Making YOUR Own Path In The Film Industry with Moonlight Actor Edson Jean
Last week, we had the amazing opportunity of talking to Edson Jean, an emerging Haitian-American actor, writer & director to discuss how indie filmmakers don’t need to necessarily “break” into the industry, but can pave their own way instead. Edson is well known for directing Grown, Complex's first web-series, and in acting in movies like Moonlight and War Dogs and TV shows such as HBO's Ballers and Bloodline.
In this blog, I wanted to give some of my thoughts about our conversation, but first, here’s the video.
Here are my recollected thoughts:
Free Work: I know that this is now a huge point that was talked about in the conversation, but it really struck me as a really important (and overlooked) point in the conversation the second time around. Part of Edson’s success is due to his willingness to work favors, even if they don’t make financial sense in the short term. I do think it’s a problem when favors are not financially favorable in the short or long term, but generally speaking, free work is not the devil, you just have to be savvy to calculate social ROI. It also makes me want to get into a discussion about film school, but I will NOT. Just trust that doing free work for a couple of years might get you further than a diploma.
Distribution is a free-for-all: With the fall of Tugg and Distribbr (these companies are really making me distrust names that exclude vowels, have repeating consonants or are phonetically correct but are spelt quirky ) it is time for filmmakers to explore audience-building and the distribution game. It is a jungle out there, and I really want to hear about how Edson’s theatrical tour game plays out.
Keep costs low: Intentionality - determining what is essential and what is noise - is what will make some filmmakers rise and the rest to fail. Survival of the fittest, if you will. I love how Edson doesn’t own a car because it’s just not essential for him. In my calculations my car costs me around $350 a month, or $4,200 a year (and I own it outright) without accounting for depreciation. Edson’s strategy to fight against impulsive consumerism allows him to spend his resources where he wants to. Additionally, think about this in terms of your movie. Do you really need to buy that piece of equipment that will take up half of your rental budget but only improves the image by half a percentage point? Realize what is essential and what is clutter. Yes! Minimalism applies to filmmaking as well. If you want to learn more about HOW to implement best strategies for micro-budget filmmaking head to www.wishcreative.co/makeit
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