Advice From The Pros

From the mouth of one of the big directors at this time, James Gunn, comes this brilliant snippet of advice to all aspiring directors out there. I’d like to send out thanks not only to James Gunn himself for taking the time to write to his fans about this but also my friend Ben, who took the time to link me to this:

Remember that it takes ten years or so to become a doctor. Entertainment is a far more competitive field than medicine – and, if you’re really focused on mastering your craft, it can be just as complex. So expect it to take at least ten years of hard work at the expense of a regular life to simply be competent and perhaps begin to make a living at it. And, even then, sadly, only an extremely small percentage of people are able to do so.
If you find that too daunting, consider working in another field. If you don’t find it daunting at all, consider therapy. Considering your sense of reality, you’ve got bigger problems than your career goals.
However, if you find that daunting, but still have the need or desire to continue, well, that’s at least one place to start. I wish you not only luck, but strength, perseverance, heart, and talent.
And, before you start, there are of course lots of exceptions to the ten year rule (or, as Malcom Gladwell talks about in his book Outliers, the 10,000-hours-of-work rule). But that also takes a great amount of luck, something we don’t have much control over other than putting ourselves out there as much as possible.

East Winds Film Festival: Day Three Close

Well I am sad to say, that is a wrap on the East Winds Film Festival and what an adventure it has been. I have seen absolutely amazing visuals, jaw dropping narratives and bone tingling soundtracks during my time here and have had a unique chance to hear from the mouths of real life directors just what goes into these labours of love, and it has gotten me so pumped for this Media Production course. Thankyou so much to Coventry University, not only for letting me on this course to become the media pro i’ve always wanted to be but also for arranging this film festival and giving us tickets to see these amazing creations.

So I watched two films on my final day; Bugs 3D and The Teachers Diary. The first of these films ‘Bugs 3D’ I chose simply to go and enjoy an old classic monster horror film, and I was not disappointed. In fact I would say it was that and more and some parts I genuinely didn’t see coming. The visuals were okay, though the CGI was far from modern hollywood style films we are so used to seeing as a Western Audience. Enjoy the following trailer and see what you think.

I then went to watch ‘The Teachers Diary’ directed by Nithiwat Tharatorn whom I had previously met in a brief encounter on the first nights events a former professional wrestler, finds a new job as a teacher at a primary school. Song is the only teacher at this school and must learn to cope with the loneliness of being cut off from the rest of the modern world.
His only relief t is the diary notes of Ann, a former teacher who moved away but accidentally left her personal memoirs behind.  The more Song reads about Ann the more he is drawn to her and what it would be like to meet Ann in person. It is a truly great film, with some great humour and some really touching moment, which is saying a lot because I’m not normally one for a film like this but it really did reach out to me. I had heard that this film was the company GTH’s reach out for oscar level success and from what I saw I would say they did a great job with it. Watch the trailer and take a chance and watch this film because you might find yourself surprised like me.

East Winds Film Festival: Day Three Opening

Today is the final day of the East Winds Film Festival and I have really enjoyed my time so far and will be upset to see it come to a close. The red carpet is set up, the crowd is buzzing and I am weaving around getting interviews and shots of the event, I almost feel like a professional covering an event and I love it.

Today I am going to be seeing two films; ‘Bugs 3D’ and the highly praised ‘Teachers Diary’, accompanied by a Q+A session with one of the directors. As with the past days stay tuned for a coverage of events later.