The Vs. Studio Blog

Measure your success by what others think and say about you and your work.

Don’t have your own internal scorecard of excellence.

Try to please.

Don’t have a plan.

Be inconsistent. Do things only when you’re “feeling it.”

Don’t have a strong why.

Blame others when things don’t go your way.

Be boastful.

Seek praise.

Don’t be generous.

Don’t guard your time and attention.

Don’t listen.

Don’t communicate.

Be late.

Don’t set deadlines.

Don’t forgive.

Don’t be curious.

Be closed minded.

Forget empathy.

Don’t be vulnerable.

Don’t risk.

Don’t answer your heart’s call to go make your art.

“Indifference is the elixir of love.” -P.M. (a college buddy)

Prescription for your Hollywood dreams…(Or any desire for that matter.)

Want it.

But don’t need it.

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.” -Meister Eckhart

No matter what success you’ve enjoyed in the past, no matter your reputation, no matter your past awards, reviews and accomplishments, the next project you do will feel like you’re starting all over again. Or to use a filmmaking term, you’re “back to one.”

As it should be.

Having a beginner’s mind keeps you hungry and humble. Forces you to work just as hard on creating and producing this project as anything you’ve done before. You’re appropriately terrified.

“Back To One” also prepares you for the long slog ahead. Especially when it comes to marketing. Getting people to show up.

Because no one’s coming based on what you did in the past. They’re only coming because the project is awesome AND you work your butt off to let them know about it. You consistently tell them how passionate you are about it and why it’s for them.

Not gonna lie…it always feels great to be asked, to be picked. It’s validation.

Know what feels even better?

To not need any validation and pick yourself.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” “What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?.” Ecclesiastes 1:2-3

“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.” -― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

Having a midlife crisis? Wondering “what does it all mean anyway?…”

You could go out and get yourself a shiny new sports car.

OR.

You can take that energy and angst and go make some art.

That’s what Dante did.

And the result was “The Divine Comedy.”

Go make your masterpiece.

“To hell with circumstance, I create opportunities.” -Bruce Lee.

“When your army has crossed the border, you should burn your boats and bridges, in order to make it clear to everybody that you have no hankering after home.” -Sun-Tzu, The Art Of War

For producing (and most things in life), mindset is everything. It’s why much of this blog (and someday if I ever write a book and/or do a podcast) is devoted to just that. Yes, strategy and tactics are important (and we go over these in detail in The Producing Workshop), but I believe that if you have a strong enough “why” and have truly decided to produce something (meaning there’s no turning back; you’ve burned your boats, you’ve “thrown your cap over the wall”), you WILL figure out the “how.”

And the producing mindset is an empowered mindset.

Let me say that again.

The producing mindset is an empowered mindset.

It means that if you’re willing to figure out what you’re passionate about and wholeheartedly embrace all the seemingly unfun, administrative, boring, yet vital producing tasks…And do them with creativity. With excellence. With generosity…If you work as hard on them as you do on the “fun stuff”, then you will be rewarded. You will be empowered.

To do what?

To create memorable experiences for yourself, your fellow artists and the audience you seek to serve. Who get to witness your passion in action.

Isn’t that why you made the crazy decision to become an artist in the first place?

By having a producing mindset, you’re just ensuring that your fate isn’t in the hands of some fickle industry. But rather rooted firmly in the clutches of your empowered grasp.

“(Great) material is your currency.” -Brian Grazer

What’s the first thing most actors do once they gain some clout in the industry?

They form a production company.

Why?

So they can use that clout to find great material and manifest it for themselves and others. Because they know that’s the game. It’s the whole enchilada. Finding great material and talented people to execute it, is everything.

But you don’t need to wait until you become a famous Hollywood actor to form your production company. You can do it right now. Start one! All you need is a burning desire to consistently produce material that you either source or write yourself. Or both.

And do it with excellence and generosity at all times.

Playwrights…

What’s the play you’d write if after you finished–rather than sending it off to various theatre companies across the country, hoping against hope they’d read it and pick it for their upcoming season–if instead, this were the last play you ever wrote AND you were on the hook to produce it yourself?

Go. Write that one.

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” -Michelangelo

The below parable is from author, psychotherapist and Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello. I highly recommend his book, The Way To Love. This parable is from Song Of The Bird and I came upon it in James Clear’s weekly newsletter. I highly recommend signing up for that and reading his book, Atomic Habits. I’ve posted about it before. In my opinion, it’s the single greatest book ever written about habits.

Okay. Without further ado…

“A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chickens and grew up with them.

All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air. 

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. 

The old eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?” he asked. 

“That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” said his neighbor. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth—we’re chickens.” 

So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was.”

(I just returned from a family vacation in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Manitowish Waters. One day I was out on the lake standup paddleboarding. A bald eagle soared above me and then landed in the tall pine trees up ahead. A sight to behold. Talk about majestic!)

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” -Maya Angelou

“Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.” -Corita Kent

Acting requires ACTION. What is your action? What do you want from the other person? So much so that you’d “die” if you didn’t get it. It doesn’t matter if you pick the right action. It just matters that you pick something. Something strong, something playable, and something that confers maximum conflict. Whatever action you pick, put your whole shoulder behind it. Don’t “half” it. Play it to the hilt. See if it actually works…Do that and your work will always be interesting. No matter how “wrong” the choice was. You and the director can then work together and adjust your actions if need be. But more often then not, the wrong action becomes the right one. The surprising one. The memorable one.

The same holds true in life. Not sure which direction you should go? What you should do? Just decide. Pick something! Then, put everything you got into your choice. See what happens after a week, a month, three months, etc…of maximum commitment and then evaluate.

Worst thing that happens is that you made an incorrect choice. Okay. But you learned something. You gained new skills. You tried. And you proved to yourself and others that you’re capable of deciding and then committing to that decision. You also figured out what not to do. What you don’t like. Pivot and make a different choice. But again more often than not, the “wrong” decision ends up being the right one.

Or as Jerry says in The Zoo Story…”“Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.”