When it comes to “leveling up” a career in the motion picture industry, realizing your filmmaking goals can be difficult. It is easy to feel overwhelmed at times, leading to procrastination.
The best way to overcome this is to focus on a set of very achievable, clearly defined goals. And with a bit of self-discipline and time management, you’ll be able to break your big filmmaking goals into manageable, daily steps.
Plan Your Big Filmmaking Goals
To help you get started, consider answering the following questions.
Make sure you take time to write down your answers.
1. What did you achieve last year?
2. What did you want to achieve but didn’t? What obstacles got in your way?
3. What do you want to accomplish this year?
4. What obstacles must you overcome to reach your big filmmaking goals?
5. What is one thing you can complete today that will put you a step closer to achieving your goal?
Here’s a quick video on how to find filmmaking motivation:
Break Down Your Goals Into Daily Tasks
Writing out your big filmmaking goals and taking the time to reflect is a great way to gain clarity. I suggest you shove your dreams into a triangle. The top of the triangle is your primary goal.
For example, “make a feature film.”
From there, break this big filmmaking goal into smaller and smaller chunks until you have a list of daily tasks at the bottom of your pyramid.
If breaking down your big filmmaking goals still seems daunting, consider the following example.
Primary Goal – Hire an up-and-coming Director of Photography who shares your vision.
After breaking this goal down, you would come up with the following daily tasks:
- Call friends of friends for recommendations.
- Put an ad in trade publication “seeking a Director of Photography.”
- Review Demo Reels.
- Call prospective directors for an interview or lunch, allowing you to get to know them better.
- Meet and negotiate terms that work within your budget.
- The Director of Photography agrees, or you repeat the process.
Breaking your big filmmaking goals into smaller tasks will allow you to make significant, tangible headway toward accomplishing what you set out to achieve! And if you like this stuff, make sure you grab a copy of my filmmaker checklist.
