Ecosystem

In a June 26, 2011 post on Michigan Movie Makers, I blithely asserted that the regional production community is an ecosystem. I wonder – what was I talking about? Does the metaphor actually provide any movie making insight or advantage?

Here’s a bland definition of ecosystem  – a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. What’s intriguing are the interactions, specifically the symbiotic interactions. From a species perspective, one might contend that all interactions are symbiotic – predators cull the weak from the herd, parasites trigger a vigorous immune response from hosts, etc. Ultimately, species adapt and improve. I don’t care about about movie makers as a species though, I care about movie makers as individuals and especially one in particular – me. What does the metaphor of an ecosystem do for Dan Kelly?

Let’s consider categories of Movie Makers based on primary motive / consistent achievement.

Entrepreneur – make money
Artist – realize a vision
Student – aspire to be an Entrepreneur and/or Artist
Enthusiast – enjoys the process, supports family or friends, perhaps transition to Student
Audience – passion for movies

I swapped Entrepreneur for Professional so as not to confuse motivation with quality. Artist and Student movies may have insignificant budgets and still achieve professional results while Entrepreneur movies may be well funded schlock. Big budgets are usually associated with a profit motive, but quality requires more than the desire to make money. To simplify the symbiosis concept, I’m going to stick with one primary motivation per category.

It might seem counter intuitive to lump together all levels of experience and expertise, but a vital community is diverse! We are are an…

Ecosystem?!

From the Entrepreneur’s perspective, Artists deliver essential creative services, Students are interns with fresh perspectives and Enthusiasts provide budget stretching magic as volunteers. From the Student viewpoint, Entrepreneurs and Artists are mentors and Enthusiasts an army of free crew/extras. From the Artist’s perspective, Entrepreneurs are clients, patrons or investors, Students apprentices and Enthusiasts pure potential.  For the Enthusiast,  Entrepreneurs, Artists and Students represent involvement in exciting projects, offer a chance to show off a bit (“That’s MY barn in the helicopter chase scene!”) or are simply family and friends worthy of support and encouragement. Of course, the Audience wants great movies… and how many productions would be possible without an audience, whether actual or imagined?

All of these motivations are essential to the process of making movies. Everyone is important. Which category of movie maker is Dan Kelly? The surprise ending is that all of these motivations are mine, I am an ecosystem unto myself. Movie making requires both symbiotic interactions within a community and synergistic integration of the self.

Defining myself as an artist only is limiting. Diverse dynamics – intense vision, constant aspiration, robust financial metabolism, immersion in process and love for stories – helps a director realize great projects. That’s my approach to M3 too, bringing together different perspectives to foster complex interactions like cooperation and perhaps even… symbiosis.