Getting to that "Next Level"

Being a filmmaker, one has to wonder of getting to the “next level” when they’re starting out.  I mean you can shoot films until you’re blue in the face, but if no one sees it or gains any kind of exposure, then what?  Does it sit on the shelf?  Does it get distributed?  Will it ever see the light of day?  Those are questions that a filmmaker has to ask after the last wrap date, or the last post-production date.  It’s nerve-wracking to think of things as such.  Especially after putting all the hard work into producing the film in the first place.  Even with venues that can help with the distribution process like Amazon, YouTube, and daily motion (just to name a few) the question still remains is who is the key person that is going to see it.  Especially if that key person can help take you or point you in the right direction to the “next stage.” 

            What I mean by the “next level” is actually getting paid and making a decent living for all your hard work on making films.  That “next level” also entails getting financing or backing to shoot another film and becoming more and more successful at it.  I learned the hard way that just because you shoot a film, you’re only as good as your last project.  Case in point, I shot film named RECOIL some years back.  Went through the process of getting it done with my co-producer/brother.  If it wasn’t for the timely meeting of a key person at a distribution company, I don’t know if it would have been picked up.  My film went to direct-to-video, which is better than a lot of films that are still sitting on fellow filmmakers’ shelves.  In a nutshell, before it got picked up, I almost gave up on the film.  I was burned out, and there were lots of other things going on at the time (health, pressure from work…among other things) and I didn’t want to have anything to do with my film that I busted my @$$ on.  I was tired, trying to do too many things at the same time.  My brother didn’t give up on the film and he found that key person that helped us(that’s the short version by the way).  I was just wondering, what if he didn’t find that distribution person, then what?  I kept asking myself that same question over and over again. 

            Even after the film was sold, and it got proper distribution, I was still wondering was I going to get to that “next level” where I don’t have to deal with the pressures from a “day job” nonetheless (At a major studio).  Is it fear?  Is it necessity? Or is it something else, not meeting the right kind of people when my brother and I sold our film.  At the time, I thought that it would open doors for us.  It did not.  As a filmmaker, I was right back at square root one, trying to figure out what to do to get to that “next level.”  Some of my peers that I’ve worked with on my film have reached that “next level” and I get frustrated wondering, is there something that I’m not doing to reach that next phase or is it just fate, fear, or something more.  I don’t know, but I do know this…I’m not going to stop doing what I can to get there.  I’m a little wiser and older now.  The passion is still there, but it’s not what it used to be granted, but it is still there.  All I ask is to make a decent living doing what I love, making movies.