Young Filmmakers: First Prepare Your Fields

Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house

(Proverbs 24:27, KJV)

This particular wisdom from Proverbs is an important one especially for young filmmakers who are not yet married.  Translating from King James language it basically tells us to prepare our work outside and prepare our fields first before building a house.  If you're a filmmaker and you have a family - the odds are already stacked against your family staying together.  Even the big budget filmmakers, whether above the line (like producer or director) or below the line freelancers (like grips and electricians), deal with the harsh realities of long hours, long periods of time away from family, and dry periods of waiting for the next job to come.  The film business has been notorious as an industry of workers with broken marriages and families.  Christian filmmakers are not exempt from this. Just because you're a believer does not take away from the type of work you're doing unless you strive to do things differently and most don't know how to budget the time any differently on their own film.  Frankly I'd love to help bring reform in this area someday if it's possible. But in order to do this, I believe you need to be well established and well funded to compensate for less hours and more shooting days.  Any film, whether Christian or not, can go to 16 hour shoot days sometimes.  If you've made a professional film, then you understand what I'm talking about. If not, you'll soon find out.

Now imagine the stress on a marriage  if you have no budget or a budget of $20 thousand dollars and you don't even know how you're going provide for the family. It's hard enough when you're freelancing from film to film and getting a steady paycheck. There's a reason why we need to do our best to take care of the finances right now so we don't become a slave to the work in order to make ends meet. It's a lot easier when you have no mouth to feed other than yourself. You've probably heard already the statistics about arguing over money being a major cause of divorce.

And yes... we can also look at filmmaking in a parable of a wise and prosperous farmer: providing excellence and working the fields - does require long hours and hard work with the right balance of his time.  God gave farmers the harvest moon which was bright enough so they could work through the night at times. And that sort of success is more about knowing what season your film is in.  But that's a devotional for another day.

So if you don't have any income on your film yet and you have a family to support, this burden will surely weigh on you.  The key to surviving better is to be more established in your skill and trade before you take on that responsibility of marriage.  If you don't, you can risk becoming a dead weight to your spouse and add undue stress on the family. Your spouse may be forced to get a job they don't want or give up on their own dreams.  You don't want your dream to come between you and your loved ones.  Love is not just feelings - it's action and a sincere Man of God that doesn't take care of his family will be burdened with guilt and pain in his own heart if he doesn't do this.  God programmed us this way. God gave Adam a trade and job to tend the garden before He gave Adam his wife, Eve.

Our society has it backwards.  They design schooling to make us wait until we're adults before we really begin learning a trade when our hormones have long been drawing us to the opposite sex.  And once you find that special someone you're usually not prepared to take care of them.  Then you get married and well nature takes its course and all of a sudden the eyes of this little child is looking up at you and it hits you - I have a child now!  How will I provide for them?  And if you're a follower of God, you're going to have to deal with this verse:

But if he provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. (1 Timothy 5:8, KJV)

This verse can haunt you if you are a filmmaker and you are serious about your faith in God and don't have a real means to provide.  Yeah, you live by faith, right?  It's God's calling, right?  The truth is that filmmakers and artists are not exempt from this charge to provide for their families even if they say they're doing it by faith.   Yes there is a time to test and see if God will provide with donations and such - but for the most part - if the money doesn't come in (it doesn't mean your faith is weak necessarily) - you're going to have to do something else to support the family and make your films on the side.

I get that it's better to get married earlier rather than later because of the raging hormones especially in young men. So this waiting to get married before finishing college doesn't seem like such a crazy idea from that perspective . But on the other hand, you should be well established in your trade before getting married.  The Jewish people wisely understand this concept.  1The tradition is that it's not only a father's job to find a wife for his son but it's also his responsibility to teach his son a trade. Otherwise it's believed that this son is being taught to steal.  Jesus also confirms this tradition in the Gospel of John:

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:3a, KJV)

Jesus was speaking in language that was very familiar to his Jewish disciples relating to the traditional Jewish wedding custom of the day.  This was where a son prepared a place for the bride in his father's house and brought his bride back to him.  The bridegroom was well prepared for his bride before he took her into his house.

Tell me any church person who will really believe you if you have a wife and kid or kids to support that you're doing your best if you are pursuing filmmaking and there's no money in your bank. More likely they will look at you with judgment in their eyes as you're a selfish person pursuing a dream. They might even quote the verse about a fool chasing the wind to encourage you to "repent"

And to top it off, how are you really learning about filmmaking during this time?   Do you even know how to sell your movie?  Or distribute a film?  Do you have a following or a fan base who are willing to buy your products?  Have you done your due diligence?  Making a film does not guarantee any money coming back to you. You have to become a salesman and if you don't understand how to sell your film, you're just doing this as an expensive hobby.

Having a family is a tremendous responsibility that comes and snowballs on you like a flood if you are not prepared. Then can come the guilt. Then comes the attempt to make it with your dream and not knowing how to balance time with the family.  Then comes the job you have to take to provide and if it doesn't provide very much  (which happens to so many artists - thus being now looked at as the: "starving artist") you're going to be worn out.  Or what about the stress of racing against time before the money in your hand runs out and your job might be running out.  And you are trying to do filmmaking on the side and then the wife and children getting impatient with you because you're not spending time with them because you're working on your film on your days off.  What about us vs What about the dream?   Then you get desperate - your work suffers and your family suffers. You are being pulled in so many directions - nothing seems to work -and everything moves slowly. Your family now doesn't see you even when you're home doing it on the side, your storytelling can become lousy, you're maybe not happy on your day job,  maybe now your family is mad at you, maybe you're broke, too.  

And what if the film is released and it makes like 50 bucks and you're already tired and have to move onto the next one. This is just practice for the big one, you say?  What if ten years have gone by now because you're moving slower now because you weren't prepared and being a family man came a lot sooner than expected?   These are some other signs of the war that begins to be waged in the mind: Nobody can see the dream anymore if they even did because people are impatient. Nobody believes in it anymore.  Not even you.  You're faced with putting it down and spending time with family or losing your family. And the verse of First Timothy plagues you.  You feel like the dog who returns to his vomit if he picks up the camera once again to begin filming another one.  Nothing, my friends, is worse than being around people who don't believe in you... especially when it is those who are closest to you. It is the loneliest feeling in the world for an artist. Yes, God is there and yes  He believes in  you, but if your family doesn't believe in you - it is a hard road to be on.

And here I am sharing this weekly devotional to you to explain to you that it doesn't have to be like this... not if you have the right commitment from your youth to position yourself to do it right before you meet that special someone and have children. Yes there are examples of being called as a prophet and not being recognized by their own family. But even in that you should do your part by being prepared.

The key, my friends, is to get started as soon as humanly possible and as young as possible. Because the artist has an additional problem to deal with whether he is a Christian or not. The artist has to find ways to make money on their art while the doctor and the lawyer or the builder or the construction man just needs to find a job to do and complete the job and get paid. The artist struggles in such a way that the rest of the world just doesn't get. And once that person has children and a family to feed - nobody seems to understand.

If you had the right perspective, you would have done like the Jewish community does as their tradition states - is to position their kids to learn a trade and then comes a wife and family.

The younger you are if you know you want to do this, then start positioning yourself.  Learn everything you can - take classes - watch tutorials online, find filmmakers who have succeeded and ask them for advice on how they made it (filmmakers love to share advice with sincere and humble seekers with a dream). Offer to volunteer on other films while you're in junior high or high school.  Buy a cheap camera and start shooting. Learn the software that's available.  Watch lots of movies. Start making short films and spending whatever money you have access to on doing this so that you can establish yourself at this filmmaking thing early on.  Keep your eyes open to the rapid change in technology and business models of the day.  Study how different filmmakers successfully promote and make money on their films.  Don't neglect distribution.  If you do, you miss the important part of making a living at it.  Or at the very least - sharpen your skills and learn editing or photography and start shooting weddings so that the money comes in so strongly that you have your own business and the power to determine your schedule and time so you can keep pursuing filmmaking on the side if your films don't yet provide enough to support the family.  There is never a guarantee to make a profit on a film. Never. It's a very difficult business to survive in whether you're doing it as a ministry or as a business.

For those of you with families already,  and if you started late and ignored the calling or buried your talents for years - or perhaps you just got the revelation late in life - you are going to be facing a more difficult - almost impossible task before you to succeed at filmmaking this late in the game.  But remember, God knows your heart and knows where you are and what you need.  He cares more for your spouse and children than you do. And if He gave you this dream - He's got your back.  Remember He is also a God of grace and mercy.  Never forget that with God all things are possible. Prepare for difficulties but moreso prepare to see miracles.  Trust Him and don't give up.  This has been my challenge because it took me too long to figure things out and I let guilt, fear, distractions, and confusion cloud my better judgment.  But I'm trusting Him to carry me through.  He can carry you as well.

1. From the Talmud Kiddushin 29a

 We thus learnt [here] what our Rabbis taught: The father is bound in respect of his son, to circumcise, redeem,17 teach him Torah, take a wife for him, and teach him a craft. Some say, to teach him to swim too, R. Judah said: He who does not teach his son a craft, teaches him brigandage, ‘Brigandage’! can you really think so! — But it is as though he taught him brigandage.