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Creativity isn’t tidy—it’s risky, chaotic, and full of surprises. It’s full of breakthroughs and breakdowns, moments of flow and moments of doubt. Join Mishu Hilmy for unfiltered conversations with artists, filmmakers, musicians, and fearless makers who thrive in the unknown, embrace imperfection, and create at the edge of possibility.
This is your front row seat to the self-doubt, unexpected wins, and messy emotional work of making something real. But craft isn’t just about feeling—it’s about problem-solving, process, and the devotion behind mastery.
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Mishu Hilmy (00:03)
Welcome to Mischief and Mastery, where we embrace the ups, downs, and all around uncertainty of a creative life, and that steady, and sometimes not so steady journey toward expertise. Each episode we talk candidly with people I know, people I don't know, folks who produce, direct, write, act, do comedy, make art, make messes, and make meaning out of their lives. You will hear guests lay out how they work, what they're thinking about, where they get stuck, and why they snap out of their comfort zones and into big, bold, risky moves.
So, if you're hungry for honest insights, deep dives into process philosophies and practical tips, plus maybe a little mischief along the way, you're in the right place. For more, visit mischiefpod.com.
Hey everyone, it's Mishu and welcome to Mischief and Mastery. Today we're talking to Armin Corasos. He's a filmmaker and the founder of Caymanites, where he blends documentary storytelling with striking visuals to create work that feels both personal and cinematic. He also started Filmmaker Fridays in Chicago, which has quickly become a go-to space for creatives to connect and collaborate. So what do we talk about in this episode? We get into it, we chat about how to recognize and take opportunities in filmmaking the hangups.
around keeping momentum in this fast moving biz and the importance of building a community in the film scene. We also really get into the details about him launching Filmmaker Friday, how it grew from a little idea to a 900 plus member community still growing and why it's important to take action before everything feels ready, how that's a key to making things happen. So that's what we talk around. I'll add more in the show notes. You can follow Armin at
Armen creates on Instagram and whatnot. hope you enjoy the conversation. Here it is me and Armen.
Armin Korsos (01:56)
So I really saw a need in Chicago for very specific, focused community events for filmmakers. And I played with the idea for months and I was like, need to make, I came up with these roadblocks for myself. Well, it needs a website, it needs a newsletter, it needs all the infrastructure. I had a great mentor in front of mine,
Parker Foster, he's a director in New York City, and he's just a very like zero BS friend, and he's like, you don't need any of that crap, you need an Instagram, and you need a place to RSVP, which we use a platform called Partiful. you know, don't need a website, like frankly, like social media is where it's at, it's where everything is shared instantly, you you can share, comment, like, whatever, and.
We just started the events and I've had two really close friends of mine, Will Etcher and Clay Kerr, who are also collaborators in the film world anyways, but I approached them and said, really would like help. Like one of the hardest things is finding venues. And we eventually expanded to screenings and to panel discussions. And there's a lot of work you need to do behind the scenes to make these events come to life.
And we just started and we, our first event was 50 people. And then so far, our largest event, which you attended was 240 attendees. And we, at this point just crossed 900 followers on Instagram in six months. And we are looking to build it even bigger next year. we're, it's been, it's been really incredible. think our exponential organic growth just truly reflects that there is a need for this in a city like this.
I think it's a testament to if you do have an idea and you do want to pursue something, I think the number one roadblock is getting started. We didn't have everything figured out. think today with all these self-help books and business books, there's all this help and all this knowledge you feel like you need to absorb before you start something. With an event like this, it truly was like, cool, let's find a venue. We got it. Let's pick a Friday.
hence the Filmmaker Friday name. And we came up with a format. We invited three friends to show work and speak about it. And it was great. And it just kind of snowballed from there. And I think just getting started and then the beauty of events every month or every four weeks is, yep, well, there's another one after this one. You have four weeks to get on your feet and do the next one and the next one. But it's not too overwhelming where I think sometimes people set this huge goal of like, let's do a podcast every single week or.
every single Wednesday we're going to have a hangout. And I think that really dilutes the purpose of these events. And we never wanted to do weekly events or bi-monthly. So I monthly has been great. And yeah, we've had incredible growth and we're super, super excited for next year when we hit that one year mark.
Mishu Hilmy (05:01)
Before we were recording, like we were talking about the book I mentioned, All It Takes is a Goal by John Acuff. And it's a similar thing he points to. I think he refers to or the term he refers to is the vision wall, which is like, I can't start X, Y or Z because it doesn't meet the vision. I'm not fully trained up. don't have this platform started. I don't have this done. I don't have that, this or that. So it's like we arbitrarily create this vision wall. All right, I want to start an event. Need a Facebook group, need a website, need at least a
5,000 followers, so it's like we create this vision, but there's something to be said about, it, just going to start it. So to get to the very beginning of the process, think something interesting you mentioned was like, you had this idea, and the first impulse was like your brain to go like, no, you're not ready, you don't have enough assets, websites, cloud, or what have you. So when you were confronted with the desire to avoid
or slow it down or perfectionism or whatever, it seemed like your strategy was to connect with someone you admire or a mentor figure. Was that a deliberate thing or was that a deliberate part of your process to break through blocks or was that just a byproduct of you having a friendly conversation about this idea you have and your buddy's like, fuck it, just do it. So I'm curious, how did that integrate itself into your initial process for this?
Armin Korsos (06:26)
with Filmmaker Friday specifically and other big, big endeavors, I do always consult my select few very trusted friends about big ideas and thoughts. And typically these are people who are more experienced than I am. Parker happened to start Filmmaker Friday in New York City a couple months before us. So we already hear about the ball rolling and I think it was like four or five events. And by the time we started, but it's, it's, I think if you,
consult the right person and they give you that like that little nudge just to get the snowball like over the crest of the mountain just to like give it some momentum I think it's vital because if I spoke to three friends and all three of them were like this is stupid don't do it then we'd be sitting here and there would be no event and we would not be thinking of hosting our seventh event in December and having these venue partnerships and really really high-end special guests so I think I think
Also goes to show that these events, now they seem intimidating. seems like where we got our shit figured out, we have everything. know, it's behind the scenes, it's a lot of work to get these venue partnerships and these dates scheduled and special guests to come out and commit to dates. But you just have one step at a time, one event at a time. And it's the same with projects too. Like I think people see these.
a giant mass of multi-million dollar commercials or documentary films, really like all of those people always started with a zero budget, you know, self-funded small story and they just, as you progress and get better, you always learn and improve and that's been one of our core values for sure with Filmmaker Friday and I think it's reflected in the events in our attendance.
Mishu Hilmy (08:07)
Yeah, I think there's definitely something to be said about like doing and then improving versus like the perfectionist is like have everything laid out and then check the box and get it started. And like you said, you know, starting with a smaller project versus I imagine you bump into filmmakers or even documentary filmmakers who say something like, I just need to get my half million dollar million dollar funding. And it's like the first idea they ever thought of rather than, you know, try something on a shoestring and build up.
portfolio or body of work. But really, I think action kind of creates this invisible network of new relationships and new learning versus if you never did it because your vision wasn't perfect and your to-do list wasn't easily checked off, you're just kind of...
Armin Korsos (08:53)
And you bring up a good point is one of the biggest most common roadblocks is money and With this event like you know, how do you find venues if you don't have money? Well, we're we're on our seventh event We haven't paid for a venue yet because if you can sell people on your idea of what you're going for and if you can get them on board like money is really not a Problem and it's just it's the same with creative projects and you know films or commercials whatever like especially if you're building your portfolio
having the excuse of money is really easy, but then everyone has that problem and it's not unique to you. And I think looking past that and you know, doing something for the passion is, what's going to ensure your longevity and having deep roots with whatever you're doing, whether it's a project or hosting an event. And I was really specific about that with, with Will and Clay when we started as, know, we're not going to make money from this. will not ask for tickets for this, for, know, to attend our events.
and it's gonna be free and we're also gonna reflect that with our partnerships. Like we're not gonna ask for venues, we're not gonna pay venues, we're not gonna do any sort of exchange and I think that keeps events pure and I think that's what, as soon as you start doing something right off the bat, you're looking for financial gain. I don't think it's really good long term because you truly have to believe in it for it to really go far and I always knew that these events for me would be the
the benefit is the networking, is why other people also come to the events is I'm also out there networking. I'm not just hosting. I'm also a filmmaker. I'm also professional in the industry. I also do my own projects and I also network a lot. I think creating this environment for something that I actually wanted to see in Chicago and just doing it ourselves, it's really powerful. I'm not looking for direct monetary gain from an event like this.
The gains are non-monetary, it's all priceless behind the scenes. It's all human connections and real connections.
Mishu Hilmy (10:54)
you gone about the administration elements of say getting the venues, right? Like what's the sort of percent rate of ghosted cold emails? What's, you how many of already have relationships or will or clay have relationships? Like what's the positioning you do when you reach out to a venue to say, hey, look, this is what we're doing. We'd like to use your space and kind of what's the general response rate or success rate.
Armin Korsos (11:16)
Yeah, so we we've had really great success rate so far. And honestly, our biggest hurdle has been we're growing too fast and the venues do not have capacity to host us. So we have a lot of great partnerships like MainState Chicago, where they can host 50 people comfortably. moving forward, it'll be great place for workshops and smaller, more focused events. But to answer your question.
we, just pitched based on, you know, collaboration like this, you know, if you're looking to have deeper roots in Chicago, we bring in 150, 250 people to your space and give the space as a platform to speak about what they do and whether it's a film studio or rental house or whatever it is. they get to talk to a bunch of new people who might've not heard of the venue before. And I love that there's venues out there that are willing to offer these spaces out.
to us because it really shows that they are for their community. And honestly, our biggest hurdle too has been dates, not necessarily that people are uninterested in supporting us. And what we learned from that this year was, you the first five months were pretty smooth sailing. And then six and seven, November, December, were pretty rough like it. We just kept getting a bunch of no's and we had to move dates around and whatnot. And what we're doing for 2025 is,
We're right now officially scheduled out till April. And our one year anniversary will be June. So we're going to start planning the June one year anniversary date as well. And then all we have is May and then the first six months of the year are planned out. So it's really nice to start looking quite a few months ahead just because you guys start lining up venues and speakers and everything will be a little bit smoother. So administratively we do.
behind the scenes, we do a lot of venue tours and that in-person connection, hence our events as well. You have to go meet these people and meet the studio managers and the owners. And we've done a quite a few tours. this, the past few weeks, I think we've done like close to 10 and just seeing the space and making sure like getting there is easy and like, what's the parking situation? And there's a lot of logistical things when you start getting into like 150 plus attendees for an event. and
Yeah, so we've been doing a lot of in-person tours and, you know, picking a date, kind of throwing a dart at the wall and double checking what works for who and then picking panelists and speakers in the style of the event later.
Mishu Hilmy (13:48)
Are the majority of the locations film related?
Armin Korsos (13:52)
We've been strategically picking our venues to be media and film related. All of our venues for next year are either film studios or we actually have a new partnership going on with the Chicago Cultural Center through the Chicago Film Commission, which has been great because it's going to be the venue that the Chicago International Film Festival uses as a venue for screenings as well. So all of our venues are really, it's important for us to be film related.
And what's nice is a lot of these bigger film studios are able to host a lot of people because they just are they end up just being big warehouses. They can build sets and stuff. So there's a little overlap. But yeah, all of our films, film or venues have been film related for the for the events.
Mishu Hilmy (14:37)
In terms of the current sort of structure of Filmmaker Friday, it's like, did you, and Clay form an LLC? Because what's the sort of insurance requirements? Do some venues, are they more worried about it or are they pretty chill? Are you formed as an entity? Do you have insurance or is that something you're like, we're not worrying about that right now?
Armin Korsos (14:59)
So we each have our own company. So my company is called Caymanite and Will and Clay, they have a company called Adapted. We're both in film and video production and we do have our own insurance that covers venues. So the venues do ask for insurance, but we do not have our own entity for this. It's just, you know, a of friends getting together to host events. didn't think like logistically we needed to do any sort of LLC or any sort of business structure there.
Not not yet. We'll see how big we grow but for the time being it's it's been it's been fine because there's no money being exchanged at all So there's no need to you know have an LLC or anything like that
Mishu Hilmy (15:35)
It seems right now you're still exploring your, you're nearing your year mark. The three of you, are you aligned? Cause I'm a firm believer of like institutions must end and like to have a wind down strategy or an exit strategy or an ending strategy, but maybe it's too early of a question. Like what is this just hopefully, do you hope, are you content with this being a monthly Friday thing for the next five years and then it dissolves or are you having aspirations, and play as well?
Maybe this evolves into a larger, even money-making endeavor, or I'm curious, what's the long-term thing? right now, you're all content with just a monthly networking or community group.
Armin Korsos (16:16)
Right now we're just content with the monthly meetups. We'd love to keep it going. Obviously, we filled this need in Chicago and we want to keep supporting the Chicago film community with these events. And we honestly don't have a five year plan. We'd love to keep this going as long as we have the time and we can commit to it. But luckily we have a lot of people who are interested in supporting us. if it does come down to passing the torch in a few years from now, then we're thinking of who.
who's available for that and who is able to keep carrying on these events.
Mishu Hilmy (16:49)
in terms of your process for some of the programming within the networking event or the meetup, what's your process right now? it because it's early, it's like who you know, has that evolved since there might be a little bit more buzz and word of mouth that you're able to connect with different filmmakers who might be interested? Like what's been your reach out?
Armin Korsos (17:09)
Yeah, for panelists, it's just all through the panelists that have hosted before and luckily it's an ever-growing tree, right? So if we have two or three speakers one month and if each of those people know three people, then that's already nine people for the following month. we have basically an endless pool to reach to and we basically pick based on what we find interesting and we try to find maybe some kind of unified topic, whether it's
documentary producing or writing for television and streaming services or our next event is film festival related, demystifying the film festival circuit. So we have some film festival judges and programmers coming to speak about how film festivals work in general and what happens when you submit a film, like how does it get picked and stuff like that. it's all just relevant topics to the film industry and what we find intriguing and interesting and it's just an
Yeah, it's just word of mouth and our friends and network.
Mishu Hilmy (18:11)
What's been the thing that say from month one versus now month eight or seven or nine that you have learned, what you didn't know from the first one versus now you know now? What are some of the key insights or learning insights on how you are trying to approach things differently or better?
Armin Korsos (18:33)
I found an amazing book called The Art of Gathering. It's kind of a low-key book that not many people have heard about, even though I think it's one of the most important books for anyone to read, whether you're hosting small events or dinner gatherings or big fundraisers. I read it and I recommended it to Clay and Will to read as well, and they both read the book. In this book, the author spoke of this concept of the ideal large gathering
is between 75 and 150 people at the most, ideally like 125. And what we didn't know from the beginning is that we'd grow so big that our demand is way higher than the capacities that we're offering. So we end up having quite a few people on the wait list for each of these events, which it's high demand event. it's that balance of, do you want to maintain that intimacy?
100, 150 people is still manageable and you can still talk to quite a few different groups, but people typically stand in groups of like three, four, five, six, eight. So there's quite a few groups there, but it's not like too big. But once you get into three, four, 500 people, which we have goals to do that at indoor, outdoor venues in the future for when the weather gets nicer. But then you lose that intimacy and it's really hard to speak to 500 people.
and find venues with seating for 500 people and still maintain that intimacy where I think with 100 people in attendance, if a speaker comes then after the talk wraps up, you could go talk to that person and there's still that intimacy with the speakers and the other guests. So that's been the most interesting is, at this point we've had over 500 unique people attend the past six events. And so obviously there's quite a lot of overlap of people coming back,
we're still navigating that balance of do you want to create the event as big as possible and lose that small town feel, you like you see quite a few friends there, you know, or do you want to make it as big as possible and let everybody come? That's been an interesting challenge. And I don't know the answer to that. Obviously the answer is occasionally to have very large events. But I think for speakers, I think one to 150 is the ideal size and the book is
is excellent. Highlighted that super well. Highly recommend. That's been something that's been really surprising from the beginning when we barely got up to 50 attendees for the first event and then now our event next Friday on December 20th is 125 person capacity and we reached capacity within seven hours of posting. So we have no problems finding capacity. It's the rest of the people who maybe there's a hundred other people who would have liked to attend.
What do do with the overflow and the demand?
Mishu Hilmy (21:28)
It's an interesting challenge, And more doesn't necessarily mean better. especially if for right now there's no operational goal of like, we're trying to create a list that we can sell to advertisers and brands and whatnot and have it become another industry expo. I don't think that's your goal. So the conversations you might be having around what is the goal, what makes for a good experience, is it maybe once or twice a year or you have a blowout and you
know, a sneak peek, I don't know, whatever it is, but yeah, curious challenges to have. Yeah, and you're right now, you're just aligned on, yeah, the question I wanted to ask was like, because you're working on other things, right? You're writing, creating doc work. How much time does this, lot, like administering essentially a not-for-profit community thing, you're administering it, like how much time does it take a week, or how much do you permit it
Armin Korsos (22:27)
It really depends how many tours we have scheduled. So we're looking for repeat venues moving forward. Obviously we're kind of exploring like what works, what doesn't, how easy is check-in process, parking, whatnot, like I mentioned earlier. So that time will go down over time. I'm hoping to have two or three venues that we consistently go back to so there's no meeting people, meeting studio managers. At the moment I would say
depending on if we're launching an event or not, think, you know, in a busy week, it might be like five to six hours of work. Otherwise, I think maybe an hour a month, like it's pretty light. We don't really have to do much marketing. We're posting, you know, photos and videos from the events after they happen. And then we make the poster in Canva real simple, update the information. And then part of full is super simple to use as well. So it's been it's been a very low
Very low work, but very high reward. Nice. For the event, I would say. It's definitely been incredible to see the growth and I think we're putting in a lot less work than I actually anticipated initially. And now it's like, as it grows even bigger, it's just gonna, you know, kind of be coasting the events just kind of happen. So.
Mishu Hilmy (23:45)
And just curious, like the division of the work, like how have you navigated those conversations? Is it on a monthly basis? Is it one third, one third, one third? Or like how have you been dealing with that division? Because there's always a risk of like resentment if you're like, wow, I've been doing 95 % of the work for the past three months.
Armin Korsos (24:01)
We roughly divided up the work where Will helps day of, he helps launch the part of full length and then just logistics day of of like, you know, having a laptop if we have any information we want to put up on a projector or TV, doing the slideshow and doing photos. And then Clay's been instrumental in helping us find some venues. So I would say of the first six months, I think he got us like four or five of the venues of six. So he's been super helpful with that. And a lot of those have been his connections or
you know, friends of his that have connected us to venues. And we delegated me to host the events and I typically also find the special guests as well. So it's been working really well so far. Obviously, we have gone on venue tours as well and we make sure like the number one priority is obviously to have a place to actually have the gathering. So the speakers are not as important if there's no place to actually speak at. So we delegate based on that. But we've been a great team and
I think the teamwork also comes back from the film production background. You always delegate and do different tasks together to achieve the same goal. And I think what works really well is all of us really want this to work and we want to host really special events. And we just work great together. We have great communication. We have a group chat that we're delegating tasks efficiently and making sure everyone's getting their follow-ups and who's emailing who, who's texting who, so everything is delegated.
Everything's been working great so far.
Mishu Hilmy (25:31)
You're enjoying the process, start to finish from emailing tours, selecting the folks. it fairly the labor is the reward?
Armin Korsos (25:41)
Yeah, it's again, I would say it's very little work to compare to the reward. So I've been enjoying it. And, I love going to bigger and bigger venues and it's really exciting to see the feedback we've gotten and, and the excitement and, know, just reflected in the events. been great.
Mishu Hilmy (25:58)
think
about that a lot. And I think that it's sort of related to like fear of missing out to a degree like missed opportunities, some costs or even opportunity costs. And then I remember reading this book, Anatomy of a Breakthrough, which talks about how, depending on industries, like success is inevitable if you don't quit. However, with some industries, the inevitability has a little bit of more luck attached. Like if you are a math professor and you're
writing about your research and mathematics, just doing it for the rest of your life, you're more likely to have some kind of breakout success at some point. Well, you know, entertainment industry or creative industries are a little bit more based on luck, Because there's zeitgeist. But yeah, I do want to talk about the hang up with with time and opportunity, especially with Doc, right? Because you might have a subject who's experiencing or going through something that's really, really interesting or they're really passionate about. in three months or a year and a half,
they might get injured or they might just be like, yeah, I fizzled out, I'm done with it. So like, what's been your relationship or experience with time and opportunity?
Armin Korsos (27:09)
It's funny you bring up the injury thing because I've actually started like two different projects where it was about an athlete, it was about a big athletic feat and injuries prevented the project from happening. And obviously it's a bummer when those things happen, that's life. Documentary is observational. If we wanted it to happen, it would have been a narrative scripted film, not a doc. But yeah, think...
what makes you unique as a creative and as a production company is the projects that you choose to produce. I think knowing which opportunities to identify and which ones to pursue 100%, no one can teach you that. I think it's a gut intuition, gut instinct type of reaction when you hear something that, yeah, I think there's something there. I think you have to know what that is. And
I'm also a firm believer in any big opportunity that comes up. The success of that opportunity is based on your motivation and how far you're willing to push that opportunity. Because I've seen a lot of people pass up incredible opportunities and because of the excuses like we spoke about earlier, like bunny or timing or whatever lack of motivation. And I think the real successful people I know in my life
All of them are experts at identifying opportunities and pursuing them a hundred percent. And I think if you are a person who always comes up with excuses and like, I can't, I don't have time for this right now or whatever. Like I think you have to look past that and see, what's on the other side of it? Like if you get connected with a really big athlete, it has a lot of big brand partnerships. What is, what is it going to take for you to be noticed by those brands by connecting with that athlete on a personal level?
producing a story about them. And then, you know, once the project is done, what connections are you going to get from that? What kind of screenings can you do with the project? If it's like a longer form project, you could do film screenings and, and, know, experiential events with brands or connect with theaters and charge ticket sales for a project. So there's a lot of opportunities. And I think film now, because these, big studio model, especially with streaming has changed a lot. I think.
the film industry now rewards the entrepreneurial minded filmmaker, the filmmaker who doesn't just finish a project and publish it online and then calls it a day. It's the filmmaker that values film festivals, but also maybe there's a way to charge for this. Maybe there's a way to create an event that people would like to come to. And maybe even if the project is shorter, you could do a whole three hour event out of a film where
maybe there's an intro and then the film screening and then like a behind the scenes and then like a meet the main character and then meet the director and then meet the film crew. And it's like a whole like three hour event instead of just, Oh yeah, come watch my 15 minute film. We have to package it. You have to understand like what is going to make someone come out and pay, you know, $15, $20 for a ticket for the event. And who is that valuable to? Um,
Yeah, think that's the most important. think you need to, when a story comes up, you have to kind of see the finish line almost and what opportunities you see in this. And are you genuinely interested in it? I think people overlook that, if you are not genuinely interested in a story, that's gonna come across, and it's gonna come across in your effort, it's gonna come across in the way you pitch it to other creatives, like, hey, I need an editor to pull a favor on this. Well,
If you're not excited about the project, you're not going to get any editors to help you on it or colorists or other cinematographers or anything, especially if they're donating their time to you for potentially days or weeks. Totally. So I think that's the number one thing is identifying what you truly believe in and just pursuing it 100%.
Mishu Hilmy (31:08)
really interesting, especially when it comes to believing, motivation, and passion. And I think that can of wane because some of these might be longer-terms projects. And also, it's a matter, I think, to a degree of understanding the scope of the thing, right? Like to know, hey, if I have a relationship with this kind of athlete who might be of a certain caliber or certain notoriety, the scope of the project might be larger. The event, the experience might be bigger, and that might take more time.
but it probably helps to convince others versus something that might be smaller in scope. what's the appropriate audience? What's the appropriate drive for that? But we only have finite time. you you have a production company, I have a production company. When it comes to the projects, like you mentioned, the gut is a big thing. How do you navigate, you know, when multiple ideas come?
and your guts like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I want these, I'm excited, I feel something like that. And then it's a matter of time, right? How do you commit 100 %? Because then it's, I believe in monotasking, but what's the sort of self-talk that goes on when you're like, hmm, my guts telling me this is it, but I'm also in the midst of this. Like what are the levers, what are the conversations you have that deal with those time constraints?
Armin Korsos (32:31)
Very relevant question because we're in the middle of two longer projects to 50 minute films right now. And you know when you get over that like five minute runtime, the intricacies of a narrative and a story like deepen and you can't just like, yeah, let's throw a rough cut together and call it a day. Like you need a, I think the editor is just as important as a director and they really direct the edit and they direct the story once it's shot. And
with these two projects, we, like at the moment, I'm working on rough cuts and assembly cuts and trailers just to see like, you know, what is something I can make out of this that gets somebody else excited to pitch it to, you know, continue pushing it and making it bigger, whether it's a post-production company or an editor or colorist. The way I motivate myself is by, like I said earlier, like seeing what is it you want out of this? Like what, how far can you push this idea?
and how much do you believe in it and how much do want this to happen because a lot of projects just end up dying and there's no end result, right? Like just, yep, like that's it, that's the project, they never end up getting finished. And I think it's also the art of finishing instead of being a perfectionist and just calling something done and moving on to the next thing. Because sort of like what I was saying with the windows of opportunity like passing you by, just like how you see is,
Like this year we did three short docs. If this year we seize three opportunities like that, well next year will be another three and if I don't finish these then I have to pass those up or let these go. Right? So do you want to let go something that's halfway done and start something again that's halfway done or do you want to finish these and then continue seizing opportunities because every year if you could double the quality or double the, you know, quantity of the projects that you do,
you're going to keep growing and you're going to keep finding success. But if you're never finishing stuff, like no one's ever been like, yeah, I remember you were thinking of doing this project. We'd love to hire you for this film or this commercial. Like you have to do it. And this industry is a hundred percent like you have to prove that you could do something before you hired to do it or before you brought onto a project. So the way around it is to just do the projects. And I think that's the biggest motivating factor for me is just
keep pursuing and even if you don't know the opportunities that are in the future, you obviously can't know that, but you know there will be other opportunities and you need to make sure that you're available to accept them.
If you have those trusted few people that you really look up to, it doesn't matter what the other people say, is look at people who are five, 10, 20, 30 years ahead of you in their careers. If they say it's good, even if someone's 30 years ahead of you, they might not be completely in touch with the trends today, but the fundamentals of a story and the fundamentals of a project are unchanged from 30 years ago. So if those trusted people, they to take their advice.
I don't know what a successful film looks like and I'm not sure what makes a film something that is truly impactful and life-changing or makes a social impact, it's a conservation film or whatnot. But you have to consult those people and it has to be very specific targeted people that you trust. And I would just take all of that and then you need to decide from all that gathered information, all the opinions, how do you move forward?
one of the best things I've done is like, don't, I don't work for anyone. I work for myself is time management and motivation. And there's a new AI tool called reclaim that attaches to your Google calendar. And it's basically an AI assistant that schedules work for you and projects given deadlines. And you can also schedule habits and tasks and whatnot. And it's been really great. think if you stick to a calendar and you really excessively use a calendar, I think it's,
it's super important to, know, if you, project comes up and you're like, okay, I need a deadline for a rough cut in two weeks. It'll find and change your schedule based on your availability and depending on what time you block off. So that's been super helpful. And I think going off of that too, is just putting little chips and dents into all the projects at the same time. Like right now I'm working on like three or four different projects and
I think I just follow what my gut instinct tells me, like what is inspiring or what I feel like I could get done today. And it doesn't matter if I need to work on this or that. It's like, okay, well, if I can check this off completely, then I'd rather just get this done today and move on to the next thing the next day. So yeah, I think sticking to your calendar has been super helpful and making sure everything is super organized and taking also personal time off and going to the gym, taking a walk, whatever.
is super important, especially when you're sitting at a desk all day or not traveling or shooting. You have to move.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.