please, please, please: stop thinking “one film at a time”

Here's to alternative, hopeful thinking 🤗

My dearly beloveds,

I write to you from Greece, where the weather is something like 31°C and balmy, as opposed to the apocalyptic heatwave currently ravaging the UK. I’m still on a much needed holiday here (which is why you didn’t hear from me last week), enjoying some downtime as I find my way through exciting life transitions. Fret not though, as TFS returns to regular programming next week with more Nolan Club curations!

In the meantime, I’m sharing another Ted Hope archive special for my precious paid readers. You know Ted from our previous collab efforts, and as always, this piece is clear and convincing. In it, Ted argues against the one-film-at-a-time thinking that has plagued the film and media industries for too long, and advocates for sustainable creative careers instead. It’s a must-read.

Enjoy ✨

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Please, please, please: stop thinking “one film at a time”

Perhaps I need a regular column to examine the missteps Cine-makers have been ill-advised to take over the years.

Oh, who lives on that there mansion on the hill over yonder? And can anyone really grant such rights, anyways?

I have long felt there was a better way – or rather, several better ways.

And by better ways, I mean better ways to do this thing that we do. Here, on HopeFor Film, we make and love movies. We want – and hopefully have – careers making movies. Or once had them before the bottom dropped out.

We want this to be sustainable, for everyone. And I know we can make it be so in the not so distant future, but to do so we are going to have examine the errors so we don’t get fooled again. For instance, let’s leave alone the fact that SC-Indie film never prioritized the sustainability part, or why perhaps that never happened. One day we are going to have to talk about that part.

Today, let’s examine just what we need to do to prioritize sustainability.

It takes more than hope to make a movie well (although Double Hope helps). And it takes more than hope to build a career making movies. However, both of these goals are so exhausting, it is easy to fall into a thinking pattern that puts the first into opposition with the latter. We want to make the one at hand so well, we often ignore how it all needs to be in service to our career – or rather, to our overall sustainability.