IFH 125: Inspiration in 2017 & What I’ve Learned

Alex Ferrari 1:24
Well, guys, it is the end of 2016. I know 2016 has been a brutal year, the presidential campaign which was brutal on all sides, the unprecedented amount of famous people that we lost and artists and filmmakers and musicians that we lost this year. Most recently, of course, Carrie, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, which Carrie really hit me pretty hard. As you guys all know, I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan and I you know it is, you know, that's why I opened up the show with a quote by her because she is a remarkable and was a remarkable human being and went through and you can't even imagine the stories that she could have told us about her experience her life experience and what she'd gone through it pretty, pretty remarkable. But you know, with all the, you know, all this death if a use the word but with all this kind of death that's been going on this year, it made me reflect a lot about life and about what I'm doing with my life and the time that we have here, which is, I know a lot of people say you have a lot of time here, you do, but it could go away in a matter of a second. And you really have to feel happy with and comfortable with what you're doing in life. And, you know, all of these deaths have really made me think about what I'm doing. And what I'm doing with indie film, hustle with my projects, with my life, you know, and what's really important to me, as a as a human being, and I think it's something that you guys should reflect on as well. You should ask that question you like, where am i right now? Am I happy where I am right now? And what can I do to change it? Because it a lot of people get caught up in the day to day. And this is us as filmmakers, man, you know, we're, we're always on the struggle, especially the indie film, as low budget indie filmmakers, we're always looking for the struggle we're trying to get get ahead. And it's not easy. And I'm, I'm so grateful that I've been able to help as many filmmakers that I ever thought was possible with such a little podcast, you know, and with the work I do on any film, hustle, but the amazing amount of well wishes. And the amazing amount of emails and messages that I get from the tribe, thanking me for the work that I do, really helps me keep going, and really, really inspires me. So I wanted to talk a little bit about what happened this year for me, and what I've been able to do this year, and go over some highlights that I did. So the biggest highlight, of course, is I directed my first feature film guys, I did this is Meg, with your help. You know, again, you guys were the inspiration for this. And that's a goal that I had been chasing for 20 odd years. And now that it's done, there's a lot of great news coming up in the new year. I can't say anything yet. But I have some ink inclinations on where this is mega is going to premiere. So I will let you know after the new year. The podcast is blown up in a way that I've never thought was even possible. It's grown even bigger and better than it was last year, this time. The indie film hustle website itself. This is going to be the biggest month in its history. Traffic wise. So the word is getting out. And I'm so grateful and appreciative of that. I was able to open up the indie film syndicate to further help educate the tribe and help filmmakers along the path. I got invited to speak at slam dance for black magic talking about this is Megan how I shot it. And I got to speak at USC film school. I mean seriously, that was insane. You know, and I've met so many insane filmmakers and I mean sane filmmaker, insanely great people and, and filmmakers during my journey this year. And I've also been able to work with a lot of amazing filmmakers, on their own projects when I'm doing posts and help consult as well and just help guide people along the way. And, you know, I've really grown a lot as a person, an artist and as a filmmaker. And these are the highlights of 2016 arguably probably one of my better years I've ever had. And, and the reason I'm telling you guys all this is because, you know, a year and a half ago, when I launched indie film, hustle. And the podcast. You know, I wasn't, I wasn't in a great place. You know, I had just closed up my three year Odyssey selling olive oil in Los Angeles. And that was probably one of my low points in my life, you know, financially, as well as creatively and as a human being. It was a really rough times I was in a dark place. But because I wanted to help. And I said you know what I'm going to give of myself and I'm going to, I'm going to put things into motion and just get up and start doing things. And I want you guys to use this as an example that because I just got off my ass and started to do something. And I started to try try to provide value to other people and to filmmakers like yourselves and artists and people who want to listen to my ramblings. But because I put things in motion. That's why this year has been one of the most amazing years of my professional life without question. It is arguably the best year I've ever had professionally as a filmmaker and as an artist, and as purely because I put things in motion, I just started doing things, not looking at the outcome, just doing. And that's where I think a lot of us get caught up. We like when we start something like why needs to have this at the end, I didn't say I need to have this at the end, when I started the podcast, I just said, I'm just going to show up every day. I'm going to do two podcasts a week. And I'm just going to do it every week. And whatever happens happens. And the most amazing stuff I've ever has ever happened to me has happened because of that, and showing up to do the work on any film, hustle, and putting out articles and information and videos for you guys. It's amazing what it's what's, what amazing wealth, not financially. But spiritual wealth, if you will, has come into my life purely because I've set things into motion. And then all these opportunities have opened up, because I set things in motion. And I think a lot of us, including myself, used to sit at the door waiting for that phone to ring or waiting for someone to knock on the door and say, Hey, come with me. That's not the way it works. And I think that's something that in 2017, we have to change as, as a tribe. I think everyone listening to me right now, you have to get things into motion, no matter how small they might be, do something every day, even if it's small, do something every day to move forward into whatever you're trying to do. Are you writing a script, write two pages a day, two pages a day, that's all you have to commit to two pages a day. And in less than two months, you'll have a first draft, right? Or you can sit and contemplate that draft that that script for the next 10 years. That's what I did with my movies. I just sat there and like waiting and had to do things and everything had to be right. Just fucking do it. Just go out and do it. And that when you start setting things in motion, the universe comes to your aid. If you sit there doing nothing, nothing will happen. Now I want to share a story with you guys, which I thought was really, really inspiring to me. I was watching my daughter. The other day, I got her roller skates. One of my daughters, I got a baby, they both got roller skates. But they were out there at the park, learning how to roller skate. And it was remarkable to see how a toddler handles adversity and what she was doing. One of my daughters picked it up fairly quickly. Both of them did. But this one specific daughter picked it up fairly quickly. And then I noticed what she started to do. Once she learned it. And she felt comfortable. She started pushing herself. She started challenging herself. And I just started watching her. And every time she would try to do something with no fear. She fell many times. But every time she tried, she kept pushing herself more and more I'm going to go farther and farther and I'm going to make a lap and then I'm going to tie myself I'm going to raise myself, and she just kept pushing and pushing yourself. And I said oh my god, what an inspiration. You know what an inspiration to me. And and it should be to you guys as well. Because I think as we get older as we become more adult, we forget about challenging ourselves and pushing ourselves. You know why? Because it's scary. You know, when I went out to go make this as mag, I had never deep IED a feature film in my life. But I wanted to challenge myself, not because apparently making my first feature film wasn't challenging enough. I said, screw it, I'm going to also dp this thing. And a lot of wonderful things have come out of it. You know, I really love doing that. And I might be doing that in the future on other other projects of mine. But I tried it. And I pushed myself and I challenged myself. And that's the lesson I think you guys have to take from the example of my daughter is, don't be afraid to fall. Just push yourself. Challenge yourself. You know, if you're writing two pages a day, challenge yourself to write four pages a day. If you're watching an hour, or 30 minutes of the tutorial, watch an hour every day, read a book everyday read five pages of a book every day. By the end of a few months, you're going to be reading by the end of the year you have read maybe 11 1215 books on your chosen career path. How much better Will you be if you did that if you did something consistently every day, and then push yourself just a bit more every day, just a bit. So if it's three pages you're doing or pages A day you're reading, and all of a sudden, that one little push, it's 25% more than what you were doing before. See how much faster you can accelerate what you're doing what you're trying to achieve by challenging yourself. And if you fail, you fail. If you go out there to make a short film of a week, which I know one of our tribes members, I met Holly shorts did, even if you didn't make it, it's okay. I'm sure you learn more from the failure than you will from this from the successes and that I can guarantee you, you learn so much more from failing than you ever will from succeeding. That's why you have to fail and fail often. I have failed so many times in my life, I can't explain to you, those last three years of me, selling olive oil was a colossal failure in my life, but I learned immense amounts of information from it. So it's something that I think you guys can do as well. Challenge yourselves. Don't be afraid to fail, make 2017 make this new year, the year that you challenge yourself, the year that you do something that you've been afraid to do. Don't be afraid of doing things because you don't know how long you have. You know, you don't know long, you don't know how long you have to be here doing what you're doing. So my new mantra in 2017 and on is fuckin I'm just going to do it. You know why? Because tomorrow, I might not be here. And I know that's really kind of Lino post party. And you know, me, me, you know, kind of thing like, Oh, just do it. Because you don't know if you have tomorrow, live today. Like it's the Carpe Diem and all that stuff. But you know what, there is a absolute truth to it. Just go out and do it. And stop thinking about it. Make 2017 your year, may 2017, the year that you finally achieve the goal that you set out to do and also make those goals and make them make them big, but start small, and do little things every day. As as the famous saying says the long journey starts with one footstep, and many of us are not even don't even have our shoes on. We're here to have fun guys. We're here to you're listening to this podcast, because I'm assuming you're an artist. I'm assuming you're a filmmaker, you're trying to release your movies, you're trying to get your art out in the world, and whatever aspect of that might be Writer, producer, cinematographer, whoever. You're trying to get your art out there, right guys. We're here to do fun. We're here to inspire other people. We're here to inspire people, and bring joy to their lives, whether that be in a horror movie, to scare the hell out of them, or in a touching drama, or in a web series, or in a vlog that you put on YouTube that brings entertainment and joy to people, whatever that might be. We're here to have fun, guys. And don't forget that, just just do it dies. I'm living proof, I just started doing it. And amazing things have happened to me in my life. And I want to continue sharing all my adventures and all my experiences with you guys moving forward. And hopefully you guys can learn from some of the stuff that I'm going to be going through in the next year. And Sundance is going to be a lot of fun. When I go over there and speak a slam dance. There will be some special stuff I'm coming up with in the new year, as well. So stay tuned for that. And guys, you know, I want to do my I did this last year, and it worked out because I threw out a couple of resolutions and those resolutions came true, I was pretty, I was pretty amazed. I went back and listen to it. And you know, I said I'm gonna make my first feature. I don't know how I'm gonna make it. But I'm gonna make it I haven't written yet, but it's gonna happen this year. And I did that. So this year, I'm going to throw out a couple of resolutions that I'm going to do one, I'm going to try to not only make one movie, but I'm going to be at least starting to shoot a second movie this year. Maybe I'll do two full movies this year. I've got you know, my goal is to do like maybe four or five movies in a year, one year, just to see if I can do it and see what I can put out there and see it just have fun. You know, see what happens. But this year at least one and starting to but I have a feeling that I'm gonna be able to do two full features and maybe start a third. But that's my goal then I'm putting out there. My other goal is to blow up the podcast. I want this podcast to just go nuclear This year, I want it to hit the mainstream. I want people everywhere and filmmakers everywhere to be listening to this podcast. So that's my goal. And then indie film hustle, I want to double the amount of people coming to the website by the end of next year, if not triple the amount of people and I think I could possibly triple it. So that is my goal. For indie film hustle for the indie film syndicate, I want to get many, many more people to come in. So I want to at least get maybe four times as many members of the syndicate as possible. And that's another resolution I'm going for. And by the way, since we burnt out since I brought it up, I'm giving you guys a New Year's Eve special for the indie film syndicate if you want to get one free month to check things out. Then go to indie film, hustle, go to indie film, indie film syndicate.com and use the coupon code, New Year's 2017. And you'll get one month your first month for free on the syndicate. And I've just added a bunch of new courses I've updated the the low budget master filmmaking masterclass, which is me discussing how I'm putting I put my act together. We added the director actors course, the one that I talked about, at the beginning of this episode, you have a sneak preview, which is about two hours of the course. Now the course runs about 30 to 40 hours because PR is insane. But you get the entire first episode of the first volume, about act and how to teach how to work with actors for free. And that alone is about 80 minutes. And then you get sample 10 minute samples of the rest of the 11 that are available, we have that that course was added as well as the visual effects for directors course. So if you are director out there, or producer, or even cinematographer, and you are a little bit clueless on visual effects, and how to work with them on set and what to do in terminology, this course that PR put out is another preview. And you can get I think about almost an hour of stuff as well there. And we also added a freelancing course on how to become a better freelancer, because we all got to make money guys on on our side hustle while we're making our we're trying to make our movies until we can get that up and running. And I also added some screenwriting courses as well. So some really cool stuff going on in the syndicate guy. And the and the Facebook group is really growing wonderfully, and everyone's helping each other out. And I'm so happy that we've been able to put that together. So again, just go to indie film, syndicate calm, and use the promo code New Years 2017. I'll put a link to it in the show notes. And of course, the show notes will be at indie film hustle.com, forward slash 125. I wanted to leave you guys with this. This really great philosopher, his name's Alan White's weights. I'm sure you've heard about him. And I'm sure you've probably listened to him online somewhere. But I found this piece that he did.

This lecture that he did, it's only about three or four minutes long. Really amazing. And I think it's a great way for us to look at the coming near, no matter how many obstacles might be in front of us. And before I go, guys, I just want to leave you with one last thought before we go to Alan is, you know, I love you guys a lot. I really, really do. And I'm so grateful for all the amazing, wonderful energy and wonderful success that indie film hustle, and indie film hustle podcast has gotten in 2016. And I owe it all to you guys. And I really do care about all of you guys and want all of you to succeed. And I'm I'm going to be here in 2017. And I'm going to keep putting good stuff out for you guys. And I got a lot of cool stuff coming up that I can't wait to tell you about. But but really thank you from Sorry, I'm a little choked up. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart because without you guys I don't think I would have been able to make Meg and I wouldn't do what I do every day. So truly, thank you. Thank you very much and I wish you guys nothing but an amazing new year. And, and that all your dreams and all your goals are met in 2017. Without any further ado, let's bring in Alan Watts

Alan Watts 25:01
If you awaken from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other. Life implies death, or shall I say, death implies life. You can feel yourself, not as a stranger in the world, not as something here on probation, not as something that has arrived here by fluke. But you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental. I'm not trying to sell you on this idea, in the sense of converting you to it, I want you to play with it, I want you to think of its possibilities, I'm not trying to prove it. I'm just putting it forward as a possibility of life to think about. So that let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time, or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes, you would have every kind of pleasure. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say, Well, that was pretty great. But now let's, let's have a surprise. Let's have a dream which isn't under control. Well, something is gonna happen to me that I don't know what it's gonna be. And you would take that and come out of that and say, Wow, that was close shave, wasn't it? Then you would get more and more adventurous. And you will make further and further out Gamble's as to what you would dream. And finally you would dream. Where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today. That would be within the infinite multiplicity of choices you would have of playing that you weren't God. Because the whole nature of the garden, according to this idea, is to play that he's not. So in this idea, then everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality. Not God in a politically kingly sense. But God in the sense of being the self, that deep down basic, whatever there is, and you're all that, only you're pretending you're not

Alex Ferrari 28:08
Happy 2017 guys, keep that hustle going. Keep that dream alive. And I'll talk to you in 2017.