Yaphath-Toar
07-06-04, - 08:03 AM
I posted this article to the community website for YADA - a local arts academy but felt I needed to get this off my chest so I am posting it on this site. Hopefully I selected the correct forum. The website that it can be found at is http://groups.msn.com/Yaphath-ToarAcademyofDramaticArts Thank you to the moderator for accepting this and I hope it is read in the context with which it was written in...
Isn't it wonderful to see us make strides in so many areas...not necessarily leaps and bounds all the time but baby steps that assure us that we are healthy and growing. Thanks to all of you for embracing the film community and creating a forum for us to tell visual stories of all kinds but especially those that are truly ours, however, there are a few things that concern me.
After six very short years I have only just started coming home more often as a result of attempting to establish The Academy and my optimistic side dances at the sight and sound of how the local film community seems to be coming together in many ways. However, really early in the game I am seeing a great deal of interesting characteristics that trouble me with the advent of this new industry.
I recently had lunch with a potential client to discuss a film project that they are looking to produce. The project is based locally but with international reach. After a short while we were joined in impromtu fashion by someone who had worked on one of the foreign projects that graced our shores recently. Suddenly the meeting took the direction of lambasting and berating key people who are making major sacrifices to breath life into film and television here. Things came up that were not truly based on facts (some of which I know only because I know some of the players involved) and there was such an attitude of "I-was-the-only-one-for-the-job-to-the-point-where-I-could-move-to-LA-and-succeed-in-a-heartbeat!" that I sat in awe of the arrogant ignorance. I have to remain vague so as not to foster drama but HELLO!!!...one small project...ONE BIG EGO!!! FYI...this person's name will not make it to the top of the Below The Line credits...I wonder if they (the production people) made this clear...uuummm...I wonder if this person understands the business well enough to know that they will be lost...I'm sorry, is ALREADY lost in the shuffle! As our production offices crumble into shipping boxes to move on to the next project so do many of our glorified gophers fall out of memory until, well maybe if there is a, next time. I wanted so badly to get this across not to embarass the person but to save the person from future embarassment of themselves but I could not get a word in edgeways. Needless to say even the client was taken aback. Lunch ended shortly after with a shrugging-off of the scene as a triflin'' scenario indigenous to the local climate. After exhaling it became humourous to me...yet still a bit disturbing.
My creative fellow Bahamians, if we must have it let's not take the BIG EGO until we've taken the BIG PROJECT - you know, the one with the fame (big press) and fortune (big pay) attached and even then I caution you to make it all about the work! Hollywood is a small town...Nassau (The Bahamas) is even smaller!
Yaphath-Toar aka 'humble-pie-for-breakfast-as-I-learn-this-mixed-up-industry-daily'
ps Everyday in this crazy business of show is a learning experience and filled with many changes and turn-arounds and we should be mindful that we are all working towards the building of a new industry. There are some policies and practices that are not yet in place locally because we have never had to deal with the issues that invlove them. Stop hating and show some love to those who at least have the vision and intelligence to suck it up, fix it up and big it up on behalf of us all! They will only get better and hopefully so will you and I!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAHAMAS!
Isn't it wonderful to see us make strides in so many areas...not necessarily leaps and bounds all the time but baby steps that assure us that we are healthy and growing. Thanks to all of you for embracing the film community and creating a forum for us to tell visual stories of all kinds but especially those that are truly ours, however, there are a few things that concern me.
After six very short years I have only just started coming home more often as a result of attempting to establish The Academy and my optimistic side dances at the sight and sound of how the local film community seems to be coming together in many ways. However, really early in the game I am seeing a great deal of interesting characteristics that trouble me with the advent of this new industry.
I recently had lunch with a potential client to discuss a film project that they are looking to produce. The project is based locally but with international reach. After a short while we were joined in impromtu fashion by someone who had worked on one of the foreign projects that graced our shores recently. Suddenly the meeting took the direction of lambasting and berating key people who are making major sacrifices to breath life into film and television here. Things came up that were not truly based on facts (some of which I know only because I know some of the players involved) and there was such an attitude of "I-was-the-only-one-for-the-job-to-the-point-where-I-could-move-to-LA-and-succeed-in-a-heartbeat!" that I sat in awe of the arrogant ignorance. I have to remain vague so as not to foster drama but HELLO!!!...one small project...ONE BIG EGO!!! FYI...this person's name will not make it to the top of the Below The Line credits...I wonder if they (the production people) made this clear...uuummm...I wonder if this person understands the business well enough to know that they will be lost...I'm sorry, is ALREADY lost in the shuffle! As our production offices crumble into shipping boxes to move on to the next project so do many of our glorified gophers fall out of memory until, well maybe if there is a, next time. I wanted so badly to get this across not to embarass the person but to save the person from future embarassment of themselves but I could not get a word in edgeways. Needless to say even the client was taken aback. Lunch ended shortly after with a shrugging-off of the scene as a triflin'' scenario indigenous to the local climate. After exhaling it became humourous to me...yet still a bit disturbing.
My creative fellow Bahamians, if we must have it let's not take the BIG EGO until we've taken the BIG PROJECT - you know, the one with the fame (big press) and fortune (big pay) attached and even then I caution you to make it all about the work! Hollywood is a small town...Nassau (The Bahamas) is even smaller!
Yaphath-Toar aka 'humble-pie-for-breakfast-as-I-learn-this-mixed-up-industry-daily'
ps Everyday in this crazy business of show is a learning experience and filled with many changes and turn-arounds and we should be mindful that we are all working towards the building of a new industry. There are some policies and practices that are not yet in place locally because we have never had to deal with the issues that invlove them. Stop hating and show some love to those who at least have the vision and intelligence to suck it up, fix it up and big it up on behalf of us all! They will only get better and hopefully so will you and I!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAHAMAS!