The bigger they talk, the less they know…
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who wanted to learn how to draw. She had $7 for crayons and paper but she sure what she should draw. So, she sought out experts in her neighborhood. The man who lived down the street who never draw anything in his life, but visited many museums said, “Well, you have to create something colorful because that will get people’s attention. Use as many colors as you can.” And then he charged her $2 for the advice.
The little girl started walking to the store to buy her art supplies but she was stopped by a lady who lived two streets over and read autobiographies about famous artists. She explained that she knew everything there is to know about art and she would share her knowledge with the little girl for a fee. The lady who had never actually drawn anything in her life said, “Well, you have to create a still life. Something people obviously recognize. That is great art. Copy what the greats do and you’ll be great as well.” And so the little girl paid her $2.
The little girl continued on her journey and the grocer stopped her on your way. He asked where she was going and the little girl explained she was going to buy crayons and paper. The grocer got very serious and said, “Are you sure you know what you are doing? I create displays in my windows every day and for $2, I’ll tell you the true secret to great art. Go for order and symmetry. You must have order and symmetry.” So the little girl paid him $2 for his advice plus $1 for a candy bar she couldn’t resist.
She picked out her crayons and paper, but when she reached into her pocket for money, she realized she had none left.
She walked home, crushed that she wouldn’t be able to draw after receiving all this expert advice and on her way back, she saw chalk drawings made by other children, flowers with many colors, stick figures all lined up in neat little rows and hearts placed in symmetrical patterns. One after the other, she looked at the art and found herself bored. When it started to rain and the drawings washed away, she realized that no one would care that they were gone or even remember what they looked like. So the girl sat in her living room, watching the rain come down, eating her candy bar getting angrier by the second. Then she got out the one marker she had in her room and an old magazine and scribbled angrily all over the pages that advertised crayons and drawing paper. She brought her artwork to school and the teacher hung it up next to drawings of flowers, stick figures and hearts. When the parents came up to school to see the art show, her piece is the only one anyone talked about.
This little girl learned a valuable lesson, many people claim to be experts and talk a big game but really just hand out generic, safe and often commercial oriented advice. I see people all the time “teaching filmmaking” but they have never made a film in their life or they made one or two low budget features that didn’t do any better than anyone else’s out there. Good for them, but they are not anyone to be charging you money. Good technique teachers have done the work themselves countless times and are not charging you for advice. They are charging you to learn a tangible skill and understand the basics of a craft. Do not be taken in by people who talk a big game. People who care about art (whether fine art, filmmaking or performance) will be happy to chat with you for 20 minutes for free and post encouraging words on your social media pages. They won’t charge you money because they know you don’t have any and get where you are because they have been there themselves. They won’t sell you something you can read in a book for $5 or watch on a screen for a $3 rental fee. They might recommend books and movies and then be thrilled to talk to you about them because they are actual artists.
If you ever consider paying someone for advice, ask what their credentials are, what they can promise to help you achieve and for references of people they have helped make successful artists. Then ask people willing to give advice for free the same questions. You’ll find the answers are the same except one will take your crayon money and one will help you pick out the best crayons.
When I was young, I was sucked into so many of these “workshops” and “one-on-one” mentoring and if I took all the money I spent on those things, I could make another micro-budget feature. None of them made me a better artist. NOT ONE. I see people pay hundreds of dollars for pitch workshops when the person sitting next to them in their filmmaker group every week is a pitch expert and has offered to give them feedback for free. I see people go to writing workshops when they could have joined a free writers group and gotten great feedback just for pitching in coffee money.
We are raised to think if it costs more, it must be more valuable or work better. That may be true for computers and kitchen gadgets but not advice about art.