Pete Chatmon, Director/Author: It was all very methodical. It was “I
want to create but then what how do I get there?”
Film Courage: If you had gotten into TV directing right out of Sundance
do you think you'd still be directing today?
Pete: No, I don't I think if I got into television directing right out of Sundance, I would have made
too many mistakes to build a career. I think that the the first thing being
TV and film are two different they're two different mediums clearly but making a film
whether you subscribe to the auteur theory or not it's the director's medium and television is the
writer's medium and if you don't understand that you're not going to fare well and I think that
over the 17 years that we've identified between Sundance and first job I did a lot of branded
content I did some commercial work where I learned that the product it's the products medium
what it's the it's the agencies medium and the brands medium and learning that was something
that I could take to television and understand I'm going to have ideas here I'm going to have
pitches or interpretations of a scene or a script that may not align with what the show runner wants
and that's fine I won't go into my shell and say well I'm not offering any more ideas
because you don't them I know that there are things that I'm not aware of because
I'm seeing episode 208 and that this is going to end in season 5 in a particular way and
that great idea I have doesn't complement what you're doing so the understanding that reality
and how to finesse the relationships that the relationship dynamics that come with that
having the skill to deal with a variety of different types of
personalities on on a set cast crew executives and having the stamina and or
work ethic and work structure to deal with the realities of television production which is
driven by how fast can you do everything to some degree I wouldn't have been I would not
have been prepared for that so then even though the wait was long and here you are
essentially helping other people's dreams at the school nothing wrong with that but
maybe it had seasoned you in the right way definitely seasoned me I'm definitely
not campaigning for 17 years before you get hired to direct but I do think that there's
there's are things to learn before you can really excel in particular professional environments
if you you didn't ask me this but if I had to identify it I'd say around based off of the
experiences that I had I'd say around 2008 I was probably ready to do TV I learned enough about
people in politics what and and being a filmmaker and delivering for a client I
learned enough I think by that time that I wouldn't have been you know
perfect but I would have I wouldn't have stunk up the place
and I would have been able to get in there and kind of figure it out and avoid big mistakes
well you'd been through 2001 and then the recession was around that time
so it brought out probably interesting sides to people in stress that so once you've kind of
weathered stuff that you think you were just okay some pretty bad stuff has happened in the world
and I think I know where my footing is because if you're steering a ship i.e a set that
there's drama on not enough time somebody's mad or whatever what's the worst that could happen right
right so so was there were there certain divine I don't mean to assume that I know what happened
I apologize were there certain things that happened that just got you
ready for it or was just time of the work I think it's just time you do you do so many projects and
Murphy's Law anything that can go wrong will go wrong it's going to happen on every project so
then it's do you have the thing you did and you're oh that little thing I thought that was just going
to be a weekend that was the project that I had a fire on set fires happen okay or that was the
project where I had a super egotistical person who wouldn't come out of their trailer for x amount
of time okay dealt with that what and I had to be the one to get him out this was the one where they
pulled out the money at the last minute and I had so you just kind of you get you begin to get
enough of a window into you might as well just be open to the world exploding
it's it's oh pandemic right okay and not not minimizing it but you're you do get to
a point you're I don't know what to what the day will bring but I know that I'll be able to
absorb it appreciate the moment and try and find a way to get us home with some semblance of what we
set out to accomplish today and once you kind of get that you can kind of go with the flow whereas
maybe being slightly younger and maybe different things it would rattle you too much oh you'd be
extremely rattled and there'd be self-loathing and self-importance and why me and it's
that doesn't that doesn't get the thing shot sure it's fun to wallow in though it's fine it is that
that's that's what going home is for you go home and then you tell your partner and can you can
you believe what happened today and they're I'm I guess I have to hear this for 30 minutes but
that's how it goes what was the point of no return for you not when you were inspired
to be a director but when you realize that you could actually make a living doing this
so
well I realized that being a feature filmmaker was not going to be a way to make a living
the moment that I said that's a wrap on my first feature because it was the money was raised over
it was the script was written and the money was raised over a six-year period
and the amount of money I paid myself and the other producers were all paid equally was not even
I barely have to file taxes for the money what it was very low and so I'm alright well that
was six years that was fifteen thousand dollars over six years all right well
that's not going to translate to moving out of my mother's house and whatever so
while I had a part I had a full-time job at NYU but that was 35 000 a year it wasn't much living
in New York New Jersey and so I said well what do I know that how can I take this skill that I think
I have and find a way to exploit it for myself and make money off of it and that was when I started
building the production company to make videos and that was a journey of taking on more it was
it was a pivot moment we've kind of talked about it's well these budgets are small in their own way
but maybe if I wear more hats then I can keep more of the money because the first couple projects
that I did it was well the editor is making more than almost anyone because they're sitting here
for the longest amount of time like really on the clock four or five days of editing while
I'm shooting for one day producers producing forever alone but they were becoming the ones
who were making the most money so I was well if I edit then I'll make more money if I shoot it
then I'll make more money if I produce it and maybe bring on an assistant I'll make more
money and so I was constantly trying to figure out how to survive economically as a filmmaker
but that was very shortly after I finished the first feature over time as the company grew
and was doing all right with those videos I look at it and I say well how can I make more money
so I was we should be doing campaigns for people because this one-off video thing is I'm
looking at my quickbooks at the time and I'm well all these budgets are in the same strike
zone I feel the only way to get more money is to change the cache of hiring us which I don't think
is going to happen without a big project or we offer more services and charge more because of
the volume of it and the irony of it is that that decision to go toward campaigns led to
some of the best performing years for us and it was one campaign in particular where I was I'm
going to take my fee and make a short film because by that time it's 2014 I'm so far removed in my
mind from something that I’ve directed for myself because the feature film premium I directed in o5
it finished its kind of distribution trajectory by o7 I directed a feature documentary in 0708
and so now I'm six years past when I could look at version of what I could do as a narrative director
while having done thousands of videos for clients and I was well let me make something for me
and this short film that I made was the thing that got picked up by HBO and got me into
director programs and led to TV directing and still is a sample that I use now wow
six seven years later because it was just it's a pretty unique execution and concept so
I kind of was always I always had my mind and my target on how to turn this into a career without
it having to be reliant upon the models that everyone believes are the only options
and so you were no longer working at NYU or just part-time I was so I was
working full-time at the desk job until 2012. and honestly that was the year of my 10-year
10-year anniversary at the job and I was I'm not going to get no disrespect to the job it was great
but personally I was I'm not going to get y'all gave me a certificate for 10 years you're not
going to give me a watch for 25. I'm not doing it so I left that in the 10th year I quit but I was
teaching at that time and I was all right well the teaching is not as much of a guarantee but
it gives me more free time and I think that I can balance I can use that free time to devote toward
building the production company then I can teach to have that kind of smaller guaranteed income
and then hopefully be able to push toward the other my passion projects at the same time
so I feel what's interesting is I hear myself talk or it may not be interesting but it was all very
methodical it was I want to create but then well what how do I get there I'm not just going to sit
here and look at the stars and daydream about how great it would be to make this thing it's
what can I literally wake up and do tomorrow to move the needle toward this goal so if you hadn't
started that production company then you may never have taken some of that money and put it into the
short that yeah I wouldn't have had I wouldn't have had 30 000 to do it right wow you know.