What My First Visit to Coachella Taught Me

Being a Californian native, I can’t believe it has taken me this long to go to Coachella, the annual music festival in Indio, CA. But finally I did. And I learned several lessons that definitely apply to the film and television industry.

Sly Stone or Show Up And Do Your Job

In case you didn’t hear about Sly I’ll get you up to speed.  This was his first gig in about 10 years. When we got there, about five minutes into the appointed hour at 7p.m. someone came to the microphone and said this event was postponed until a later time.  When Sly finally showed up, at 11p.m., he was rambling, incoherent and stumbled around on stage and could barely sing.  In short, he was a mess.

This is the first lesson in showbiz. You have to show up and be a professional. Do the work, do it well, and respect that you are getting paid to entertain people.  Make them laugh, or cry, or sing or dance, but you always, always have to show up and act professional.

MGMT or Learn How to Hold Your Audience’s Attention

Now I like MGMT.  The band has some great songs and is the perfect band for Coachella. When we got there the ground was pumped - they couldn’t wait to see them.  But, man, were we all disappointed. In fact, I have never seen so many people stream out of an area so fast in my life.

One of the fundamental rules of showbiz is you have to learn how to hold your audience’s attention. If the audience is getting bored, change something around and get back the attention.

MGMT’s problem was that there was a lot of talking between songs and, for some reason, the band decided to play new material — which no one in the audience was interested in. Worst part is, after the first two songs of new material, the band knew people were leaving but continued to play the new material instead of switching to the band’s hit singles. In a crowd like Coachella, you have to play your hits and keep the crowds energy going!

Miike White or Sometimes Things Surprise You

Miike White was in my top three shows at Coachella and I wasn’t even expecting to like the band. I had heard one or two songs but had never seen the band in concert and, man, were they good. They had the crowd jumping and knew exactly how to hold the crowd’s attention.

It just goes to show you that you have to be open to new things because sometimes these new things surprise you by how good they are.

How Do You Get Your First Directing Gig In Today’s Climate?

I was talking to an agent friend of mine and she told me her client just booked his debut feature on a major franchise. After the obligatory congratulations, I asked her how he managed to land the gig when studios are loathe these days to take chances on first-time directors.

And she told me he prepared a huge visual presentation that really wowed the studio execs. She then said, “At this point I would never put up for a job a director who doesn’t have a great visual presentation.”

And I couldn’t say this better myself.  When studios are making less and less films and are becoming more and more risk averse, it is getting harder and harder to get directors their first movie. The only way you have a chance is to really put the time and effort into making an amazing visual presentation.

You have to present the buyers with a dramatic reason why they can’t say no.  Show them you can do the visuals; show them you have the actor relationships. Give them an answer to every question they might have before they have a chance to ask the question.

Be creative! You need to wow and impress the buyers so they can sell their bosses, shareholders and investors on why, even though you are a first-time director, you are the perfect person to direct the movie.

Bottom line?  If you can’t be creative in the pre-stages you won’t get the chance to be creative in the filming stages.