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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Youngest RED Owner?

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The argument for whether or not the "democratization" of creative is making for better or worse art is a compelling one. Everyone in our industry (and many others) must watch Press Pause Play, an amazing free documentary that can be watched on vimeo, and was created on the Red One.
 
Also, my parents were not rich and I started my first video production company at 12 and was bringing in about 30k/yr by the time I was 14. So don't immediately assume successful young people are trust fund babies.
 
Meryem Ersoz said:
I think it is a good thing to get the best technology into the youngest hands as fast as possible. It is healthy for the future of innovation. No doubt this is why Ted is championing a camp experience for kids to make films using RED gear.

Am I jealous of these kids? Hell, yes I am - but not because they have great toys. I'm jealous of their energy, focus, and drive! Those are the "tools" that I wish I had, at that age.
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You're totally right...


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Andrew Allsbury said:
Also, my parents were not rich and I started my first video production company at 12 and was bringing in about 30k/yr by the time I was 14. So don't immediately assume successful young people are trust fund babies.
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Who did that? But to run with your example, you have to admit that the young folks who are using these tools to make a financial killing at the age of 12 or 14 are an extreme minority. Folks who poo poo have numbers on their side.

For the record I'm with Meryem. Learn on the best tools you can get your hands on. Nobody looses when good tools become accessible. The idea that Art is lessened somehow by the fact that more people are making it, or more unskilled people are making it is perposterous. The opposite is true IMHO. The cultures that are richest in the arts are the ones with the most active and vibrant populace, not the ones who leave it to the professionals.

The vast majority of great artists, I believe, come from the most humble beginnings. It does nobody any good to discourage them at that stage. Go for it, and don't let petty jealousy slow you down. At the same time be careful of criticism. Take it all, and do your best to parse out the best parts of it. Remember that you have not yet done your best work. You have greater work ahead of you. Unfortunately that also means that what you are currently doing may not be as great as you think it is.

These are things I struggle with every day, still... into my forties.

/rant
 
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Scott, not saying anyone said that, just in protest to an arrogant mindset that I myself have even been guilty of from time to time. As a professional it is sometimes shocking to realize some children have the same tools you worked very hard for years to acquire, but some kids are just crazy talented and hard working...and some ARE just spoiled...lol.

Seriously though, anyone who hasn't seen Press Pause Play, here is the link.
http://vimeo.com/34608191

Watch it!
 
With that discussion in mind, I'd like to put my two cents in. :)

In my opinion there are three things that a person needs in order to succeed in a particular field. I'll acknowledge that I only recently read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers and have been thinking a good deal about it.

1) Talent. Enough talent, that is. It isn't important to necessarily be the most talented person (assuming you could objectively determine that which is a dubious assumption), but it is important to have enough natural facility for something that at least some of your early efforts are rewarded with some level of personal satisfaction in your work. Finding elements of a particular role that you perform well is enabling in that it helps you to develop your own personal style by expanding on those strengths. Everyone has different sets of strengths and weaknesses and predominantly it is people with highly developed "strengths" (i.e. people who are truly exceptional at one or a few important parts of a given role within a particular field) who are the most successful rather than all-rounders who do most things well enough, but nothing particularly brilliantly. I feel this is especially true in artistic fields. Furthermore, if an individual is constantly bombarded with nothing but disappointment in everything they do then it is going to be hard for that person to stick with it which brings me to the second thing...

2) Work ethic. You need to be willing and (very importantly) able to work hard to become really good at whatever it is that you do. If you are a slacker then your odds of success are basically zilch short of some obscene, otherworldly combination of the other two things on this list. Similarly, if you are in a position where finding people to collaborate with or finding time (because of work, school, familial or other commitments) and the necessary facilities to work on your craft is a challenge then finding success is going to be really, really hard. Just as before, this works as a fine segue into the third ingredient for success...

3) Opportunity. To me there are two types of opportunity that are both necessary for success.
a. Opportunity for development of skills. If you are busy as a fifteen year old working a job every day after school and all day on weekends to help support your family while also working hard at school to keep your grades up then it is going to be hard to find the time to also become a master guitar player. It's just the reality. There are only so many hours in the day and it takes thousands of hours to become a true master at something. Gladwell's research suggests that it takes about 10,000 hours. That's nearly three hours every single day for ten years. On the other hand, if you grow up in a positive environment where your parents are either wealthy enough to support you or willing to make sacrifices so that you can pursue your dream then you have a chance to put in those hours and become, in this case, a truly great musician. In both cases it is generally important for them to be emotionally supportive and encouraging.
b. The breakthrough opportunity. Once you are a master at something or as you are close to reaching that point you need an opportunity to exploit your hard-earned skills and make a success of yourself. This type of opportunity can come in a number of ways. It can come because of family connections or money. It can come because of tremendous vision on your part (which for certain things like business could be lumped in with talent, but I digress). It can come because of dogged pursuit of assistance from everyone around you. It can come because of simple, dumb luck. Some talented, hard working people have never succeeded because they never got this kind of opportunity. It is a shame. The world is missing out on their contributions.

So, can family money help a young person to succeed? Yes. Duh. Of course it can. Any argument to the contrary would be ludicrous. It opens up both types of opportunities discussed above. There are other routes to putting in your 10,000 hours, but the simplest one is to have as few other responsibilities as possible while also having the tools necessary to practice your craft. The easiest way to be in this position is to come from a wealthy family. I think the extent to which it creates the second kind of opportunity is somewhat less pronounced, but it certain doesn't hurt if your family happens to know people in your chosen field. There's a fair amount of nepotism in film, no question about it. However, even in cases where family connections and money have helped someone to succeed that person still must have had some measure of talent and a willingness to work as hard as anyone else. You may get those key opportunities early on that less privileged people do not receive, but you do not keep getting them if you aren't any good at your job. The rich kids who succeed in film are still the minority next to the many more rich kids who have never succeeded. They were all short on talent or work ethic or both. As a person who freely admits that they are from a wealthy family (also a very loving and supportive one which has instilled from an early age an appreciation for the arts as well as an understanding of why hard work is important) I hope to be a part of the former group that does succeed and if I do not then it certainly will not be for lack of effort. Count on that.
 
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I think Nick nailed it.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but as a 15 years old, I think the hardest part is to be considered by adults and not fall in the "oh he is a child so he must be totally irresponsible and unprofessional" stereotype.
 
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Amaury

Same here i am 15 years old and get the same thing all the time.....
 
I can understand what you guys are saying. Some younger people who are very talented get miscast or have to fight an uphill battle to have their ideas heard and respected by older colleagues. With that said, if we are to believe Gladwell and it really does take 10,000 hours of working at something (in a concerted effort to improve one's skills) to become a master at it then surely not many fifteen year olds have put in that time. Hell, many thirty year olds haven't. In most fields other than athletics or modelling or something like that a person's prime years start in their late-30s and extend into their early-60s (though obviously this varies widely for people at both extremes). One thing's for sure: if you're already putting a meaningful number of hours into trying to improve at age fifteen then by the time you guys are in your early or mid-20s you'll be ready to kick some serious ass and will either have found success already or will be in a position to actively seek out that breakthrough opportunity that everyone needs. That doesn't mean that older people should be rude in the interim though, I agree with you.
 
Amaury Bargioni said:
I think Nick nailed it.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but as a 15 years old, I think the hardest part is to be considered by adults and not fall in the "oh he is a child so he must be totally irresponsible and unprofessional" stereotype.
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At the risk of stating the obvious... At fifteen you ARE a child. That shouldn't be a problem. Live with it. Just don't get too used to it, as it won't last. That is both good and bad. You can not demand someone's respect, but if you are truly able you can command it. Don't expect adults to treat you as fully grown and you might find it easier to get along.
 
Scott Crawley said:
At the risk of stating the obvious... At fifteen you ARE a child. That shouldn't be a problem. Live with it. Just don't get too used to it, as it won't last. That is both good and bad. You can not demand someone's respect, but if you are truly able you can command it. Don't expect adults to treat you as fully grown and you might find it easier to get along.
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FWIW, his point was that you can be a child and at the same time a responsible and professional individual...
 
Scott Crawley said:
At the risk of stating the obvious... At fifteen you ARE a child. That shouldn't be a problem. Live with it. Just don't get too used to it, as it won't last. That is both good and bad. You can not demand someone's respect, but if you are truly able you can command it. Don't expect adults to treat you as fully grown and you might find it easier to get along.
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Yeah it is true that it can be an advantage in some cases, but i find it depressing when some people of the same age as me tell me "oh i am only a child, it is too early to do anything, i am going to wait until i grow up" when i ask them why they don't pursue their passion.
 
"Early Start" is just a paradigm we have from the formal education that has been imposed on most of us. We go to school and graduate at 22 (with no master's or Doctorate...which everyone seems to think is so necessary now a days) and it isn't till then that we really get our feet wet. That's QUITE OLD (not TOO Old...but quite). The sooner someone can get started, the better. The one's with no talent or no skill will get weeded out eventually. No need to get all bitter about it.

My younger brother didn't get a RED ONE "when" he was in high school, he got it "instead" of High School. He left school at the age of 13, started a food company and devoted the rest of his time to filmmaking. Shortly thereafter he realized he didn't want to do the whole food thing and dedicated solely to film. We got our first RED ONE when he was 16, and he shot this a few months later when he turned 17.

http://vimeo.com/5796613

We got our second RED ONE when he was 18 and our Epic now that he's turned 20. Now, I love him because he's my brother, but I'm not the only one that thinks he's the best DP in my country. Sure, there are many things he still has to learn, but he's got a lot more time than most of us to get better (and at a quicker pace most likely). The next link is a trailer for a short we premiered last year here in Bolivia. He was 19 when he DP'd this. I'll post the link to the entire movie later when we've premiered in the US.

http://vimeo.com/19941126

We should encourage all the really young people to work at a professional level, be disciplined, and help us raise the bar. They have talent and imagination to spare...like I always say, most are born with the "film and audiovisual" chip installed already. If you them a chance, you might be surprised at how well they can hold their ground. Kids in sports (and music) start at 3 or 4 years old, and are playing really well by the time they're teenagers. In film, they start when they are teens if they're lucky...why the difference?
 
What a great story, Yecid! It's amazing how driven you and your brother are. You've made your own opportunities and it's clear that you have the work ethic necessary to succeed. Good for you both. :)
 
Interesting to see how this thread turned out.

"Here's to the crazy ones" - Steve Jobs
 
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