We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Greg Brooks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Greg below.
Greg, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I keep pressing on with this endeavor because it makes me happy. Writing is a great creative outlet and when I get the opportunity to make a film, it’s even more of a rush. I’ve been working on success in this world for so long that I wouldn’t even know what else to do with my time if I wasn’t striving for this art form. It’s become a part of who I am. I don’t think I’d recognize myself if I wasn’t chasing this.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’ve been writing and directing films since the early 1990s. I started out with short films, but as you know, making films is expensive. Especially back then when you needed to purchase film and get it processed. Now one can own a quality digital cinema camera, or rent one for dollars a day. Actual film isn’t an issue and if you work really hard, you can even cut it by yourself with numerous free programs. But I am a big believer that filmmaking is a team sport, so I always think it’s a good idea to have an editor do their own job and lend a new creative eye to the project. But that being said, the above possibilities are true. But back then it was just too expensive to make films over and over. So I switched to just screenwriting. I landed a manager for awhile and my first script with that company was read all over town and was very well received, but it did not sell. So I kept working. I have a favorite genre and a specific style but I wanted to be as diverse as possible so I tried to write as many different genre pieces as I could. I moved from one manager to another and was able to land a job writing a script for Fox. The script was finished, but it never got made into a movie. A long story I can save for another time. I kept writing and moved into some TV Pilots. I got some traction with those as well, but none were picked up for series. Obviously there’s a book of stories here, but I’ll keep it simple. After awhile and with the inception of Crowd Funding, I decided to use that platform and try and raise money to make one of my pilots. We raised the necessary funds and shot the pilot. It was recently accepted to a few film festivals, where it won awards in two categories. Hopefully there’ll be more festivals to come and we can use this exposure to help finance more episodes and get the series set up at a network.
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?
I never went to film school. All my knowledge is from watching every movie I could get my hands on, but most importantly, I worked in the film business and worked on set with some of the greatest filmmakers of the modern generation. As we made the films, I watched. I paid attention. I saw how they dealt with production. I saw how they dealt with actors. I watched the masters make their films and I took mental note of everything. Right or Wrong. I can say I know how certain things should be done because I’ve seen it done that way and I’ve seen it work. My biggest advice for any filmmaker is to get on set and pay attention. Watch these people as they not only hone their crafts, but use their experiences to make a film. This has been an invaluable part of my filmmaking style and ability. Anyone can yell action and cut, but it’s getting everything to work the way you want before, during and after that that’s important.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I’m always looking for collaborators. Be them cinematographers or editors or actors. But most importantly, I’m always looking for Producers. The biggest problem with this industry these days is no one wants to do the work. Make the calls. raise the money. Attach the actors. Producing is a very hard and widely spread job. It’s not the hard to make the movie once the money’s in and the director takes over the creative side. Making sure there’s bathrooms and permits is easy. Well not easy, but you’re already on the road. The big work has been done. Now you just keep the train on the tracks. But getting to the first day of shooting, is where the people who are motivated shine. And even more importantly, doing what it takes after the film is ready for release is even more important. Getting it to production companies. Getting it sold. Getting it seen. This is where the real motivated producers earn their money. Sadly in my experience this is the hardest person to find. Someone motivated to take the film from script to screen. It’s a long journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: 3derelictsproductions.com
- Instagram: @gregbrooksfilms
- Youtube: Greg Brooks Films
