Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Charlotte Atkinson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Charlotte, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Resilience as a film producer is a double-edged sword. Everyone knows working in the film industry comes with endless rejections. Some kind, some… not so kind. Everyone will tell you to get “thicker skin” and work on being “less sensitive” to make it easier to cope with the rejections that naturally come from sharing your ideas with people until you find the right people who deeply understand what you want to create and why. But the rejection isn’t just towards me, it’s to the other people behind the project. Not only do you have to be resilient for yourself, you have to help them be resilient.
As a producer, it’s my responsibility to pitch a project over and over again to agents, financiers, actors, crew. The saying goes you have to talk to 1000 people before someone will say yes. So I’m usually the first person to hear the rejection. I then have to pass that on to the rest of the team in the kindest way possible, so it’s constructive not crushing.
Because I know I will have to talk to 100-1000 people, I always have a slew of back up plans. I always know where we’re going next. I also know that trying to force a rejection into a ‘yes’ usually ends badly. So for me, resilience is always the easy bit, as it’s not really rejection, it’s a redirection. I also know that I only say yes to projects I whole-heartedly believe in, so I never doubt that there’s a way to get it made. That’s one of the best perks of the film industry – there are so many ways to do something, it’s easy to stay optimistic and excited to try the next way. Each rejection could be a crushing failure, but business-minded producers know that it’s not a failure, it’s just a way that hasn’t worked.
It’s not so easy for writers and directors though. It’s not just their creative vision that’s up for review, it’s often their heart and soul that they’ve put into this project. Every rejection can feel personal. It can lead to agonising spirals, questioning whether it’s their experience or talent that wasn’t good enough or wasn’t right. When you spend so long hoping your project will get made, every rejection just feels like another door closing and fewer options forward. Resilience in those moments is tough.
That’s why you need the best producing partner you can possibly find. I’m not talking about the most experienced or most illustrious. I mean the one who truly, deeply believes in your project and supports your vision for it. As producers, our job is to do whatever it takes to get the film made. We’re only going to do that for the projects we truly believe in. It means we have a bunch of options and never truly believe it’s over, no matter how many rejections we get. There’s always a way forward, always an opportunity we haven’t tried yet.
This constant optimism has always been part of the way I think and work, even as a child. When you cultivate that optimistic mindset and train yourself to always think “It’s this or something better”, you can get yourself through the most difficult rejections relatively in-tact. Not only does this help with rejections, it also helps you handle the curveballs and sudden changes that will get thrown at you when you work in the film industry.
We had one such curveball on one of my films a few years ago. A couple of weeks before we were scheduled for production, the director called me in tears. Her son had tested positive for COVID, and had been in the house location we were shooting the entire film in. This meant delaying for at least two weeks, and desperately hoping that we could find new dates that would work for all our cast and crew. It also meant dealing with all the paperwork that would need to be updated as well as the insurance policy. It felt like a mammoth task, especially so close to when we had planned on filming. But the most important thing was that her son was fine and not suffering too much, and everyone else was healthy.
In the end, we picked two options for new shoot dates, sent them out to the cast and crew and locked in a new schedule. We only needed to replace a couple of crew members who couldn’t make any of the new dates and it was a valuable lesson in making sure you have a list of back-up crew options. The entire team pulled together wonderfully and it really was “this or something better” as the film went on to win multiple awards at global festivals and hit over 36,000 views in its first 30 days online.
My resilience tends to come from pure optimism, the fact I usually have at least 10 back up plans and the useful lessons I have learned in preparing for and handling the curveballs that come from working in the creative industries. It’s not always 100% solid, there are always moments where you’re convinced it’s not going to work. But when you’re responsible for helping others stay resilient, you learn not to give in to the doubts or let yourself spiral. If a team is relying on you, spiralling into negativity isn’t going to help anyone, so you learn to handle it better.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a film producer and coach, helping writers and directors create more films. After training in theatre, I switched to film producing when I was 19, completing the BFI Academy and producing two shorts in quick succession. My passion as a producer is focussed on stories about dreamers daring to do things differently and supporting mid-level short filmmakers so they can get to the next stage of their career.
After a couple of years in the trenches as a producer, I noticed more and more filmmakers quitting the industry. It would always happen whenever I met up with a writer or director for coffee. I’d have found one of their films, fallen in love with their work and reached out for a meeting, only for them to tell me that even though they’d made an award-winning film, they were struggle to survive as a filmmaker and were “quitting for a while”. It was after four of these meetings in one week that I realised talent doesn’t equal success in this industry. it doesn’t even equal survival.
So I went on a mission to find out what filmmakers actually needed to survive. Turns out it wasn’t just talent or awards. It was how they branded and positioned themselves, what systems they used to be productive, how they built their network and how they connected with their audience. It was an entire foundation that they weren’t being taught at film school or online. I began my coaching business helping writers and directors build the foundations of their careers so they could make more films, get paid and fast-track their journey to feature filmmaking.
To date I’ve helped over 200 filmmakers create more films and find success in this ever-volatile industry, and I’m immensely proud of that.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Great question. We’ve already talked about resilience – that’s one of the most important things in the film industry. If you can’t pick yourself up and keep moving forward then nothing will ever happen. That’s the bit no one will ever do for you.
An ability to look at the bigger picture and find opportunities to do things differently is always essential in my book. Particularly short films, where you’re far less constrained by “this is how it’s done” thinking. The usual route used to be write the script, get a producer attached and apply to the BFI Short Film Fund. The trouble is, a lot of producers are quitting or taking a break from the industry, and the BFI is so saturated with applications from other people who also spent lockdowns writing. The old way doesn’t work the way it used to, so you have to step back, get creative and find a better option for your film.
For writers, directors and producers, the ability to be a leader is also an overlooked part of the job. So much of the content and training is about the craft of the job. How to create an amazing screenplay, how to direct an award-winning film… But being in one or more of those roles means you have to be a leader first and foremost. Everyone is looking at you for answers, waiting for you to make a decision. You need to lead with confidence, so everyone from the lead actor who’s first on the call sheet to the runner has faith in you and is ready to give the project their all.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
It’s going to sound like an odd choice, but it’s Dollars Flow to Me Easily by Richard Dotts. It’s fundamentally a mindset and manifesting book but it completely changed my outlook on work.
As filmmakers we’re so used to pushing forward and holding onto every strand of hope with clenched knuckles. There’s one line in the book that completely changed that for me: “What if there are no problems to solve, only your best work to do?” Essentially, letting go of the fear of the problems and preparing for the worst, instead focussing on doing your best work and letting the problems naturally sort themselves out.
As a producer and coach, letting go like that isn’t something I’ve felt like I could do before, but everything changed for the better when I shifted all my attention to just doing my best work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.charlotteproduces.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/charlotte_produces
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ourdaughterproductions
Image Credits
Carrie Kendall
