It Can Be Dangerous To Have Your Identity Tied To Your Creative Work - Alan Watt

[@stonevillage2835]

"You'll either become humble or bitter."

[@leroykincaide]

This is absolute fuel for the indie filmmaker and anyone looking to build on their career. Love this... Ultimately self belief is the key. :)

[@kuchakhtar]

To think that as a writer your identity is tied to your creative work - is dangerous!! It can make you ... a perfectionist ... (This made a light go on for me. Thank you.)

[@TheFeelButton]

You will be replaced as a screenwriter is the moment that stood out to me. We are in a business and many decisions have nothing to do with you personally.

[@NIKONGUY1960]

I am learning that not everyone is going to like everything I write. And not every idea is going to get written. His mentioning compassion for oneself was really eye opening. I am brutal with myself. I guess I need to lighten up a smidge.

[@ccwoodlands1565]

Regarding rejection and the ups and downs reminds me of Pauline Kael: "Hollywood's the only place where you can die from encouragement."

[@j.jmarlon1417]

A commandment for writer’s this interview was.

[@thereseember2800]

I think a good realistic rule is: *1/3 will like your work; *1/3 won’t or will hate it; *1/3 doesn’t care or feels neutral. It’s easier to hear rationales re/ why something is or isn’t working, because it’s objective from different angles and constructive POVs-as opposed to subjectivity from only one angle or POV re/ the structure, effect or realistic financial budget of a piece. I applaud this screenwriter because he’s learned to emanate like a tree: standing in his own presence and power, without running away, no matter what the weather was around him. He’s the kind of person who holds to his own center and allows fate to manipulate external events for his life, so Bravo to him! The most flexible branches hold the most fruit. The safest branches in the storm are the middle branches. He’s a good guy, so people would root for him.

[@thereseember2800]

luvluca toni: I’m 100% honoured!

[@EvanKiddFilms]

As a filmmaker who's been at this a few years now this is really solid advice. Humble nature is the best way to not get overtaken by a lot of this industry's stressors. You'll go a lot further in the long run!

[@JonathanEBoyd]

Another Great Interview I think the keys i took was to have a balance of confidence and humility

[@Tubingonline1]

Hey, I am learning so much from your channel but it's not just films, these are life lessons!

[@filmcourage]

Nice to weave different layers into our work : )

[@Davey8]

this is exactly why I haven't written in a year... my identity tied up in my creativity... years and school and a dozen scripts... The rejections became personal... after a point you think this is who I am... a person that can't write anything sellable

[@FASHIENLILYD]

the entire interview was very rounded out ~ luved it from start to finish. Very engaging interview. Great engagement between both parties, held my full attention all the way through. Thank-you for sharing.

[@andrewhawcroft3587]

Excellent interview.

[@kimatlastlooks2915]

Taking the spirit of the note without the mechanics. - This is my life right now. My director is giving me notes and he hasn't finished reading the entire screenplay yet. It's so hard to sit and take the medicine. It's an indie project so at least I don't have to worry about my job. LOL But the growing pains are still real.

[@danbee998]

4:01 Start of the Title Topic.

[@ukmell]

I don’t care for my identity in my work. I care for my legacy.

[@thelifeandtimesoftheunconv4536]

Righteous

[@drshadowsfilms6059]

Great advice! Beautiful channel.

[@Wordsley]

These Rock!

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

"You'll get humble or you'll get bitter." That's the trick, isn't it? Step out of the sheltered life of "golden child" prodigy, where you've been the big shark in a little bitty pond all your life... AND the world is a WHOLE LOT bigger, darker, less personable, and more terrifying than you thought it would be. It's a natural progression either direction, but the quote is solid... "You'll get humble, or you'll get bitter." Get humble? You work harder, put your aim a little lower than the clouds of conquering the planet in a day or two... You try to remember how to breathe through the shock of finding out you're not as big or grand or skilled as you've been told all your life. You don't know everything already... AND you make friends, relax, and learn to soldier on. Get bitter? AND you just point fingers around the room, blame anything and everyone for the world failing YOU... and storm out to waste your last money on booze, snarling at passers by, and either reach rock bottom in jail, die alone in the dark and forgotten... OR go home to sell spatulas for a living in Yazoo City. ...and don't forget to watch out for the Yazoo... For what it's worth, I think it's important to make the distinction that the work makes up a facet of your identity, not that it IS your identity. I am considerably more substance than the clothes I wear, even the leather hat I found and breathed new life into just before it rotted to dust... the leather trenchcoat I repaired and relined by hand... even adding a detachable winter liner, for me. I'm more than the blacksmith shop I built and then made portable... or the welding kit I keep around... or the stories I can concoct on the fly with total strangers... and dice. Those things are parts of me and my identity, but they don't make me. I made them. They're mine... so in accepting that I own them, I have power over them... never the other way around. Someone doesn't like whatever piece of work I've just breathed into existence from a figment of my imagination... Okay. It's certainly not the only one. It won't be the last, either... AND I can promise you, I'll manage to make something they'll enjoy EVEN LESS than this one! Maybe learn to laugh... especially at yourself (ourselves). I've found good old fashioned humor to be the best coping mechanism ever. THEN you can figure out how to breathe, and eventually relax. Life ain't over... there's still hope. Just keep on keeping on. ;o)

[@filmcourage]

Excellent advice. Great comments as always. Thanks for sharing, Gnarth.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@filmcourage Thanks for that... AND for the reminder of this comment... Once in a while it's good to come back and remind myself of what I was thinking a while back... Today, I've finished a week-long run through the figurative ringer in 90F heat struggling to get a welding cart together for a new welder (gift from my brother)... AND I think it's high time I took a personal day and spent it with my motorcycle... Nothing will humble you quicker than a motorcycle at 60 mph... AND I think I'd rather ride than just about anything. ;o)

[@Ruylopez778]

Fortunately for me, I'm already bitter

[@nikhilbansal1445]

Do u hv any interview of the exicutives , what they think when it come’s to heard a new story by the writers.

[@thelifeandtimesoftheunconv4536]

humble pie. It always ready to be served hot or cold free of charge.lol

[@camronchlarson3767]

I love everything you said about humility. I used to let myself get bogged down by feeling like my writing is inadequate but I think accepting the fact that your best writing it's probably not going to be that great compared to the talented, genious writers out there- especially just starting out- really gives you some freedom to be flawed and imperfect. If you're always comparing yourself to the greatest screenwriters then you're always going to feel inadequate and you can't let that stop you from writing everyday and getting better.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

"Never let the Perfect be the enemy of the Good." It's important somewhere, to point out that those "genius" Screenwriters of fame and fortune, whom you admire so much are established. There's a LOT that comes with "establishment" in a business. Your building networks of support and individuals who bounce ideas and perspectives around, share notes and advice, and often gossip about the next big thing... big event... big sales... big ideals. Established Screenwriters are generally NOT such geniuses that they're going to rough draft something better than your third or forth draft. They don't have a magic sixth sense that feeds them perfect words for every occasion. They have friends, colleagues, and technical consultants who don't mind trading a bit of time (usually but not always for money) to offer up constructive critiques after perusals of their drafts. They have SUPPORTIVE networks to bounce some of their ideas and concepts around. Starting out (and trying to start out) EVERYONE was a "one-man-band" on their own first script to the larger degree. Reaching out to websites is a special bonus we get in the 21st century, to find other people who might help us out (or ruin us...) in the longer term quest to get a script in front of an interested film maker... or even just to refine it enough to con a bunch of friends and half-starved college kids into trading "work time" for beer and barbecue. Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" (for instance) is a cult classic now. The series(?) started among the handful of college friends you see in the original film, working out of Sam's garage and some cabin one of their uncles owned (as I recall from Bruce Campbell telling it)... Today, Raimi and Campbell are fairly well known in both horror and comedy crowds... among others. Seeking to pump out perfection can (and will) lash you down before you have the courage to submit the "probably good enough" to anyone of interest... even the general public through a site like Vimeo. ;o)

[@donttripp]

Put Him in The Car 02-03-2009 He shot at us a few times and missed! So when he came to my house banging on the door telling me to come outside, you damn right I locked the doors and set the alarm. He opened the mail slot and told me if I come out and catch the hands everything would be even. So after looking out the windows and seeing that he was really by himself, I went in the room to put my shoes on. He must have thought I was hiding because out of nowhere he tried to kick my wood door in, but his foot got stuck in the door. When I saw that I was about to open the door and beat the brakes off him. But when I opened the door he fell and he say his leg was fucked up. A) Stomp him out, make him more motivated to shoot me for real. B) Put him in the car and take him to the hospital, in hopes that he would appreciate it and stop the beef. I grabbed Keelo by his shoulders and start dragging him to his car. (my boy pulled up on his bike) "What the fuck bro, you about to kill him?" "He fucked up his leg, help me get him in the car so we can take him to the hospital!!" www.amazon.com/dp/1796542156?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

[@apollonianslumber9774]

How the F do you separate your identity from your work though?! I had to create a separate identity.

[@Amelia_PC]

"What moment of this interview stood out to you?" For me, it's when rejections can make a writer bitter. It's one of the hardest parts of any creative career; how not to become bitter or depressive. I think those feelings will only get in our way, if we let it come in. Yeah, it's hard as hell, but I don't want to be another cynic in the world. My choice.

[@filmcourage]

Thank you for answering our question Amelia and thank you for pointing out that moment in this interview. You're right, there is a great lesson there. One that we do our best to fight against each day.