I posted a couple ads on Craigslist last week looking for film crew. The responses I got were what I expected, better than expected, one entry that was an odd random stream of images set to music, and… a troll. Kinda. Ish. I‘ll save him for last because he’s still got me scratching my head.
A while back I joined an amateur movie group made of people like me who have no idea get started in making movies. (Not to be confused with now because a clue has started to form. Shhh. Be quiet or you‘ll scare it.) There are two types of folks in our mist. Those that learned enough to leave us and move on to paying gigs, and others that satisfied their curiosity and went back to what they were doing before. But no one new has joined us so active membership is low. It’s become tough finding the right volunteers for projects. You really don’t want non-techy people holding the cameras. I mean, like, what does this little button do? *pushes button* *hears metal screeching* *smells smoke* Oh crap. *tosses evidence out window* *sees nice glow grow outside* Overheard: Nice bonfire on the lawn guys, grab marshmallows!
So back to Craigslist and the ads looking for new hopefuls. I shook the CL tree as hard as possible and a few people fell out. One woman said she’d be more than happy to start on the ground floor and would we please consider her? Well, since we are the ground floor, welcome aboard. Because yes, we are that picky. Mixed in with the other fellow amateurs were a couple tech guys with nice demo reels. Yay! They’re not Hollywood worthy (yet) but you can tell they know what all the buttons are for and how to use them. No risk of fire with these guys. Welcome to the sand box boys, we promise to play nice.
And then, there was a troll. Kinda. Ish. Mixed in with the emails was a one line response from a stranger insulting me. You see the signs everywhere on the ‘net, “Don’t feed the trolls.” It’s good advice. That I didn’t follow. Even though my cursor hovered for a few seconds over the “trash” button, I instead responded back, trying to fill in a little on what I was working on hoping he’d… I don‘t know. I don‘t know what I thought he‘d say back. But whatever it was I wanted, it didn’t work. His second response was as rude as the first and I changed tactics, fought back, and spent the rest of the afternoon firing off one dismissive reply for every email he sent. I’d hit send. Wait. Get his new email. Read. Get madder. Type, hit “send“. Rinsed and repeated in a losing cycle. But then the craziest thing happened. I got my point across. He APOLOGIZED. And offered for us to film one of his scripts for free. Turns out his beef was that one of the ads said I was looking to work with a screenwriter for free, so he assumed I was a “deadbeat” looking to steal some work and credit. But sometimes, having no budget really does means you have no money, even with the best of intentions. But regardless of money, we always give proper credit. What’s followed since are some pleasant emails back and forth, sharing stories, laughs, advice, and encouragement. Somehow the troll turned out to be not a not a troll after all but a fellow filmmaker trying to protect his craft. “Keep me posted” he said. “Let me know how you’re doing”. So here’s the lesson for today kids: Don’t be quick to judge someone. We were both wrong. But we both apologized and now, I think, both of us made a new friend. Who knew?
WakeWriters 