Film Courage: When should someone quit their day job so become a full-time filmmaker/director?
Matt Eskandari, Filmmaker: That's interesting question. I think that's always a challenge is because
I've had I've had to work with that challenge as well as like when you quit
your day job and focus just on your passions directing writing producing
whatever it is and it's funny as I like early on in my career you know I was
lucky I said I was you know young and I got to direct a couple movies before the
age of 26 and and then there was like 2009-2010 and then the whole economic
recession happened and you know trying to maintain myself as a director
filmmaker at that time was challenging right so I had to get the day job I
started doing you know things not even related to filmmaking I was I got a day
job in tech in the tech field so I was doing like QA software testing for
companies for a few years and I was doing that until you know a few years
ago where I was like okay like this is fine like I'm starting to sell scripts
again I just did another film I got an agent now I got a manager I can focus
more on this path so it's and that's why I've said it so many times to other to
other aspiring filmmakers and directors is your career is never gonna be
sometimes it is sometimes some people are lucky and they hit it big somebody
sees their short films Steven Spielberg sees their short film or James Bond sees
their short Kent says oh my god get this guy a feature and then you direct some
movie with Warner Brothers and then actually you know he's even a hundred
million dollar movie and you're like wow how did that person get like that's what
I want to do you know any mean but chances are your career is gonna be more
of that get do something get some attention and then people don't wear the
hire for anything and then you have to start over again and do another film and
write another script and then try it again and then this time you get to work
on a little bit bigger budget and then you learn about the process more and you
become a better storyteller and then you're expecting that film is going to
open can or Sunday Angela I made this incredible
feature it's so cool it's gonna get in the Sun it's gonna get to so many
festivals and you don't get into the festival as you thought you were gonna
get into so now you're saying okay damn I thought I wasn't have to quit my job
and you know I get a hundred million dollar suyu movie so that's not
happening now so now I got a you know get back to it and grind again write
another script what's the type of movie that I can make another thriller or
another comedy or whatever so what's my expertise and you've got to go back at
it again and try again and shoot another line and eventually what you'll look
back on is you'll turn around you're look at all that process and you're like
wait a second each one was just like a little notch up
that took you up higher and higher bigger budget bigger talent bigger
people more exposure and next thing you know suddenly you're like oh I don't
even need a day job anymore I just quit and I'm making enough money doing this
that I can actually have a sustained career as a filmmaker was that your
hardest year the 2009 yeah I mean there's there's always been hard years
and and good years and successful years and it's it's up and down it's hard to
say I could have a hard year in three years when I was worse than that right
you can make a movie and critics savage me and stuff happens like oh well you
know that's one thing I've learned from other successful directors and
filmmakers is they don't let that stuff get to them they're just they're working
they're making films they're telling stories they don't let other people's
opinions on whether they should be making films affect them they just do it
they're like I'm gonna keep making movies United mean it doesn't matter
what other people think of it it's like as long as I'm getting the opportunity
I'm gonna keep dealing it so you have to kind of be that stubborn dark-headed
person where you're saying this gives me joy and I'm gonna keep doing what I have
to do to get that when you were working that tech q QC job yeah whoo I'm sure
your mind wasn't totally there that did not
I'm thinking about what's it like you know I could do a script about this
there's something you know ya know it's definitely there was times where yeah I
mean shit I got fired from a couple jobs cuz I was like not like showing up you
know I mean because I was like doing things that I shouldn't you know showing
up late and stuff but that's the thing is you know you have a day job yeah we
do to pay the bills sometimes like look we aren't all lucky we're not all trust
fund babies and we'd all have rich parents or we don't inherit you know a
lot of money so kind of get a day job and it's fine like people you know
throughout their careers it's okay to have a day job where you're paying your
rent and then when you get you know wake up in the morning I know I was reading
this thing where Stephen King before he was Stephen King he worked it like
there's like a laundry mat or something right I mean he was waking up early at
5:00 a.m. writing for ten pages then going to work
then coming home that his wife was sick for a while I was helping her and then
he'd write a little bit more and then he was asleep
that's just the reality of being an artist is you know we don't really have
that freedom to just you know wake up and instantly you know we have access to
whatever we want we have to sometimes grind at it and kind of get ourselves
there was that in his book on writing I believe so yeah such an excellent book
it is right it's great because you know what was fascinating too is when he
talked about when he quote made it then he had new challenges so I think that's
what's like this misconception that you could be okay now you're without the day
job but now there's a new challenge and that is you're keeping track of your own
time you're keeping yourself on point here per se and he talked about how
things got diverted a little bit and then that was sort of an eye opener for
me I didn't know ya know that can happen is that's the thing is when you are
actually making your art whatever that is whether it's writing or directing or
cinematography or editing you realize okay yeah you don't necessarily have a
boss telling you show up 9:00 a.m. and you're leaving at six or whatever but at
the same time you have to now wake up in the morning be like okay you know I am
going to create work for myself somehow right I mean you might not need to do
work this week because you just did a job last week but at the same time you
have to realize okay yeah you did a job last week you directed a film you know
for three months but you never know when your next film it's gonna be it could
take a while you could be ready to go and you got another film and then it
falls apart and then it's like oh crap how do I pay my rent next month you know
what I mean so you have to go into that mentality of new problems and new
challenges are always gonna be there and you need to be prepared to to deal with
those does it mean you got to give up your passion right just because you're
in a day job and sometimes it's good to have a day job in the actual industry
that you're working in so if you're a writer it's great if your day job is
reading other people's scripts because now you're learning from other people or
if your day job is let's say you want to be a director your day job is editing so
now you're editing other directors work and you're seeing oh that was
interesting or he screwed that up or she screwed that up so seeing what other
people do we'll definitely during ID job so that when you do get that opportunity
you're using all that experience
you