Making something “wrong” is better than making nothing
Ahoy!
Before we get into this week’s newsletter, I wanted to let you know about a few exciting things.
First, I’ve started going live on YouTube (twitch soon to follow) and it’s been a really fun time.
It’s basically a smorgasbord covering everything from cinematic content creation, personal branding, and stories from the industry… to a whole lot of goofing off.
Think of it like a giant Q&A—ask me anything, and we’ll hang.
Secondly, I had a great response to a recent post about storytelling and a free storytelling lesson I shared. You can check it out [here].
This week, I’ll be launching a mini-course on storytelling (for cheap) so keep an eye out. More on that soon.
Let’s get to the newsletter.
It's a few weekends ago, and my buddy Ben, my girlfriend,and I are having lunch on a beautiful (almost spring) saturday afternoon.
A downside to working in the film industry is that being on separate projects means long stretches where you just don't see each other.
Ben has been shooting in the UK for almost a year, and I was back and forth between LA and Canada.
We haven't even really gotten to talk like this in over a year and half.
The three of us (as well as the dogs below hoping for scraps) sit down at our way too tall table ready to dig into the steaks that Laura made for lunch.
And just like that, we're laughing our asses off, like no time has passed.
We're cracking up, trading stories about everything that's gone on over the last trip around the sun.
We talk about our wins, some side quests and some upcoming opportunties.
As we transition to some of the more challenging times, we're talking about the prep stage of production. It's the
pre-production part of the movie making process where the stunt team is building choreography, testing wires gags, and shooting previz for pitches to the director and producers.
And for me, it's probably the most challenging part of the entire process.
You see, I'm really terrible when it comes to prep because of the blank canvas aspect of everything.
I feel like I need to be in a little bit of a box to be creative. The first week or two of prep you really don't have much direction, so for me, this means HEAVY analysis paralysis.
I lose a lot of sleep during this part of the process and spend a lot of time questioning myself, especially when I'm fight coordinating.
My brain is on a constant loop:
you're in over your head
you shouldn't have said yes to this one
you have no idea what you're doing
what if you blow it?
No matter how many times I've done this and pulled it off, the self-doubt is real.
Ben is talking about a more challenging part of the project he was on where they were trying to find their groove for designing some of the fights. He says:
"Honestly, at that point I was like... can we just shoot something? ANYTHING. At least we'll know what not to do."
That last line stuck with me.
It gave me a huge realization about not just prepping fights, but about just creating in general.
Whenever we feel stuck creatively, picking a direction, even if it's the wrong direction, is progress.
I think a lot of the time I get hung up on the idea that I have to get it right the first time.
After all, who wants to spend time doing the wrong thing?
But the truth is, when I don't get started, I end up spending way more time doing nothing.
And no matter how many times I talk about this - with my friends, or even in my content - It's so hard to internalize the idea that,
our successes are built on the backs of our failures, not in spite of them.
We wrap our lunch. I give him a hug as he walks out the door and I find myself thinking:
Man, I sure hope it isn't another year before we get to do this again.
If you find yourself stuck in this Analysis paralysis loop, you're far from alone. But remember, picking a direction, even if it turns
out to be the wrong one, is still a direction. And that's progress.
I'll see you this week.
Caleb
P.S. This newsletter is a real example of the kind of storytelling we focus on in the mini course dropping this week. Stay tuned!
