Lesson 1: Stop Asking the Wrong Questions
Stop Asking the Wrong Questions
After more than two decades working as a filmmaker, producer, film commissioner, festival founder, film finance executive, and now writer/director, I’ve noticed something interesting. Almost every aspiring filmmaker asks the same questions.
“How do I find investors?”
“How do I get an agent?”
“How do I find a producer?”
“How do I get someone to make my movie?”
After answering dozens of questions during a recent Stage 32 Ask Me Anything, I realized almost every answer came back to the same principle: most filmmakers are asking the wrong questions. And when you ask the wrong questions, you usually end up chasing the wrong solutions.
Take financing, for example. The question I hear most often is, “How do I raise money?” I don’t think that’s the right question. A much better question is, “Why would someone give me money?”
Think about it from an investor’s perspective. Every week they’re pitched projects by filmmakers who believe they have the next great screenplay. Every writer thinks their story is unique. Every producer believes their film deserves to be made. The reality is there are thousands of excellent screenplays sitting on hard drives all over the world that will never be produced. Not because they aren’t good, but because “good” isn’t enough.
Investors don’t invest because a screenplay is well written. They invest because they believe the filmmaker can actually deliver. They’re investing in the team, the business plan, the budget, the marketplace, and the likelihood that the project will ultimately find an audience. In other words, they’re investing in far more than the screenplay. They’re investing in you.
The same philosophy applies to producers. I constantly hear filmmakers ask, “How do I get a producer attached?” My response is usually another question: “Why would a producer spend hundreds of hours of their life working on your project?”
Think about what you’re asking. You’re expecting someone you’ve probably never met to read your screenplay, develop it, raise financing, assemble a cast and crew, negotiate contracts, solve production problems, and spend months or even years helping make your dream happen. That’s an enormous commitment. Producers deserve to be compensated for that work, and more importantly, they deserve collaborators who are willing to shoulder the load alongside them.
The filmmakers who succeed aren’t looking for someone else to make their movie. They’re asking themselves, “How can I move this project forward?”
The same goes for agents and managers. People often ask me how to find representation. Again, I think the better question is, “What have I done that would make an agent excited to represent me?” Agents are attracted to momentum. They’re looking for filmmakers who are creating opportunities for themselves, not waiting for someone else to create those opportunities for them.
This is also why I don’t believe in cold submissions. In over twenty years in the business, I can count on one hand the number of careers I’ve seen launched because someone blindly emailed a screenplay to a stranger. More often than not, those submissions end up unread. And frankly, asking someone you’ve never met to spend hundreds of hours raising money for your project isn’t just ineffective, it’s not a very considerate way to begin a professional relationship.
Relationships come first. Screenplays come second.
The opportunities that have shaped my career didn’t come from cold emails. They came from relationships I built over years by helping other people, volunteering at film festivals, working on productions, speaking at events, and becoming someone others enjoyed collaborating with. That’s how this industry works. People work with people they know, trust, and respect.
If there’s one lesson I hope you take away from this article, it’s this: stop asking who can help you and start asking how you can create enough value that people want to help you. That shift in mindset changes everything. Once you stop waiting for someone else to build your career, you’ll finally start building it yourself.