Become The Next Spike Lee

Think back to when you publicly announced, to either friends or family, that you were going to be a filmmaker. Most likely, they pictured you behind a camera, hands on your hips. Maybe smoking a cigarette or wearing a beret. And there's definitely was some sort of large monitor involved.

But they also compared to a famous director. Mine was always one person:

Spike Lee.

At the time I was going to film school. Spike was THE Black director . The only one addressing Black issues in film at a large scale. The assumption from other people was that I, presumably a Black man, would do the same. Depending on the person. This was either a misunderstanding or an insult. The qualifier for each being based on skin tone and voice cadence.

But looking at the industry landscape in mid-2024.

This was actually good advice.

A COPYCAT LEAGUE

I struggled for a long time in my career to break through in Hollywood. I'm Mixed and the industry treats diversity that same way it does foreign language films - that comes from somewhere else. So the pressure was for me was lean into Blackness. Or, the kind of Blackness that Hollywood was willing to promote and make itself feel like they're champions of diversity. Which means trauma, poverty, suffering and racism. While I've encountered more than my fair share of this.

It would be dishonest for me to do so.

Spike Lee, one of my favorite directors, has a career of tremendous growth. Once you put him into a box. He quickly breaks out of it and shows something completely different. It's a trait that every filmmaker should admire. But he also pioneered something we might not realize:

He was an influencer before social media.

Spike Lee's breakthrough came with himself starring in his film She's Gotta Have It. Not fertile ground, plenty of others have done the same. But he also used his image as a way to market himself and his films. Spike was in commercials, on panels on TV, writing opinion pieces. He was (and still is) everywhere and anywhere so that his image, films, opinions and his company were public knowledge.

And he was also relentless.

A lot of filmmakers want to be independent. But what they really want is independence from the parts of filmmaking they don't like. Spike Lee worked inside and out of the system. Using it all to his advantage. And while he moves from one film to the next. None of his past work ever disappears.

If you look on any of his social media pages. You'll see your standard social media posts on his thoughts and opinions.

But you'll also see him advertising his whole library.

There might be a new product that comes out to support the film. Maybe a remaster. But he continuously keeps it current and keeps himself active. His films continue to not only keep him relevant.

They continue to earn him money and leverage to make more films.

THE IDEAL BLUEPRINT

Every filmmaker's library of work is their legacy. It's proof of what you're capable of. A list of growing assets. And also:

A memoir of your creation.

Every film we make took hours of dedication, team building, sacrifice, heartache and love to bring into the world. But for some reason. We don't feel the need to tell other people about it. If every film is like a child:

Would you let someone else raise it?

If Spike Lee can continue to market, promote and distribute his entire library through his career. So can we. You don't need a team or a large set of tools. Just an sustaining and evolving connection to an audience. Which means showing up where they are. And using your film to make their life better.

This is how you build leverage. No matter where you live. No matter the state of the film industry.

It's how you become a real, independent filmmaker.