You have the next great blockbuster in your head.

Just one problem:

• You have no money.

• You have no connections.

• You have no idea how to make connections.

Let’s say you do get your script read by some producers. But rather than throwing money your way:

• Their eyes glaze over.

• You realize you suck at pitches.

• Your logline seems to suck the attention out of the room.

This doesn’t mean your story has no potential. Many classics were fiercely doubted and struggled to get financed.

But selling your story is a different ballgame. Creativity is hard to judge, so you need concrete evidence to sell your vision.

For a film, a script and even a great pitch might not sell it.

Because the people who can finance your vision can’t see what you’re seeing in your head.

Thankfully, you’re in good company. Believe it or not, your favorite filmmakers didn’t start out rich or with die-hard millionaire fans driving truckloads of cash their way.

One way or the other, they managed to create work that attracted the financiers for their bigger projects that brought them to the world stage.

In this Soon Letter, I’ll show a powerful way one filmmaker did it – although he hated the idea at first and was forced into it.

He knows a thing or to about walking the path to La La Land.

Enter Damien Chazelle.

Whiplash – The Short

I mentioned in this letter’s subtitles “the benefits from making Whiplash.”

But I wasn’t talking about this Whiplash:

I meant this one.

Whiplash the short. It is the exact same moment in the story.

In case you haven’t watched it (which I highly recommend you do), here’s the logline: A gifted jazz drummer fights for his dreams under the tutelage of a brilliant - but cruel - teacher at any cost.

Hooked you? If it didn’t, I promise it’s not just because my writing sucks.

This was part of the recurring issue for Chazelle.

First off, Damien Chazelle (La La Land, First Man, Babylon) was working as a screenwriter.

He got the job after his self-produced first feature had its festival run, which got him an agent (a lesson in its own right. To learn more about making your first feature, check out The Christopher Nolan Method)

His agent passed the script around to different producers, but none of them were interested – even the ones who thought the script was good.

“‘It’s a movie about a jazz drummer.’ Cue eyes glazing over. By the time I got lucky enough to make Whiplash, I’d experienced this reaction quite a few times.” - Damien Chazelle

The first producer who signed on to it – Jason Reitman – was struck by the script but had the same thought:

“There is no road to the big screen for Full Metal Jacket set at Julliard.”

So he pitched this idea to Chazelle: Take a scene from your script and turn it into a short we can show financiers. So they can see your vision.

Chazelle begrudgingly agreed and chose the big scene at the end of the first act – the first rehearsal scene between Fletcher and our protagonist Andrew.

Fletcher encourages Andrew and praises him – wonderful for Andrew’s confidence in his first session in the school’s top band.

Things go great, until his playing is not quite Fletcher’s tempo.

If you watch the short, you’ll see the scene was a perfect choice:

• Intense with a clear beginning, middle and end.

• Andrew realizes (along with us) what he’s about to face.

• Ends explosively and leaves us wanting to see what happens next.

Chazelle had no intention of making a boarding school melodrama.

He wanted the movie to “play like a high-octane thriller.” And this short would make sure everyone felt it.

Iterating for the Final Product

The short did exactly what it was supposed to and won the 2013 Sundance Short Film Jury Award, securing finances for the team.

But the process came with more unexpected benefits.

First, it prepared him for the realities of film production with a fleshed out cast, crew, strict schedule, and someone else’s money.

A far cry from his one other feature that he made with friends over a year.

Second – you would think after filming a scene for 3 days, you could make the feature exactly the same with a few touchups.

But despite the accolades it received, Chazelle realized he made several key mistakes that he was intent on fixing.

In the short, the rehearsal room was recreated exactly as Chazelle remembered from high school: white walls, big windows, sterile and airy.

Aside from being physically realistic, he liked the idea of the intense drama contrasting against a harmless backdrop.

It was a respectable idea, but its application created different results.

He realized the approach wasn’t true to the emotional realism of the scene.

That is, Andrew’s perspective of the place – both sacred ground and hell.

“When I shot the feature, I made sure to find a location that could lend itself to those two things: grandeur and terror. This time I took inspiration not from my own band-room, but from the more hallowed conservatories and jazz clubs and concert halls of the world.”

You can see the difference just from looking at frames of the two films side by side. The color palette went from whites and blues to blacks and reds.

His look book became filled with Caravaggio and Goya paintings, and stills from The Godfather, The Yards, Birth, and The Social Network.

None of which were present in the short’s look book.

And no windows. No escape.

The result is the story visualized in a much more authentic form, true to its themes and characters. In other words, more cinematic.

Without the short, even if he was able to make the feature, it would have had the vision of a high schooler (I’m just as bad as Fletcher).

I’m always intrigued at how much the filmmaking process is the same as any entrepreneurial project.

Or the building of a successful product.

As a creator or creative, we can often be stuck in our ways. Our idea is so precious that we fear “compromising” anything about it, including our notion of how it should be made.

Chazelle was against a short simply because, “I’d written Whiplash as a feature, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

Don’t we want to to create the best version of our idea?

Isn’t that what we need?

Then build, test, improve, and repeat.

Cheers,

Joe Soon