Three Things I Took Too Long To Learn: My Film2Future Awards Ceremony Closing Speech
As some of you are already aware, I’m on the board of a nonprofit called Film 2 Future which works with underrepresented and underserved high school students around the greater Los Angeles area to teach them filmmaking. The students we work with come from communities so geographically close to Hollywood, but a million miles away in terms of opportunities. Our students learn the technical and creative aspects of filmmaking, such as how to pitch, write, produce, direct, and edit, with the goal of placing each student into college or a paid position within the entertainment industry.
Here’s a 2 minute overview.
At the end of the year, we throw a screening and awards ceremony for these students and their families, and invite our friends in the entertainment industry to attend. This year, our students got to see their projects - projects they wrote, directed, edited, and produced - screened in front of showrunners, producers, known actors and directors, writers, advertising executives, VC partners, and Fortune 100 brand managers.
Honestly, it was pretty fucking rad.
As part of the board, I was invited to give the closing speech at this year’s awards ceremony. I never intended to post that speech here - both because it’s written to be spoken out loud, and because I’d written it directly to the students whom I’d seen put so much work into their projects. However since that event, I’ve had a dozen people email me to ask if I could send them this speech, so I decided that perhaps it was worth posting online after all.
I hope you enjoy it, and if after reading it you feel moved to help us in our goal to inspire and empower diversity in a new generation of filmmakers, I’d love to hear from you.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Barrett Garese. I’m a board member for Film 2 Future and responsible for developing last year’s VR and new media curriculum with Rachel. And it’s my absolute pleasure to be able to offer a few parting words before we wrap up tonight.
To the 25 students who are the reason we’re all here tonight: I’ve seen all of you at work and I’ve seen the results of that work. Some of you I’ve seen grow as artists over several years; some of you I met for the first time this year. All of you have shown acumen, intelligence, creativity, and drive.
And there’s something I realized I’d said a hundred times to other people, but that you deserved to hear directly, from me to you:
I am so damn proud of you.
Here’s the bigger thing: I believe in you.
I believe that you have the capacity to be professionally successful in the entertainment industry and the willingness to do what it takes to make that happen. I believe in you as individuals who can continue to learn, grow, and impress me and every other professional in this room. I believe that I will one day see your work in my living room, on my phone, on Hulu, and at the Arclight, and I believe that I may one day be working with - or even for - some of you.
I believe in your potential, and I believe in you.
I’m what you’d call a late bloomer, and what I sometimes call an idiot who takes way too long to learn simple lessons. But there are some advantages to being a late bloomer - mainly that you can stand in front of 25 students with a ton of potential, and give them a few shortcuts that might help them avoid your dumbass mistakes and maybe smooth the road to their success. And since Rachel told me I only have ten minutes before she drags me off stage, I’ll keep it to three points.
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The first piece of advice I have to offer is something I didn’t learn until I was 25, when my boss yelled it at me: no one will ever give you permission to succeed.
I had been working there a year and a half, waiting for someone to recognize my work. Waiting for permission to pursue something I desperately wanted to do. Waiting for someone to offer up advice and guidance without me asking for it. Waiting for ... something to happen.
But no one is ever going to give you permission to follow your dreams, or to make something that’s never been made before, or to do something better than they ever could. No one is ever going to give you permission to dream, or to create, or to make something so beautiful that it changes a stranger's life forever.
No one’s ever going to give you permission to stand up and say “My ideas have value.”
So unapologetically take up space in the world, and in other people’s minds. Don’t apologize for wanting or trying or working to create something beautiful, or to build a better world. And for anyone who tells you it’s not your place, understand that their fears and anxieties and regrets are not yours to inherit.
No one will ever give you permission to succeed, so stop waiting for it.
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Second, we’ve taught you how to tell a story, now go find your voice.
None of you knew how to make a short film until you did it. Now you do. Your next one will be better, and the one after that, better still. Your next job is to find what makes your voice unique.
Yes, everything is storytelling, no matter whether you’re writing, or directing, or doing sound, or color, or music, or editing - it’s all storytelling. But your voice is what transforms something from paint by numbers to fine art.
There’s a reason no other film looks like a Del Toro film. There’s a reason you can identify Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue in a single exchange. There’s a reason John Williams and Roger Deakins and Toni Morrison carry the legacies they do - and if you don’t know those names or why they carry that weight, congratulations - I just gave you some homework.
Your voice is equally unique. It comes from a mix of your experiences, your influences, and your dreams. It’s every album you loved and why, and every film that you couldn’t stop rewatching or thinking about. Every show that made you go “just one more episode and then I’ll go to bed.” Every day you’ve lived, and every night you’ve dreamed. That’s the formula that comes together to bring your voice to life.
It will take time to figure out what makes your voice uniquely you, but that work - your work - is worth your time. There are some stories that only you can tell. I mean that collectively, but also individually. There are some stories or sounds or feelings that are yours alone to share, and that the world will never know unless you bring them into being.
Your voice has value. Your ideas have value. Your experiences have value. Your lives have value.
So find your voice - because the world deserves to hear it.
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“On a long enough timeline, your success rate approaches 100%.” This was a quote from an old grizzled cinematographer on the first feature film I ever worked on. I was 22, and had been promoted from being a PA to a lighting assistant, which meant that I was promoted out of the air conditioned video village and into dragging heavy and expensive lights around in the hundred degree August heat. I asked him if he had any career advice and that’s what he told me: on a long enough timeline, your success rate approaches 100%.
It seemed so profound that it wasn’t until I was 32 that I realized he’d just told me a really fancy version of “don’t give up.” But it’s true - half of success is just outlasting your competition. Of choosing to not give up. Over time, that stubbornness becomes what we lovingly refer to as “experience.” You’ll learn a hundred different ways to do something, and you’ll learn the best way to do a hundred different things. You’ll make mistakes, fix them, and then make newer, better mistakes next time. And people will begin to rely on you, and hire you specifically for that experience. But how you spend your time is a choice you make every day.
And that’s the third piece: time will pass either way - how you choose to spend that time is what will determine your life’s direction.
My mother died last year on Christmas Eve. She was too young, and too smart, and too wonderful, and too good of a person to deserve to die from cancer at 69, but she did. She deserved more time.
I spent the last three weeks of her life at home with her and my dad and my brother and her friends - the best way I’ve ever chosen to spend my time. In the quiet moments between visitors, we talked a lot about Film 2 Future, and what we hoped would come from all the work that we as a board and you as students put into it.
My mother would have loved to be here tonight. She believed in the idea that art could change the world and that artists were almost magical, able to put pictures and ideas into other people’s minds, and to affect the emotions of strangers at a distance. I loved her a lot. And I miss her a lot.
She also believed in you. That your voices had meaning and you had stories worth telling. That other people would underestimate you, but that you could change the world. The computers you each received earlier this year were a gift from her, because she believed you each deserved the opportunity to prove her right, and that you would need the right tools in order to do so. And she’s right. You do deserve the opportunity. And I expect that in time, you will prove her right.
It may take a year, or five, or ten - but that time will pass either way. I promise you that you are worth making time for. That your dreams and ideas and goals and desires are worth making time for. Those have value too and you owe it to yourself to give those the time they deserve. And on a long enough timeline, your success rate will approach 100%.
Those are the three things that I took too long to learn: that no one will ever give you permission to succeed, that your voice has value, and that time will pass either way. I hope that in sharing them, maybe I can help you skip ahead a bit.
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Every single one of you has earned my respect. Every single one of you has earned my effort. Every single one of you has earned the professional courtesy that means when you reach out, I will respond. None of us who work in entertainment have done it alone. Along the way every single one of us had people who helped us. Who gave us advice, or notes, or who helped us with projects, or made phone calls on our behalf. You have the same. Look around you. Look around at your peers. Look around at your mentors. Look around at everyone in this room - they are here for - and because of - you.
You have an army behind you. And we believe in you.
We have also invested in you. We have invested our time, our energy, our knowledge, and our networks into you and your future. And like any investment, we expect a return on that investment. Our payoff won’t be with money, but with doors.
One day you will work on films, or tv, or vr, or commercials, or music, or something brand new that’s just a wisp of an idea in the back of someone’s mind today. That door will open for you. And my sincere hope is that you don’t slam it behind you, but that you hold it open for others to walk through.
That is my one request of you: in exchange for our help, hold the door open. Make it easier for other people to be successful. If you need a selfish reason, then tell yourself that it’s because the more people that see you as the fulcrum to their success, the more favors you will be owed; but the reality is that the more doors you hold open for others, the better the world will be.
And maybe, over time, with enough open doors, and enough new voices who never stopped to ask permission, the entertainment landscape will look a little less like me and a lot more like all of you.
You have already done amazing things. We are all proud of you. We all believe in you. But most importantly, we can’t wait to see what you do next. Thank you.
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And to the rest of the gathered audience, we believe in you too. Because while these students made the most of the opportunity to learn and grow and create amazing projects for professional partners, that opportunity is dependent upon the generosity of our corporate partners and our individual donors.
We’re in this beautiful screening space because Hulu has worked with us for almost two years now, lending us their space and their people and their time. Thank you, sincerely.
We had a space to learn this summer because Steelhead and Deutsch lent us the use of their facilities as we brought in a frankly absurd number of speakers every day. Thank you for giving us a home base.
We work hard to help change the future of 25 students every year. Every year we provide transportation, two meals a day, and two hundred guest speakers. And every year we start from scratch in order to do so. We find a location. We book speakers. We bring on production staff and equipment. We cannot do that without your help. Your donations - corporate and personal - go directly towards building a better future for our students. And let me tell you what that future looks like:
In just four years we’ve started to build a real pipeline into the entertainment industry. We’ve taught 125 students across five programs, and have former students working in paid positions on Glow, Vida, Mayans MC, and Brooklyn 99 amongst dozens of other shows and films. We have helped our students earn more than a million dollars in college scholarships. We’re asking for your help to continue this mission. If you’d like to donate, please see our very helpful PAs. If you’d like to help in other ways, by providing paid internships or sponsoring a student, or equipment donations, please find Rachel or Simon or Samata or me after the show. We’d love to talk.
Either way, please take the time to congratulate our students on their hard work. What you saw tonight was the result of untold hours of blood, sweat, tears, and creativity. Of panicked days and sleepless nights and impossible odds and triumphant successes. If you’ve ever put a production together, you’ll know that every production feels like an impossible task at times, and each and every one of our students deserves your respect for making such amazing work.
But the biggest reason you should meet these students is so that one day you’ll be able to tell your friends and children the story of when you met these filmmakers and producers and DPs and sound designers and editors way back when, and how you played a small part in their future success.
Thank you for coming to the Film 2 Future 2019 Awards Ceremony.
