Persistence of Vision

I’ve been at this (making films) since 1996, I’ve never had a “break” instead my success has been because of my will to see something succeed. I don’t quit, no matter what. My perseverance and persistence of vision is something that I have become known for. If people come to work with me, they know that the project will get made. Every movie I have ever made has had some kind of success, thank God! There is no such thing as failure. Failure just breeds more opportunities.

Yes I, like so many other creative people, struggle. But this effort to allow for struggle I believe aids in creativity. To be creative, there are so many factors at resistance but this can breed greatness, something I strive for.

When I lived in Israel in the early nineties I had the amazing opportunity to learn with a Rabbi by the name of Motty Berger. He asked me in front of about 100 Talmudic scholars what is the result of struggle? I quickly became nervous thinking what is I said something stupid.

The first thing that popped into my head was a grape vine. I gave the analogy of how grape vines won’t be their best unless they have struggle. Grape vines don’t like lush fertile soil, instead they do better in soil that is less desirable to other crops. They need this struggle to produce sweetness, the vine persists to raise its leaves to the sun. So struggle is engrained in the natural course of a vine’s life, as too is the artist.

I believe that art is also like a muscle, it needs resistance to grow, but it also needs the right nutrients and environment to aid in its growth. Artists need support to be able to create, which betters society as whole by challenging people to think differently, have them see things differently, and to entertain them. It’s the creative mind that propels democracy and society, whether it be in the arts, business or government.

ReFocusing

A collaborator and good friend of mine had a long talk a couple weeks ago. I expressed to him my frustration by the length of time it is taking me to get my latest project off the ground, feeling I need to educate those I want to do business with so they understand the huge benefits that I’m offering in the story space. These are the challenges you face when you are trying to do something new, different. Like a sage he simply said, keep doing what you’re doing but look at it differently.

As someone who loves art and particularly sculpture, I do circle around an object with one eye closed, looking at the different angles, seeing the piece differently, discovering new things. My approach in business has always been head on, but I should instead take a lesson from my rugby days. Go forward, protect the ball at all costs, and when you’re about to get hit, roll with it, don’t fight it, let your teammates help you go forward. DUH!!!

When the stars align I know Billboard an Uncommon Contest for Common People! will be awesome, groundbreaking. I’ve prayed on it and there’s something inside of me telling me not to change course or make it more simplistic, but to have patience. My vision will come. I just need to start finding the right teammates, to give me support, prop me up and move forward.

Over the course of the past year and a half, I have been doing a lot of R&D, what works, what doesn’t, what resonates, and what falls flat, trying to perfect it all. The one thing that holds true through all of it, is people love the idea and see its amazing potential, thank God. Now is the time I take all that I’ve learned, repackage the project, move forward and share with my fellow creative types what I’ve learned and am learning.

This will be the place.

What is Transmedia?

It’s not a marketing after-thought, it’s a project fore-thought. It’s not talking to audiences, it’s talking with them. It’s not seeing the same story on different portals/mediums. It’s experiencing an element of a story on different portals/mediums encouraging discovery and creating a fuller story experience. It’s not a passive experience, it’s an engaging one. It’s blending truth and fiction, obliterating the fourth wall, enabling the audience to affect the story outcome and possibly become part of the story.

Why create on this new frontier?

It frees the creator from the confines of linear story telling. It reaches audiences in a number of different ways and accelerates audience growth. It enables the possibility for additional revenue sources, just not the typical sources of revenue from filmmaking. It enables more companies to get involved within the storytelling apparatus, enhancing their brand exposure in many different innovative ways.

More vehicles for creativity, more ways to build audiences and more ways to earn revenue means this should be the only way story tellers create.