you I want that to happen I mean that's almost like no
way no parents ever going to say that to that kid but I do hope that one day that he said what maybe
you should be a singer or a bass player because they're going to do you're going to be so much
better off being in that in that career than being being an architect or something like that what I'm
saying it like if you want to decide that and so I look at that picture and I do see it happening
some people can't see that part happening I do see it happening and I have this 25-30-year strategy
that's going to get us there as an industry as a whole at least not at least I started
it or something so strategies but then the many tasks that it takes to implement yeahit's like a
hundred thousand micro tasks to finish one task that's why she's like one thing at a time yeah.