So, Did You Go To Film School?
"You direct commercials? Cool, did you go to film school?"
I always appreciate the question. It's neat when people think I did something impressive that I didn't. They think I’m fancy!
But no, I didn't go to film school. Never even crossed my mind. I studied economics and psychology. Started my career on Wall Street at Deloitte as a management consultant. My life has been more “Excel, Powerpoint, Vizio” than “Lights, Camera, Action.”
And yet, I’m a director. “Action!” “Cut!” “That’s a wrap!” type of director.
So how did I go from management consulting to commercial directing?
Step 1: Learn to be a professional
At Deloitte, I spent three and a half years traveling the country working with the biggest companies in the world. I learned a ton about how to work in the corporate world, how to make presentations to executives, how to analyze various markets, strategies, and operational approaches. I also learned how to write a good email, structure a meeting, take notes, and communicate with clarity.
In short, I learned how to be a professional.
But man, life was tough! 70-80 hours of work a week, sleeping in a hotel bed, living out of a suitcase. After 3.5 years, you either get an MBA or move on, and so I decided to move on. I had some job opportunities lined up, but got bit by the travel bug, and instead of taking a job, I decided to jump in a car with two of my friends and drive from London to Mongolia for fun. This trip is formally called "The Mongol Rally."
Step 2: Grow your heart
While planning for The Mongol Rally, we were introduced to a producer at Lonely Planet. After hearing the details of our trip - 10,000 miles through 19 countries in Europe and Central Asia in a tiny, two-door car, without GPS or cell service - the producer asked us if we would film everything. In exchange, we’d get a few thousand dollars and a chance at having a TV show.
Duh.
My friends and I went on the trip and filmed it all, and there was a lot to film. We were rescued by a Turkish bus driver after our car caught on fire and got hit by a different bus driver in Istanbul. We were taken in for a night by a family in Tajikistan and sleeping under grapevines. We were rescued by a Mongolian Nomad who pulled out of the middle of a river just as it was taking on water.
We were shown incredible kindness by complete strangers who nothing in common with us except for a shared humanity. They gave us food, shelter, and support expecting nothing in return.
Day by day, my icy cold heart started to melt, and day by day, I felt more like a part of this weird place we call earth, rather than apart from it. The more kindness we experienced, the more I felt at home, no matter where I was.
We returned from the trips with one unbreakable belief: People are good, everywhere.
Yeah, there’s a lot of shit in this world and people do a lot of really, really shitty things. Expect the worst from people and that’s what you’ll get. But expect the good, the heroic, and the magical and you’ll get that, too
Embedding ourselves in this world, and becoming a participant in life, instead of a passive observer changed the lens through which I saw the world. The way I relate to the world is fundamentally different.
I became a new person with a thirst for new experiences, a love for people’s stories, and a desire for new path in life.
So I decided to become a filmmaker.
Step 3: Become a storyteller
I was approaching 30 and late to the game. There were teenagers who were better filmmakers than I was, let alone all the people who went to film school. If I wanted to be a filmmaker, I needed to get good, fast.
The best way to get good at something?
Do it consistently, do it frequently, and put it out there for the world to see.
My friends and I committed to making and publishing a short documentary about an inspiring New Yorker every week. We sought those types of moments that opened our hearts while we traveled by meeting people you often overlook in a city. Bus drivers, trash collectors, street vendors.
Within a few weeks, we were racking up millions of views on our videos and after two years of weekly posting, we had an audience of 250,000. Our subjects were getting featured in newspapers, magazines, and TV Shows. Our audiences eyes were being opened up to different ways of living and how much they shared in common with people who on the surface seemed so different. We learned the power of a well-told story and sharpened our storytelling skills in the battle arena of social media.
But after two years we were also exhausted and broke. These documentaries didn’t pay the bills, so we decided to turn to the corporate world.
This was the birth of Rally On Media.
Step 4: Put it all together!
Our first big client was Seamless/Grubhub, and we got the job through a cold email (it works!). Our first job for them was a small series of short documentaries… which led to another series of documentaries… which led to some small social media commercials… which led to bigger social media commercials… which led to small TV commercials… which led to major TV commercials... and that's where we are today.
And it only happened because of everything we shared above.
Be a Professional - While most filmmakers go the film school route or have an artistic background, we had a business background first. This matters because many creatives lose jobs because they care more about their creative vision than the goals the client is trying to achieve by hiring you. Clients can sense this right away and get frustrated.
We knew how to communicate in the corporate world. we knew how to hit deadlines. We knew how to align our incentives with our clients. And we knew how to make them look good in front of their teams and bosses.
This is what keeps your clients around and lets them trust you with important work.
Grow your heart- If you want to make films, you need experience to draw from. You need rich and realistic characters. You need to give a shit about this world (even if the film is about the darker parts of the world).
The more you are a part of life, the more powerful your films can be. Your films have heart that viewers can feel. It’s hard to make a powerful film when life is spent going from home to the office and back home, with podcasts and TV shows filling all the time in between.
This is what makes your stories have power.
Become a storyteller - Once your films have heart, they need structure. They need a story. Understanding how to tell a story in a way that resonates is the final piece of the puzzle. You can be great with clients, you can have all the biggest heart in the world, but none of that matters if you can’t tell a story that people can follow and connect with.
Storytelling is the most important job of the director. The director is the keeper of the story.
This is what makes you a director.
Add all three of these together, and you’re ready to start directing films.
The final piece
The final piece to getting the actual job is to hire yourself for it by starting your own company. Climbing the production ladder to become a director is a long road, but if you own your company, you get to decide what job you do. It’s a cheat code most people in film don’t think of. It’s hard, but there’s a path you can follow to get there.