Prepare for the Win: How Filmmakers Can Make the Most of Their "Off-Season"

Because this cinematic revolution isn't just "murmurs" anymore.

Be so good they can’t ignore you. - Steve Martin

I was reminded of this quote while reading Maryam Mehrtash ’s latest post in which she goes on to say,

It’s deceptively simple, but the best career advice I’ve ever carried. It’s not about working longer hours or perfecting self-promotion, it’s about undeniable excellence.

The Label’s “sports theme” in our visual branding isn’t just because Ellis and I share a mutual love for “the game,” it’s because it embodies our mutual desire for excellence.

And in no other industry do people visibly push themselves towards greatness than in the arena of athleticism. It isn’t just about one’s physical development, it’s about having mental discipline too. Sports teach you how to align both your physical and mental state to work towards something greater than yourself i.e. the game. Team sports force you to learn how to work together and adapt to others’ talents and limitations so as to constantly be elevating yourself and those around you for the good of the team - cause at the end of the day, we all want to win.

The similarities between sports and art don’t stop there, because what sports also teach us about our work is how to take advantage of the “off-season.” The best athletes, the ones whose names you know even if you know nothing about sports, the Michael Jordans, the Lebron James, the Venus and Serenas, the Lionel Messis, the Flo-Jos, all have something in common - they know how to work an off-season.

Which for filmmakers is a good thing to learn, because most of our careers will be spent in said “off-season.” The times between actually filming and promoting a movie and getting to do it again for the next one can be YEARS apart. This creates a lot of space in our lives with work that goes almost entirely unnoticed.

So how do we stay on track and focused when we’re uncertain when the next “game” will be played?

Maryam Mehrtash had some good advice in that same post on how to keep your head in the game:

Focus on skill, not passion. Passion follows mastery, not the other way around.

Mastery leads to opportunity. The better you get, the more visible you become. People can’t help but notice when you’re exceptional.

Adopt the craftsman mindset. Don’t obsess over your “dream job.” Obsess over doing world-class work right where you are.

Self-improvement beats self-promotion. You don’t need to campaign for your value if your results already prove it, and you know how to position yourself.

The Label has a few ideas of our own on how to keep working towards excellence even when it seems no one is looking which we’ve boiled down to these 5 points:

1. Education

2. Self-Care

3. Persistence and Resiliency

4. Experimentation: Trial and Error

5. Creative Collaboration

Keep in mind, “If an athlete’s off-season training is programmed correctly and proper attention is paid to recovery methods, strength and overall performance should be increased for the following competitive season.

Education

This may be the single greatest benefit coming from FilmStack for an individual filmmaker to take advantage of. There’s just so much good conversation around the art of cinema and hard-earned education available for further studies.

Some of our favorite “teachers” are: Sophie, Ted Hope, Thomas Flight, and Dario Llinares to simply name a few of many.

A. This conversation between film critic (although that seems to limiting a term for her writing) Sophie and OG indie film producer (also too limiting a term) Ted Hope is effortlessly insightful and encouraging to read - a conversation that stemmed from a connection made on FilmStack.

the cinema industry's most dysfunctional relationship needs couples therapy (part 1)

B. Between his film reviews, podcast, and intellectual musings as an actual film professor, Dario Llinares Substack is an entire film education in and of itself. This being one of my personal favorites for the “radical thinkers” out there.

Cinema and the Art of Radical Thinking

C. Thomas Flight has some incredible video essays out on Youtube but don’t for one second think that in anyway distracts from the power of his writing on this platform. The article below should be required reading for anyone trying to build a future in cinema.

Why The Movies Will Never Feel The Same Again

Self-Care

Now before you roll your eyes as images of lemon water and Lululemon leggings flash before you, know that athletes basically invented self-care or recovery season and that it is a crucial part of a filmmaker’s toolkit for those in it for the long run.

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

So, whenever I feel frozen and am not sure how to proceed, I just quietly repeat , “bird by bird”, and focus on one small part at a time….you know instead of screaming and throwing my computer out the window.

When that doesn’t work and I’m really stuck, I go for what I call a “thinking walk.” I head outside with headphones on, a playlist that matches the vibe of what I’m writing, and just walk. I take in the sun, fresh air, and the rhythm of the world around me and inevitably, ideas start to come to me.

- Amanda Sweikow’s TakeOver of Hope for Film

Persistence and Resiliency

One of the biggest foundations for filmmakers is in creating a routine and rhythm while allowing room for disruption or the kind of artistic revelation that elevates the good to the great. The ability to keep going when others quit - this is where greatness lies.

The act of creation has value in and of itself.

That is something that I didn’t understand when I was starting out as a screenwriter. I would make it halfway through writing a screenplay and give up because I knew it was out of budget and impossible for me to make at that point in my life.

And falling victim to this short-term mindset definitely held me back as a writer for a long time.

What I didn’t realize is that the value of finishing projects is not in the outcome but in the experience gained in the process. Pushing yourself to expand your creative comfort zone and gaining skills to overcome story blocks in the future.

Also, even if you can’t create a specific project immediately—that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t strike while the iron is hot with your idea. You never know when you’ll be able to come back in the future and bring your vision to life.

- Adam Petrey, The Beauty of Unproduced Screenplays

Experimentation: Trial and Error

This is about actively seeking the aforementioned disruption. If your work isn’t inevitably leading you to try new things, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. Great art stems from one’s ability to leap into the unknown regardless of outcome. And off-season experimentation allows for a safe space to workshop new ideas or ways of showcasing them so that your “in-season” work becomes the best it possibly can be. After all, we’re working towards excellence here.

Although training is still in motion during the off-season, it’s a fantastic time to work on weak areas, fix imbalances, and make overall improvements through individualized training and recovery methods. - SJ McShane

And this is why bubbles like Substack matter so much right now. They give us the room to try in public, to stumble without shame, and to share the results with others. Every time one of us tests an idea: whether it is a new way to distribute a film, build an audience, or fundraise, we create knowledge that did not exist the day before. That knowledge spreads. It inspires someone else to test their own idea. And slowly, those experiments stack on top of one another until a new way of doing things starts to take shape. - Ellis J. Sutton, The Bubble That Could Save Cinema

Creative Collaboration

This one is important during your off-season, because the relationships you mine over a lifetime can be pivotal to not only your career but the quality of your creative work. And if you haven’t noticed FilmStack is filled to the brim with potential collaboration partners (it’s how Ellis and I met.) The trick is to show up in this space as the version of yourself who is open and honest about the kind of work you want to create and the kind of people you want to create it with. Understanding that the connections might not happen immediately, because all good things take time.

This is how change has always happened in cinema. The French New Wave was not just Godard or Truffaut. It was a circle of critics-turned-filmmakers who challenged each other’s ideas and pushed one another further. They wrote, they argued, they collaborated, and in doing so, they created an entire wave that no single person could have carried alone. Sundance did not spring from a single breakout film either. It became a cultural force because a community of filmmakers kept showing up year after year, building on one another’s risks, sharing resources, and proving that there was an audience for work outside of Hollywood.

That same pattern is repeating here. The conversations on Substack and Filmstack are not just essays on the internet. They are sparks. - Ellis J. Sutton,

The Bubble That Could Save Cinema (Is FilmStack.)

A piece of advice that I read a couple years ago that I truly live by is:

Make your project(s) seem inevitable.

I think this goes right alongside with “be so good, they can’t ignore you.”

As we continue to dream and implement systems and a culture that truly champions the artist and “ambitiously authored work” as is being done with NonDē (non-dependent film), the stand-outs of this new era of filmmaking will be the ones who believed enough in their work to not stop when it took “too long” to make the kind of work they wanted or when they were flat-out ignored by those in the industry.

While excellence alone may not be enough in the over-saturated, distracted world we currently live in (we’ll talk about this further next month), we guarantee the more you are in pursuit of it, the more you take chances to elevate your work from the good to the great, the more you connect with like-minded people to reach the greatest versions of the stories you’re telling, the more the world will have a chance to encounter true works of art - and the world needs true works of art right now. Art is what translates, inspires, uplifts, and transforms us and our societies to see the best possible outcome or future for ourselves. It gives us the vision of what to work towards and clarity on present confusion. And we need vision and clarity right now. We need people willing to step up and seek excellence in the face of mediocrity. We need the voices of tomorrow to speak now.

Because in today’s cinematic landscape, it’s no longer a matter of “if,” but when.

Prepare for the when.

SEPTEMBER IS MARKETING MONTH HERE AT THE LABEL.

So stay tuned on how to navigate this current “failure” of studios and streaming and truly put the power back into our hands.