It's good to be picky, actually
Here's how to ask whether to say no.
I find myself saying “No” to more and more. Part of this is a function of being extremely busy (nice), but I also think choosiness comes from clarity.
I’m getting clearer with what my goals are. Which means I’ve gotten much better at being able to identify early on whether something will serve those goals or ultimately, be a distraction. And when films are so very challenging to write, and even more challenging to ultimately make, you need to balance two competing things
have a lot of projects
have laser focus on getting things done
It’s a little bit of a bind because you need grit and determination and to never give up, but also to spread that out over a bunch of different things because… well, it’s hard to make thing happen.
So how do we know when something is worth pursuing, and how do we know when it’s ultimately going to be a distraction from the stuff that really matters? Pray for guidance?
Here are some of the questions I ask (usually of myself, but sometimes of others) as I try to suss out whether an idea is worth pursuing.
Here are some creative questions to ask:
Why? Why are we telling the story? What is the point?
Am I excited about it? And do I think I’ll be excited about it 3, 6, 9, 18 months from now?
Who is this for? As in, who is the audience for this project? Is it for everyone? Is it for a small audience? Is it a targeted, more niche audience? Where will this ultimately live in a best case scenario, and then, in a more realistic scenario?
Do I know and can I describe the genre and tone easily? If I can’t I start to get nervous that it won’t be something for traditional funders/buyers, which means it won’t ever get to an audience, which means it will ultimately not have been the best use of my limited time.
Will I be doing something new? Will this be work that allows me to expand into new kinds of work or show a different side of what I’m interested in?
Does this align with my values? There are a lot of projects that I get sent where I can say to myself “yes I see what kind of movie this is and think I could do it, but I wouldn’t want to tell a story that is saying what I think this is saying.” I personally don’t want to tell any stories that don’t have something to say. I love light entertainment, but I don’t see myself making it. If a project doesn’t align with my values, I don’t sell out.
Is this selling out? We desperately need to bring back into the four front the concept of artists selling out. I am personally tired of excusing people for “getting that bag”. Selling out sucks and you shouldn’t do it.
Here are some practical questions to ask:
Is it paid? if it isn’t paid now how soon until it is paid?
Do I need the money now? If yes, and it’s paid, say yes.
Do I have time to do this? And this isn’t could I make the time it’s do I actually have the time currently? Or will I need to carve that out somehow?
Do I like and trust these people? And if you only sort of like an only sort of trust them in my experience, that’s probably not enough!
Will I learn? If I won’t be learning, will I be gaining something else that’s valuable? See above about money.
Will I be annoyed to have to talk about this at 6AM / 9PM? This is a great question to ask yourself because… if you’d be annoyed now to have to do that, you’ll almost certainly get even more annoyed as time goes on!
Would I like doing more of this kind of thing? Let’s assume it all goes really well. The moment you’ve done something in Hollywood people are gonna respond to that and ask you to do more of that same thing. So ideally nothing in your career is a one off, it all contributes to a grander project of you as an artist. Would you be comfortable doing another one of these? If not, why set the precedent now?
What do you ask yourself when you’re considering whether to take something on? And do you all have the same problem I do, where you have approximately one million ideas and rather than worrying about coming up with them have to actively work to get better at putting ideas on ice? Would love to hear your thoughts!
