Image: This could be the light at the end of your tunnel.
The absolute dumbest thing to do with your career is to decide to do something boring with your life because it brings security and money. The reason is not that you will waste your life, because you can have huge satisfaction raising kids, digging in the garden and writing snakey Facebook entries. The real problem is that the strategy will bring you neither security nor guaranteed money.
In the screen industry, the flakiest thing you can decide to do is produce, write or direct. Before you do it, you should really look in the mirror for a while and ask yourself if you think you will be really good at it. If not, don’t because there are already people who are really good who can’t get the gigs they deserve. And who really wants a lonely life in LA, unless they can bring their families?
Let’s face it, a happy craftsperson in the screen industry really has the best gig, and most of those crafts are driven at heart by sweet art and fine judgement. Screen Australia has just announced version two of a really good entry to a career path, and it could enable you to make a real difference.
Screen Australia is pleased to announce a second iteration of the practice-led workshop Developing the Developer, to take place in April 2018.
Developing the Developer is a three-and-a-half day workshop aimed at increasing the pool of talented experts in the field of story development. Its focus is to improve access for practitioners from diverse backgrounds, and will focus on story fiction development methodologies and tools, as well as market context.
This workshop is for people who are passionate about facilitating other people’s creative visions in roles such as script consultant, script editor or dramaturg.
The whole story is here.
However, you really do need to be very good. Just like a key creative, if you are not, don’t keep trying unless this skill base can be no more than a small part of your contribution.
The reason? If you are bad at it, and arrogant, and have power, you can do a lot of damage. ‘Key creative’, by the way, is just a cute phrase to refer to a small crew of people who are necessary to start projects off and can be viciously exploited from that point onward until they get very successful and live a lonely life in Hollywood unless they can bring their families.
