Robinson 30 Productions
An upstart new production company. We got ideas.
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Filmmaker Micha Peled’s China Blue begins its free stream on Friday, August 12 as part of ITVS’s Indies Showcase.
Phillips held a short film contest that challenged filmmakers to shoot a 3-minute film using the following dialogue:
What’s That?
It’s a Unicorn
Never seen one up close before
Beautiful
Get away, get away
I’m sorry.
Prepare to be astounded by the winner.
“All of us who do creative work, we get into it — and we get into it because we have good taste. Do you know what I mean? You want to make TV because you love TV. You know what I mean? Because there’s stuff you love. You’ve got really got good taste. And you get into this thing, that I don’t even know how to describe, but there’s this gap. That for the first couple of years that you’re making stuff and what you’re making, it’s really not that good. It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good. It has the ambition to be good. But it’s not quite that good.
But your taste — the thing that got you into the game — your taste is still killer. Your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. You know what I mean? Like, you can tell that it’s still sort of crappy? A lot of people don’t get past that phase. A lot of people at that point, quit. And the thing that I would just say to you, with all my heart, is that most people I know, who does interesting, creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste, they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short.
… But we knew it didn’t have this special thing that we wanted it to have. And the thing I would say to you is everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase, if you’re just starting off and you’re entering into that phase.. You gotta know: it’s totally normal and the most important possible thing is to do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month, you know that you’re going to finish one story.” — Ira Glass
I was job searching today (like most days) when I happened upon this blog entry from Whiskey Media, a company in San Francisco. I followed the link from the article to this video of an interview with Ira Glass and it was one of those things - an indescribable feeling, really - watching something that hits you at the right angle. What I got out of it was that this emotional state I’ve been in, this drowning sensation of job searches and personal projects, is less of a sensation and more of a collective experience.
The dirty secret being that flailing (and failing) is what most professionals go through and that respect must be paid to that experience - it will eventually become your groundwork, your backbone. Or, it can be your turning point to quit and not strive for improvement.
(Whoa. That’s some punch-you-in-the-gut shit right there.)
See, I am at that point where I’m learning this lesson, that all self-made people get to where they are because of continuous failure followed by one or more (eventual) triumphs. While it’s tough to pinpoint when that will happen for myself, I thought the best way to start my road to self-discovery (or whatever this is) is to share. This professional turmoil that I’m in - and that I’m witnessing everywhere - is not a singular experience, but a group one.
So this is my start. This is the beginning of my burgeoning (and terrifying) new endeavor: a production company, a start to producing some projects that I’m excited about again. I won’t lie about how scary this all is (and it is, it’s so so so scary), but I’ll tell you what it’s like - the bad days, the good days and all the days in between. This’ll be my space of show-and-tell, of company goings-on and of videos and films that catch my attention.
Welcome to it. Glad you’re here.
