How to Succeed as a Documentary Filmmaker 2

Actor/comedian/writer/banjoist Steve Martin’s advice to people who aspire to get somewhere in show business is that you just have to be “undeniably good.”

It probably works in more fields than pure show business. The documentary filmmaking business, for instance.

On the other hand, as there are many opinions on what’s good and what’s not, maybe we should tweak the bon-mot a bit:

To make it, you just have to be “arguably good.”

It just seems more dialectical appropriate to have an argument that to be undeniable. The latter is a little, you know, self-sufficient.

Even better, when I think about it, it would be if what you do is raising questions rather than having arguments. The latter seems a little confrontational.

So, to make it, you just have to be “questionably good.”

Then again – who knows what is good or not? Certainly not the people in charge. Jeez, have you seen the majority of products out there? In any field? So making stuff to be “good”, what is that? A lot of people making crap are considered good – so “good” is maybe not what you want to be. And who wants questions? No, we need answers.

So being “certainly mediocre” may actually give you more access to funds and success, so that’s definitely my strategy from now on (and maybe always was...)

How to Succeed as a Documentary Filmmaker 1