"Walk the Line" with Sam Phillip's Advice
In the new bio-pic "Walk the Line", we see young Johnny Cash singing a gospel song to record producer Sam Phillips. 
Sam stops him and says:
"I don't believe what you're singing. But if you were hit by a truck and were lying out there in the gutter dying and you had time to sing one song. One song people would remember before you're were dirt. One song that would let people know about how you felt about your time on earth. One song that would sum you up. Something real. Something you felt. What would that one song be?"
Johnny thinks, then starts singing a song he wrote, "Folsom Prison Blues".
I hear lots of writers and directors saying, "I got this idea, and than there's another idea, and I might do this other idea......." I always reply, "Do your last book. Your last movie. Your one ultimate story."
If you can't raise the money yet, to make it into a movie, do it as a book. It just takes a PC and time. And if you want to make it a little more special, do it as an Audio-Book. It's just takes an extra thousand dollars, cheaper than a week vacation. You can even get a professional sound mix on your PC with recording software. And if you want to make it more special, hire a famous actor to read it. That'll take a few more grand and you must record in a studio.
And then the next time you are at a party and introduce yourself as a writer or director or producer and they say, "What have you done?" You can pull your book, CD, or DVD out of your bag and give it to them. You can tell them to find it on Amazon (they'll take anything with a ISBN number and a bar code).
And that will be the one ultimate thing that will "sum you up". And I'll guarentee you, vacations are great, but there is no greater creative satisfaction than "summing yourself up", in a book and being able to hand it out to people that are interested, or being bought by people you don't even know.
Comments (6)
I could not agree more!
Sail on... sail on!!!
totally!
I love movies, shows, songs, and yes, xanga posts that inspire. Whether or not it is meant to inspire or it is done so well that it just inspires me to create my own. Anyhow, the two points I dug was creating something that "sums [me] up," that is "[my] last movie." The other point was from your last post about finishing projects no matter what, EVEN if it's not what you had hoped it to be. Being an aspiring, independent animator/painter, your motivating words are appreciated. Time to finish those projects sitting around and start thinking about my "ultimate story."
Yeah.... I can't wait...
This post really hit home with me. Because this is where I am in my acting career - trying to sum myself up. And I think I'm slowly getting there. A quick story for you: I have an audition Sunday for a theatre production that is in need of a strong actor to take over the lead role, a role by description to be very expressive and energetic but not too wordy. The director looked at my résumé submission and called me saying that if I am as good as my res says I am, he'd hire me on the spot. I'm not quite there YET to be able to sum my acting career up, but I'm getting closer every day. And I think that getting 'noticed' by my credentials is atleast going in the right direction.
Thanks for the post!
~Unsane
RYC - Thanks again for keeping up with me. Now that I'm done documenting my African Adventures I can get back to my novel editing - round two. It's funny, all the while I'm working on my novel I still have all the oddball moments of my "present life" to capture. And yeah... i do have volumes of my life on file so far. My book is ready for a name... I need a title... This is the fun part, but it's so hard to think of one!
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