So said the guru of independent film making in the UK, Chris Jones, to a group of about forty or so of us who turned up at the Metropole Galleries to listen to him this afternoon.

It was a very inspirational talk he gave, but also a very honest one. I’m sure more than a few people walked away from there having had rude awakenings. He made no apologies for this and from the get go warned us all of the cynicism that we as film makers face.

And he had a point. In fact he had plenty of points and they were all very valuable. The main ones were:

1 ) Get off your arse and make the damn thing – if you lead, others will follow.
2 ) Don’t expect anyone to go and see your film. Apathy and cynicism with haunt you wherever you go, learn to ignore it.
3 ) Don’t give a monkeys what people think about you or your film – they may be right, they may be wrong, but ultimately it’s irrelevant what they think.
4 ) The Film industry is a playground for the rich, don’t make inroads without a backup plan, especially if you have a family and mortgage.
5 ) The industry will screw you over unless you have a very good business head on you. The people who make most money from your film are the distributers, and Chris said he’s only ever met one with any integrity.
6 ) Make sure you have a market worthy product with a good title that follows the rules of the genre.
7 ) Don’t get precious over your film, learn to let it go once it’s in the hands of the sales and marketing people and move on

There was plenty more like this, all really good stuff. If you don’t have any of his books already – Get It.

Tomorrow is the first SToA meeting, and I’m well excited about it. I’ve been very busy over the past week planning and preparing for it, working out what we need to discuss.

I’ve also been busy getting my head around the finer art of sound recording. I bid for a nice microphone on eBay, but lost it at the last moment. Poo. Think I’ll give my friend Bill in the States a call tomorrow – see if he can help out on that front…