Welcome to The Bottom Line, a blog for directors and other linchpins like us who spend the better part of their waking hours in an Alternate Universe. I am A. Linchpin. Now that we're friends, you can call me AL.
I started this blog in Hollywood in 2005. I was in the process of extricating myself from a rocky marriage, and in search of a safe place to land.
Well, not my actual Do you?-I Do!- Do you?- Sure... now let's screw!-Preacher-sanctioned state-licensed union of two. I'm referring to my other divorce... from my former career, and therefore Life. The one where I bottled my nerve and savings and left my soul-killing boss, a Bottle Blonde Sheriff of Nottingham and her Merry Band of Thieves. 'Til then, I had never had a job I didn't love. This one, I quit and ran for my life... literally!
What I didn't know is what messy proverbial kettle of fish I had opened. I had no idea what I was in for. Ahead lay a long and uncertain journey, for which I had no road map. In my ignorant haste, I walked slap into the too-long middle of Life... the part that comes sometime after the Opening and long before the End.
You know... Act II.
Ah, well. We don't know what we don't know, do we? Except that Ignorance really is bliss.
"Safe? In Hollywood?" Is there such a thing? Yes, Virginia... it's like Santa Clause. You see, Safety, like Happiness, is a relative term. Both have very little to do with where you go. What matters is who you choose to travel with. Seriously.
Making a movie is like rolling a boulder up a mountain. The goal is to get your personal boulder to the top, on time and under budget, as soon as you can. If you're lucky and collaborative, you have help. Producers are showmen, there to light the path. Actors, a necessary evil. Crew is a godsend, even on the bad days.
Writers, ladies and gentlemen... they start your engine. Some are directors, too. We call them "hyphenates."
Directors are linchpins. Indispensable, as Seth Godin puts it. With applied motivation and a productive team, they are the driving force that gets a movie made. They have one outstanding trait: Vision. i.e., a point of view.
A director must know Life. To do so he must first know himself. He must make himself aware of how people relate to each other, in the real world. Armed with this self-knowledge, he is primed for lasting relationships... First, with characters and material, then producers, cast and crew.
He has peculiar insight into human behavior. Which is what I think this blog is really about.
Directors are the most proactive people I know. The ultimate communicators.When communication breaks down, in human relationships, misunderstandings occur. When we focus on our differences, we create a disconnect. Presumptions are made. Conflict is born.
In an Alternate Universe, like film, inexplicable behavior can be examined and impossible relationships can be explored. Ideas are expressed without limits and no holds are barred.
If you are an aspiring director, looking for a road map, then you won't find one here. I can point you to some helpful resources, but some things are best figured out on your own.
Here, you'll find more questions than answers. I'm a hyphenate, not a psychologist. I hold three licenses, but not a single academic degree. I cannot offer you wisdom, either. Only Life's experience can give you that.
Think of this blog as a conduit, offering up few souvenirs from my own artistic journey like seeds for a creative soul. Conversations with wise men. Fuel for your tank on days when it's running low. Come. Gather 'round the proverbial campfire. We'll tell stories about Life... and how crazy and sexy and beautiful it can be.
Why? Because deep down, we, you and me, we're just like everybody else. We want to be entertained.
The Bottom Line: We are people through other people.
I can teach you nothing. What I can give you is my experience... because it is all I have.
Fill the well, if not here, then somewhere... so that you can get out there and fill the void.
Come in, kick off your shoes, and "hang" for a while. Here it's OK to channel Steve Jobs. Think different. You know... Be you.
en pace,
AL
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