“Relative Success in Hollywood”

Back in August 2011, I posted a Dispatches from the Front Line piece by Joshua Caldwell, a first-person account about breaking into the entertainment business.

Two days ago, Josh posted what I think is an important reflection about some of the things he has learned in the ensuing years: “Relative Success in Hollywood”. Excerpts reprinted by permission:

In mid-2015 I was suffering from a crisis of success…rather, a crisis of lacking success. I had been in Hollywood for nine years working to achieve success in the industry and I felt like I had finally made it. I made a well-received first feature film for $6000 and been hired to direct my first real professional project: a series for Hulu. It had a real (though still small) budget, the project already had distribution on a major digital network and I was sure this was going to help launch me into the next phase of my career. I threw myself into it. I moved to Miami for seven months, I sacrificed more than I will publicly admit, and I wrapped the project feeling satisfied that I had met its demands and would be rewarded for it.

To be clear, I didn’t think I would suddenly become the next big thing, but I did think it would lead to more work and better projects and that, surely, I would be propelled upward. After all, sizable digital series with distribution on Hulu should mean something and I was confident the the project, with so much invested in it, would be backed by solid marketing.

But in the summer of 2015, the show was released to so little fanfare or attention that it was as if it had never been released at all. Zero marketing was invested in it. No one reviewed it (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise), no one was talking about it, no one watched it and I found myself in pretty much the exact same position I was before I made the series. I had spent seven months away from my wife and son, from my home in LA, from working on other projects and the response was worse than bad, it was non-existent.

It felt like another failure after a string of so many. So many projects that I felt would lead to something, anything! and were instead DOA and never got much beyond me sharing them on YouTube and hoping someone would watch it. As I result, I was in a place of really questioning what the hell it was I was doing.

Josh made some changes in his life which he goes into in his essay, but let me zero in on two points he makes:

In ‘Tribe’ Sebastian Junger writes about the self-determination theory, “which holds that human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others. These values are considered “intrinsic” to human happiness and far outweigh “extrinsic” values such as beauty, money and status. Bluntly put, modern society seems to emphasize extrinsic values over intrinsic ones, and as a result, mental health issues refuse to decline with growing wealth.” Hollywood emphasizes these as well, doesn’t it? With award shows, million dollar spec sales, houses and cars and expensive offices. We buy into it but don’t seem to feel successful and happy when we get those things, when we have money in the bank, when we buy our beauty and achieve our status.

Instead, perhaps we should be pursuing the three pillars of self-determination: autonomy, competence, and community.

Extrinsic values put the determination of what success is outside of ourselves. We cede to others how we should feel about who we are and what we do. Which is why this from Josh resonates:

Maybe ‘success’ in Hollywood is finding that thing that you really enjoy doing and that’s all it should be.

Follow. Your. Bliss. Find that which brings you joy, something about which you are passionate, something for which you feel you have talent, and do THAT! As far as Joseph Campbell is concerned — who coined the phrase — that is the whole point of the Hero’s Journey.

This is an intrinsic value. This way of looking at the world gives us the power to determine what success is.

I like the trio: competence, autonomy, community. But I would add a fourth value: Purpose. If you discover your bliss and follow it, you will discover a purpose in life.

And in my view, purpose is the most important determinant of success.

You really should read Josh’s post. It’s a deep probing into a subject anyone who works in or aspires to work in Hollywood confronts.

To read the rest of the post, go here.

Joshua Caldwell is a director, writer, producer, and MTV Movie Award Winner. His debut feature film LAYOVER was made for $6000 and had its World Premiere to sold out crowds at the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival where it was nominated for the prestigious FIPRESCI New American Cinema Award. In 2015, he directed the first season of Hulu’s SOUTH BEACH and the Paramount Pictures feature film BE SOMEBODY. In 2017 his latest film, the action-thriller NEGATIVE, had its World Premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival and will be released in the fall.

Here is a trailer for Josh’s upcoming movie Negative:

Twitter: @Joshua_Caldwell.