I have been very fortunate in my work at Raindance and met scores of successful independent filmmakers. It makes me rankle when I hear how one must have talent in order to be successful. I believe we all come into this world with an equal amount of talent. It’s interesting to observe the Habits Of Successful Filmmakers.
What I have observed is that successful filmmakers tend to do these four basic things:
1. Goal Setting
Set a goal with milestones in between.
If you want to make a film in one year’s time, target to increase your work rate and break down your goal into manageable steps.
Make sure that each day includes as much time and energy as possible to achieve the next step towards your larger goal.
2. Investing In Learning
Invest in learning and discovering new filmmaking techniques is the next keystone to success. Film is changing rapidly right now. The last big change was the introduction of sound. This time around it is movies on the internet and mobile telephones.
Attend seminars, like the workshops and classes at Raindance, or buy a good book to read. There is always something new to pick up.
Sometime back, I wanted to learn the art of screenwriting and I picked up The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler and Anatomy of Story by John Truby. Both excellent reads, very user friendly. And I learned heaps.
In November 2020, my good friend Kira-Anne Pelican released a book that is a landmark textbook for writers. her book is The Science of Writing Characters. Well worth adding to your library. Her story class is also awesome as is her Moneyball class.
3. Investing In Good Tools
Treat your career as a business. Invest your earnings into good tools that can enhance your business. Film businesses are the same as non-film businesses. Ploughing part of your earnings back into your filmmaking business would grow career exponentially.
Hiring a PA (or getting an intern), developing your company’s website, hiring a publicist (at the right time), traveling with your first films to film festivals, going to major film festival like Cannes all help you grow.
4. Apply What You Learn
Of all the habits of successful filmmakers this is the most important one. The most successful filmmakers are not always the most knowledgeable ones. They are the ones who put action to what they learnt. They do not talk about doing. They do,
And they watch film after film, read script after script.
You can see great movies online.
Here are my two favourite shorts at the moment:
Goodbye To The Normals
Goodbye to the Normals from Jim Field Smith on Vimeo.
Devil’s Doll – shown on www.raindance.tv
Fade Out
Cultivate these habits of successful filmmakers and you are set for a lifetime of unstoppable filmmaking.
What are you reading this for when you could be out making a film or writing a screenplay?
Let’s make movies!
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Elliot Grove, founder, Raindance Film Festival | British Independent Film Awards
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Photo Credit: Bertie Watson
I founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993 because the British film industry was closed, polite, and congratulating itself while shutting new filmmakers out.
I co-founded the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 because British indie film deserved more than a shrug, a pat on the head, and a Tuesday night screening.
Raindance didn’t start as a brand. It started as a rebellion: film training without gatekeepers, a festival without permission, and a community built by filmmakers who weren’t waiting to be invited in.
Later, we took it global: Toronto, Vancouver, New York, LA, Berlin, and Brussels, because independent film doesn’t belong to one city, one class, or one accent.
I’ve produced 700+ short films and seven features, including Deadly Virtues (2014) and ALICE, which won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize (2019) not because someone “discovered” us, but because the work earned its place.
I’ve written three books used by filmmakers worldwide because too many courses taught compliance instead of survival.
In 2009, I was awarded a PhD for services to film education, ironic, given that most of my career has been about tearing down the rules that education insisted you follow.
I don’t believe in waiting for permission.I believe in making work, building systems, and forcing the industry to catch up.
Specialties: Independent Film (the real kind) · Producing · Writing · Film Education · Festivals · Breaking Broken Systems
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