A viewer asks for advice on becoming a film maker. Make sure to read Delicious Tacos' piece on being a Hollywood writer:
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I Feel You by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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So the topic of this requested video is how to become a filmmaker.
How to go from not knowing, well, anything, not having any professional experience whatsoever, to making your own bloody movies.
And I've broken this down into eight bullet points.
And we're going to start off with a really, really negative one.
Number one, to become a filmmaker, do not try and become a Hollywood filmmaker.
Now listen, my colleague, Delicious Tacos, longtime writer in the Manosphere, has done extensive work in Hollywood.
And he has written several articles about how broken and nepotistic Hollywood is.
And I really can't do any better justification to this whole concept than just to link to what he's written.
That even if you do get into Hollywood, you're going to be in Hollywood doing something you hate.
You know, if you like horror movies, you'll be doing comedies.
If you like comedies, you'll be doing romance movies.
If you like romance, you'll be doing action movies, etc.
Hollywood is a terrible, terrible, terrible machine.
And the fact that anything good ever gets made is a miracle with that machine.
Asking how do you become successful in Hollywood is like saying how do you become a successful lawyer.
And again, with rare exceptions, the way you become a successful lawyer is you get born into the right family and you know the right people.
If you don't already know the right people, you are not going to be successful in Hollywood.
Period.
It's a meat grinder.
Don't fall into the city of broken dreams.
Now that said, doesn't mean you can't be a filmmaker and even a successful filmmaker.
It's just that the Hollywood model is very much atrophying, in my opinion.
If you go out there as a hopeful to try and become part of it, you'll get eaten alive.
But, you know, if you get an opportunity, go for it.
But stick to being successful by your standards.
All right, because you can do that.
So that's a, be very wary of Hollywood, is the number one point that I needed to make.
Number two.
Do you like making movies?
You know, there's a certain issue of people wanting to be something instead of doing something.
You know, this is a constant issue with human beings.
You know, people want to be rouche, for example.
You know, and ruche, he has all these books he publishes and people respect him, etc.
But to become rouche meant going to the bar and practicing and approaching girls in public and taking notes and then sitting down for hours and hours and hours by himself and writing these books, etc.
So, you know, there's that issue.
Do you want to be this thing or do you want to do this thing?
Now, when it comes to something as specific as making film, the best analogy I can think of is riding a motorcycle.
Now, riding a motorcycle, if you've never ridden one before, sounds great.
You look cool, you have a leather jacket, you got the open road, the girls love it.
But you know what?
Some people just really hate riding motorcycles.
You get the wind in your ear, you get bugs hitting you in the face, you get gravel, you get rain, you get all of this.
And some people just, they buy a motorcycle, and they're good at it, and they're not pussies or anything like that.
All right, but they get in there like, you know what?
I'm not really a fan of this.
I kind of like my car with the air conditioning, where I get to listen to music, etc.
And so for first-time bikers, you know, this is one of the reasons as a first-time biker, you buy a cheap bike.
Because you might find out that you don't like biking.
And it's the same thing for making movies.
You know, making a movie is like planning a goddamn wedding every single day.
Making movies is a nightmare.
It's one of the highest stress businesses out there.
And, you know, like myself, like, I've got an eye for photography.
I like messing around with some with visual effects.
I like it to some degree.
But then, do you want to do that professionally?
You know, it's like being in a band.
Listen, playing your guitar or playing your saxophone can be a lot of fun.
Being in a band, being in a professional band, not just a hobby band, that's a whole other kettle of fish.
Okay, there is so much that goes along with that.
And, you know, the professional musicians I know, good lord, those guys work hard.
So point number two is you need to figure out, do you actually like making movies?
Do you actually enjoy the whole process?
Because it's a nightmare.
It's like pulling teeth.
Okay, it's, and, and everything's going to be like that.
All right, playing sports is fun, but being a professional athlete means busting your hump to do that.
Writing, you know, it's great to have a novel, but actually obsessing and getting hangovers and drinking so much and hating yourself and all of that.
You know, that's a whole different process.
So you have to figure out whether or not you like making movies.
Because it's a very, you might love it, or you might find out you hate it, or you might find out you just want to do it as a hobby.
This leads, into the next point, watch Kubrick.
Watch his films.
I personally hate Kubrick.
His films are these stupid fucking riddles.
I can't stand them.
But I really admire him.
I really admire what he has done as a cinematographer.
He's an amazing filmmaker.
He's just not my cup of tea.
And if you want to be a filmmaker, even if you don't like Kubrick, you need to watch Kubrick because the guy is absolutely amazing.
And as you watch Kubrick, also check out the YouTuber, Robert Ager.
I'm going to link to him down below.
He does all this film analysis.
The guy's absolutely brilliant.
I absolutely love Robert Ager.
It actually turns out that, you know, Brother John knows the guy.
He met him once or something.
Robert Ager is really switched on.
Great film analysis, talking about all the little details, all of the stuff that you need to be aware of as a filmmaker.
You know, I'm a bit of a good photographer, but the details that you put into film are a whole other level.
All right, and yeah, Kubrick is the master at this.
And Robert Ager will help explain that.
Also, you know, red letter media.
I'm sure you've heard of red letter media.
I don't need to sing their praises.
You know they're awesome.
You know, they have great insights.
I'll just say, one of the things I love about them is that I disagree with them politically every so often.
And it's good to have those fresh perspectives so I'm not just in an echo chamber.
So anyway, yeah, Kubrick, Robert Ager, Red Litter Media.
Get familiar with these guys.
They are masters of the craft.
All right, next point.
Film what you can.
Listen, like right now, I've got a, I'm lucky enough to have a pretty fancy little video camera.
But you can pick up a $200, a $400 video camera, and that will shoot an HD.
You'll need good lighting, which will be an education in itself.
By the way, you can pick up a really cheap, get one of those floodlights from the hardware store.
All right, they're like 20 bucks, and you're getting 1,600, the equivalent of 1,600-watt light bulbs blowing out of the things.
So there's your lighting problems taken care of.
But even if you don't have that, you've got a cell phone.
Okay, and a cell phone camera, believe me, it's far from optimal.
But a cell phone camera can do quite a bit.
And it's not about, especially when you're starting out, it's not about the technology that you have.
It's about the creativity that you have.
You know, there's this one short film I did years ago.
I've never published it because it's not even that good, actually.
But it's a short film.
It's 16 minutes that has a little, it's got a narrative arc to it, and it's got some stuff happening.
And we filmed it on zero budget with three actors.
And two of us actors were also the cameraman.
So film what you can.
A guy sent me a video a long time ago.
I'm going to see if I can find it, but he did this remix of George Orwell with like a typewriter, and it's all in black and white.
And it's just himself and a typewriter that he probably bought for $15 and disassembled and a narrative that he wrote.
It's very cinematically engaging.
It's very nifty.
It's very cool.
Film what you can with what you have.
Filmmaking is the art of the possible.
Even more so than politics.
It's being able to look at something mundane and see how you can make it interesting.
It's about being creative.
And every single one of us has our different forms of creativity.
You know, like I. One of the things that breaks my heart is I'm not that funny.
I see these brilliant comedians with these amazing observations and I wish that I could do that.
But that's not my sort of creativity.
You know, whereas myself, like with the writing in particular, you know, that is my form of creativity.
That is something that I am very good at.
And so you explore that creativity.
Figure out what you're good at, what you're not good at.
Go do what you can with no resources whatsoever.
Do what you can with nothing but a cell phone.
And you know what?
Just to add to this, if you like filmmaking, it doesn't matter if your films suck.
If you like filmmaking, if you enjoy it for the sake of doing it, you know, look at these trauma films.
Look at, there's a huge market for cheesy horror flicks.
And the horror flicks, these are guys that like just like, they like their special effects, their practical effects.
All right, the plots are terrible.
There's no symbolism.
But the guys making those movies, they enjoy making them.
James Rowe, and this is not, don't take this as a criticism.
James Rolfe, you know, the angry Nintendo nerd, he, well, A, he's successful.
B, he loves what he's doing.
He loves what he's doing.
He's living the dream man.
He is a filmmaker.
And I don't think he's the most insightful guy out there.
No offense to him.
I mean, he has some good insights, but he doesn't read a lot of books.
He doesn't obsess over narrative the way that I do.
He's a different sort of guy than I am.
Let me put it that way.
And so I wouldn't call his short films, I wouldn't call them great in the sense that Citizen Kane is, well, supposedly great.
There's some debate over that one.
But you know what?
He likes making them.
And he makes money making them.
their creative products.
Like, good Lord, I've watched all of his bloody...
Here I am saying he's not a great filmmaker, but I've seen everything he's made.
So clearly, he's got an audience in me.
So even if you're not great, but if you enjoy doing it and you're good at it, do it.
All right?
Don't try and be something you're not.
Try and be the best version of yourself in all of this.
All right.
Next.
Network with other people.
Once you start doing some creative stuff, start finding the other people out there that want to do creative stuff as well.
Okay, there's people that want to be actors or a dime a dozen.
It's not hard to find actors.
Start finding out about the different film festivals, about the different grants, about the different bursaries.
Okay, especially as a beginning filmmaker, you're going to have to wear a lot of hats.
All right, so you're going to have to find out the different places that you can get money.
You're going to have to be generating revenue, all of this stuff.
So yeah, get out there and do stuff with other people.
Filmmaking is a very collaborative thing.
It's a very social thing.
This leads to the next point.
When you work with other people, on the one hand, treat them well.
Respect their ambitions, their goals.
Make sure, to the best of your ability, that they are better off for having associated with you.
Simultaneously, use them.
Kind of the downside of the film industry is that it's so glamorous that everybody wants to be in the film industry.
Everybody wants to be a musician.
Everybody wants to be a writer, but if you're a writer, that's not really your problem.
You just write your books and humor the people that say, oh, I'm a writer too.
I go to workshops.
No, with the film industry, there's so many people that want to do it, but they want to do it for the wrong reasons.
You need to make sure, I mean, like, treat them well, but also make sure that this is your job.
Do X, Y, and Z.
This is what I expect from you, etc.
All right, make sure that you're getting value out of them.
Give them value, but also get value out of them.
Be wary of the many, many personality disorders that you get in filmmaking.
All right, now, finally, if you've done all of this, if you've done some collaborative projects, you've done some silly art films, you've been an actor, you've been an extra, you've been this, go to film school.
If you're serious about making film and you've done it and you like making film, go to film school.
You know, a lot of this art training, yes, a lot of it's bullshit, but there is a lot to learn in the process of cinematography.
Like, there's so many technical aspects and artistic aspects.
There is so much to learn.
It is very much worth your time going to film school.
And probably about 90% of the people in film school with you, like they will have just gone there straight out of high school.
Like, I want to make movies.
And they're complete idiots.
But about 10% of them are actually going to be switched on.
They're actually going to be engaged.
You'll make some really good contacts there.
You will learn a hell of a lot.
And you'll start not just associating with other, you know, part-time actors, part-time filmmakers, you'll start associating with the professional groups of filmmakers out there, the people that are really deadly serious about the whole thing.
And you know what?
Finally?
The final point.
Don't worry about making good movies, like politically right-wing movies or Christian movies, or whatever.
Okay, like this is the death of Hollywood right now.
This is what's killing it: these movies, they actually have diversity consultants on these damn movies.
Don't do that.
You don't need that.
You don't want that.
The hell with that.
Just make good movies, period.
Anything that is good is going to be true.
And anything that's really true is going to be good.
If you have a message to get out there, you know, chances are you don't even know what the real message is.
If you've got something that you want to get out there, there's probably layers of depth to it that you're not even aware of just yet.
Just make it as good as you possibly can.
Don't try and make it serve a narrative.
Don't try and make it be anything other than what it is.
Like, yes, you'll learn all the design aspects, but Like the movie Alien, it's seriously one of the best movies ever made.
And there's all of this analysis and what was going on, but nobody sat down and said, I want to make a movie about a space rapist that universalizes the fear of rape to both sexes.
Nobody explicitly said that.
They just tried to make a really good horror movie about a creepy penis alien.
And that's what they did.
They weren't trying to serve an agenda.
They weren't trying to, they were just trying to make a good movie.
So don't do like the reversed stupidity of Hollywood, where you try and make right-wing movies.
Just try and make good movies.
If you're playing, if you're an actor, try and play the role as best as you possibly can.
And hell man, that's all any of us can ever do.
A huge amount of success has to do with the roll of the dice.
They come out the right way, you get to be one of the 1%.
If not, well, maybe you're just James Rolfe, that poor, miserable bastard with his wife and his videos and all the fun he has doing that.
So yeah, man, I hope that advice...
I hope that was useful.
Hope that'll get you on the right track.
And you know what, man?
Get out there right now.
Start filming some stuff.
Like, find a weird bug in your neighborhood.
Film a nature documentary on that.
Just film a weird art piece about the furniture in your house.
You know, play around the light levels.
Make a stupid creepy pasta to post on the X board of 4chan.
But go film something, get into it, see if you like it.
And best of luck to you, man.
I hope it really works out.
More importantly, I hope you enjoy yourself when you're doing all of this.
Thank you very much for the support and the requested video.
