There’s no one in this world highly paid and widely recommended who is not excellent at what they do.
But this is not achievable overnight. It comes with a lot of what I call, ‘professional restlessness’. First you find out what you might be good at and pursue it with whole-souled determination. Steve Jobs said, “There has to be a problem you are trying to solve, otherwise you will not have the motivation or mental fortitude to see it through.”
After identifying your niche, you have to invest – or rather sacrifice – your precious time and effort to become proficient enough to capture the interest of a mentor in your given field. Particularly someone you aspire to be in the future. Your values must be correlated on several levels and dimensions. This will be your opportunity to serve, impress and showcase your talents without the pressure of working directly with a client. Most of your preconceived notions will be stripped off because here you actually get to learn how the profession actually works.
For example, when I first began my screenwriting journey, I assumed I had to work strictly according to the dictates of the producers who were often in a hurry to get the shoot.
“Nosa, I need a script by midnight.” The old me would go into panic mode and start drafting and fleshing out ideas. As it turns out, pressure and creativity do not go together. We are more creative when we are bored and have nothing planned to do or entertain ourselves with. We are less creative with a deadline hanging on our necks. Writers actually do need time to think a story through. But there was always the fear of, ‘If I let the producer go, I will lose this money.’
As it turns out, if I hurriedly do a poor job, the customer will reject me and the work and my reputation will be tarnished. So I had to learn patience. With myself and the creative process.
I take my time to write and rewrite loglines, synopsis, concepts and incorporate themes, because it is more important for the writer and producer to be on the same page than to write 80 scenes in 10 minutes, otherwise you would have written for nothing. And you won’t get paid.
Of course as a start-up then, I learnt this the hard way. But that changed when I studied the importance of taking time to master the craft. Some Netflix films take up to 3 years from pre-production through to post-production. Nigerian filmmakers are often in a hurry as culturally we tend to value energy and activity over long-drawn out progress. We tend to forget the paradoxical concept, ‘more haste equals less speed’.
Like Rema, I often advise them to calm down. But filmmakers are very determined people.
My point is, regardless of your professional bend, endeavour to remove your mind from all the money and glory and awards you will be receiving and seek continuous improvement to attain mastery and experience in your craft. Then, the money will come. Remember: Masters set their own price.
