LN#46 || What I learned meeting top Ad Filmmakers In?India.
It all started with a book that I read sometime back. It said -
If you want to get successful, meet successful people because when you meet them, a part of their personality rubs on you.
First I started adding a lot of successful ad filmmakers on my Facebook and later I started meeting them under the pretext of taking their interviews.
After a while, I realized when I don’t publish those interviews they kind of start doubting my validity.
It was a stupid plan but I had to start off somewhere. I changed my plan, Now, I just offer to have a cup of tea or coffee and meet them without any hidden agenda, just to talk.
Most of the time they won’t believe me because in a competitive industry like ad films no one meets anyone for no agenda. There is always some ulterior motive or some business work behind a meeting.
Everyone they meet always has a motive, especially with Ad filmmakers. Most who meet them like to get cast in their ad films or become assistants and hence would always find ways to pitch themselves during a meeting.
To begin with, I started to madly send messages.
The 100 messages I had sent, I got a response for only 10 and out of that only one meeting turned into reality.
I have been doing this for more than a year now and I have met nearly 5–6 filmmakers in total.
It was totally worth all the effort.
This is what I learned from my coffee meetings with them -
- Ad Filmmaking is one of the coolest jobs that anyone can have and it gifts you a lot of money if you somehow end up becoming an ad filmmaker. You travel to the best places, you eat at the finest joints in the world and you get to meet the top elitist celebrities, beautiful girls and rich people.
- To enter inside, you have to either have some good college background, you might have assisted someone or worked in an advertising agency for a long time before opening your own production house and start directing. Contacts in advertising agencies is a must.
- Everyone struggles and nothing is as easy as it looks. It is a creative field but there are lots of restrictions on the client-side so there lies the frustration. But at the end of the day, everyone feels blessed to be in this profession because in no other profession you will get copious amounts of money to shoot and create something.
- As a final dream, it is the film that everyone wants to make. Ad film making for most of them is just a source of earning, a medium to earn a livelihood and a ladder to later make their own films. After a while, you just do it for money because the job is not that exciting and there is not much control over what you do unless you are a big director whom even client is afraid of.
- If you work too hard, you will end up as a labourer. To become a great Director, you need to be in control of your mind, be focused, be goal-oriented and believe in smart work.
- Miracles, talent, and luck are just words coined to justify the hard work that no one wants to see. One of the directors told me that it took him nearly eleven years before he made his first Ad film. Overnight success costs lots of nights. So when they say patience is a virtue, they are right. With patience comes experience and with experience comes great worth and money.
- Once you become a director, it is not always a great road ahead. The face of struggle changes but the struggle remains. However, that struggle is well compensated in the advertising field.
- One thing is for sure and it is that you get a lot of money in ad film making. You can have your own house, car, and everything. Any frustration that comes with the job is easily recuperated by the money this profession gives.
- If you want to do something, do it and don’t wait. Actions are always superior to perfect planning as action teaches and planning uses the knowledge you already have. Plan to a limit and then execute. Another director taught me that.
- Don’t think too much, it will only ruin your chances of success. Overthinking kills creativity. Think and act, and then repeat the process.