Hey friend,
Hope you had yourself a fabulous, productive week!
I've got some rad announcements coming you way over the next week or two.
But for now, enjoy the newsletter.
P.S. As always, you can check out the (slowly) growing archive of old newsletters here.
This week on the Filmmaker Freedom podcast, an audience building framework that will help you use your time and energy productively and profitably. It's all about the three types of niche audiences that you can use to drive revenue for your indie films, and which ones are most important to focus on. Plus, the single biggest audience building mistake that I see from filmmakers, again and again. So be sure to check it out! [Link]
This great old quote from Joseph Campbell might just be the key to individual fulfillment and achievement. It's also one of the core mechanisms of powerful storytelling, as it reflects the psychological journey that we're all on as humans. When you understand the mechanics of progressing through that journey, you'll make more progress in your life and films than you ever dreamed possible.
I'm convinced there are two "meta skills" that are becoming increasingly crucial to all of us in the modern economy. The first is the ability to quickly develop new, valuable skills (more about that in the next section). The second is the ability to transcend our old identities, and build new ones whenever the need arises.
That all might sound kind of kooky, but the world—especially in regards to technology and media—is evolving at a blistering pace. If you're constantly evolving alongside it, and learning complementary new skills, you'll thrive in the future. If, however, you assume that you've got it all figured out, and that your current skills and identity will carry you to a prosperous future, there's a good chance you'll get left behind.
One of my favorite bloggers/thinkers (a dude named Scott Young) is coming out with a book later this year called Ultralearning. And to say I'm excited about it would be an understatement. Like I mentioned in the last section, the future of media and tech will belong to those of us who continuously develop valuable new skills. Everything's changing so quickly, that if we don't evolve alongside (or even ahead of) the industry, we're going to wake up one day out of business or out of a job. So let's get good at learning new stuff, shall we?
There are so many nuggets of editing, storytelling, and collaboration wisdom in this piece. It features Andy Weisblum, whose work you've probably seen on Darren Aronofsky's films and on Isle of Dogs. Also, if you're trying to break into feature editing by assisting other people, there's a ton of good career advice for you in here.