—
A director or producer of any genre is often in the situation of needing to curb his or her sensibility (which is what actually makes an artist unique) for fear of being devoured by the industry and not being taken seriously by decision-makers or even the cast and crew.
Sergio Barbasso is the founder and director of the Vegas Movie Awards™ festival, Executive Director of the Homeless Festival, and creator of animation projects for school kids and children in need. He is committed to creating the healthiest filmmaking community in the world. His purpose, broadened by the recent creation of a platform called FilmmakersF1rst™, is to help content creators around the world be more responsible for their actions and not let others decide whether they are worthwhile or can be happy.
For years Sergio Barbasso has analyzed the behavior of thousands of participants in his festival, whether they were first-time filmmakers or Academy Awards® and Emmys® recipients. And he noticed common patterns in their approach (which he himself had experienced years earlier as a producer of animated series) that hindered their own happiness and made them desist in the long run from creating new masterpieces.
In his upcoming trilogy of books called ‘Save The Filmmaker, Save The World’, Sergio Barbasso provides a series of invaluable insights given by 25 years of experience in the arts on how to proudly use one’s sensitivity and creativity as absolute assets and not hide them as if they were weaknesses.
Below is an excerpt from his trilogy of books, previewed for GoodMenProject, featuring the 5 best actions that can enhance your career today:
– Work on yourself first
“For an artist it is natural to create; it is what we do best. We get so involved in the stories and characters we create that we completely forget who we are and what we want.
Society and schools usually tell us not to waste time on ourselves and to just DO: produce, perform, keep up, multitask, and deliver. We get into the productivity loop and never get out, and we don’t realize that stopping for a second and analyzing what our true needs, values, talents, and limiting beliefs are can give us the full power to decide what is right for our present and future without sacrificing family, relationships, money, and time.”
– Pursue a Life Purpose bigger than yourself
“Often an artist’s greatest purpose is ‘make a script that will become a movie someday’ or ‘make my idea for a feature film a reality,’ but we rarely ask ourselves “why?”
In truth, the most successful projects are not created with the aim of ‘getting others to say I’m good,’ but rather to convey powerful messages that can change the world.
Life Purpose is something bigger than ourselves that in our lifetime we will never achieve, otherwise, it would be called ‘goal’. But getting as close as possible to that purpose, as helping other artists thrive and trying to make indie cinema a better place has been for me, is what gives depth to our 12-16 hour days and keeps us from feeling tired. Thanks to your films or documentaries you can save whole categories of unheard and suffering human beings, not only by talking about them but by bringing them closer to your associations with which to unite efforts toward a common goal.”
– Present yourself at your best
“Many artists get offended when they hear the word ‘sell’. They all want to achieve greatness not considering that they are competing with millions of people who all want the exact same thing: to be appreciated and recognized.
That’s why they think that making a good film is enough and don’t ask what a decision-maker actually wants to get from them, thus neglecting fundamental aspects related to their own promotion such as creating a poster of their film, or a pitch deck, or even a trailer.
We all sell something, and if our Life Purpose is greater than making money, it is imperative that we become better at convincing others of our ideas, at making our cast and crew fall in love with our vision, at making an investor understand that we are the best thing that could happen to them. Used ethically, marketing is the most powerful tool for getting what you want in life.”
– Connect and absorb
“In the film industry there is so much ego and more and more individuality compounded by the recent pandemic. We’ve forgotten that our strength lies in genuine mutual help; that it’s great to compete against each other in merit-based competitions like at the VMAs but that the best way to grow our talent is to be able to take advantage of the talents of others and share our experience in humble and empathetic relationships.
There will always be some practice in the arena to master this skill: for extroverts, the challenge is to question what they already know and listen to the opinions of others, for introverts like me you have to stay in the discomfort of dealing with human beings when you would rather be in your studio creating all day.
A good balance of everything is the ideal compromise for becoming better people and artists, and making those connections that will allow us to make a difference in the world.”
– Just love yourself
“Give yourself permission to explore, fail, get back up, and try again. Most importantly, learn to celebrate your resilience and your unwillingness to be average in life. After all, we artists make more mistakes because we do so much more than others. Create a space in your busy daily schedule that is yours alone, where you can meditate or live a present made up of simple things that we usually take for granted, so you don’t lose sight of who you are and support yourself in your own battles. These are tips I give to the thousands of filmmakers who come through the Vegas Movie Awards™ but they apply to any artist. We all have the ability to change the world with our artistic works, but to help others we must first learn to love ourselves.”
For more information:
—
This content is brought to you by Jacob Lee.
Photo provided by the author with written permission from Sergio Barbasso