'The Thing Before The Thing' - Our YouTube video explaining the concept.
When you watch the TV Show Jersey Shore, you might initially think it could offer some incredily valuable filmmaking career advice.
If you've ever seen an episode of Jersey Shore you may remember two things. Firstly Pauly D's trademark yell of the "Cabs are here!" and secondly was 'the shirt before the shirt'. If we haven't lost you already stick with us, there's an important filmmaking career lesson here.
For those uninitiated to the unique world of this television show, before going out for an evening at Jersey's Shore finest nightclub establishments the men would put on one shirt so sit around and chat in, before changing into their 'real shirt' for the night out. This first shirt (or the 'shirt before the shirt') may just have been a bit of a warm up, but it was a crucial part of the process in their nightly routine before their main event shirt.
Perhaps a better analogy for this idea is 'the thing before the thing' and it's something that we've seen happen many times in our career so far, something that needs to happen first in order for the real thing to happen. Let us explain more...
As a filmmaker you quite rightly will want to put 100% into every project that you do, however this also means there's a tendency to become fully emotionally invested in the outcome of every project and if for whatever reason the project doesn't get the reaction you expected, we will often view this as a complete failure.
Take for our example our documentary "Lewes FC: A Different Ball Game", where we follow the first ever football team to pay their men's and women's team equally, through an important season for the club as they try to gain promotions and survive financially. There's so much we love about this documentary, the incredible people we got to spend time as we made it, their famous win over Liverpool in the last game of the season and also how we evolved as filmmaker's during the process of producing it. There was a lot to be grateful for.
"Lewes FC: A Different Ball Game [Official Trailer]"
However, at the time we ultimately viewed it as a failure on our parts. We'd just come off the back of producing three documentaries for Amazon Prime Video, yet for this new production, where we felt we had stepped up our game as filmmakers, we couldn't find a home for it and ended up self distributing on YouTube.
Fast forward a year and we were at the premiere for our Netflix Documentary "Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women's Sport" and without the connections we'd made and experience we'd gained producing the Lewes Documentary, this Netflix documentary might well never have happened.
"Game On" Trailer - Released on Netflix June 2023
You can only connect the dots looking backward, but this was an instance where the Lewes Documentary was 'the thing before the thing' and adopting this mindset in filmmaking we think can be highly beneficial in your career. Particularly in the age of social media and metrics, taking a step back and considering the bigger picture can help you to maintain motivation and enthusiasm, particularly in those times when you feel your work isn't having the levels of success that you would like.
'The thing before the thing' is removing that fear of failure. When thinking over new ideas it's all too easy to listen to that voice in your head that tells you the multitude of reasons why that idea won't work, or why it's not worth doing. But if you simply think of a new idea as being the thing before the thing, all of a sudden that pressure disappears. You might not be able to put your finger exactly on the purpose this project will have in enhancing your career, but you know in the long run, when you look back this will have been a key stepping stone in getting where you wanted to go.
Sometimes even successful projects can be 'the thing before the thing'. In 2019 our documentary 'Why Row an Ocean?' took home Best in Festival at the Four Seasons Film Festival. As our first foray into the world of film festivals we were thrilled and very much viewed the project as a success.
"Why Row an Ocean" [2019 Documentary] OFFICIAL TRAILER
It wasn't until a year later speaking with Beno Obano, who we would go on to work with for two of our Amazon Prime Video productions, that unbeknown to us, watching 'Why Row an Ocean' had been key in his decision to work with us, knowing we had produced long form documentary content before.
"Everybody's Game" [Official Trailer]
Recently we've been trying new things in our photography and videography, Ben has a fantastic video below where he explores getting outside of his comfort zone as he gets into the world of street photography...
When the Jersey Shore cast woke up the next morning, no-one ever talked about the shirt before the shirt, only what had happened when they were wearing the real shirt. Ultimately 'the thing before the thing' is a mindset shift that should inspire you to pursue ideas that you are passionate about without needing to fully know how they will benefit your career. It's a license to experiment and try new things, viewing success as simply having executed your vision, rather than worrying about any other external outcome. We hope it helps you as much as it's helped us.
Much love
Ben&Jack
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