it's still the same script that I failed after the 1st take, this time I'm going outside and practicing each shot
I'll try to create something to the best of my resources and show the only thing holding me back is $$$.
The same script? Haven't you already shown that money isn't at all what is holding you back? You already spent $8k or something and only managed to get one shot, right? So how can money possibly be the issue?
The fact that you mentioned going to the casino makes me feel like you're still looking for shortcuts, looking to avoid the difficult work and somehow just skip to the finished project. Whether it's not wanting to push through a difficult shoot to get it done, or not wanting to get off the couch and shoot at all, or not wanting to do what it takes to raise the money you need - it all comes from the same place. You need to stop looking for shortcuts and do the work.
You know how I'd get $8-10k for a short? I'd earn it. It would take me maybe a month - because I've put in over a decade of work getting to the point where I can realistically do that kind of thing. Even better though - it probably wouldn't actually cost me that much to make the short, because I've put in the work to get to the point where I can get the most out of the resources I've got access to.
So you just have to go to work - work to raise the money, work to get to the point where the money isn't the most important thing, work to get good.
There are two quotes that I think combined lay out the formula for success. The first is from Steve Martin, who said "Be so good that they can't ignore you". That's a fundamental key - if you don't want to be forever chasing other people's support and approval you have to put yourself in a position where they're coming to you rather than the other way around. But the key to that is encapsulated in the second quote - "You will be fooled by a trick if it involves more time, money and practice than you (or any other sane onlooker) would be willing to invest". That one is from Teller, of Penn & Teller, and it was in reference to a routine he does in which he levitates a ball - and he says right up front that the ball is on a string. The point is it doesn't matter if you know that the ball is on a string - it still seems like magic even if you know how it's done because knowing still doesn't translate into the ability to do the same thing, or anything close to it. The only way to do it is to invest more time into practicing it than any sane person would be willing to do. If you're willing to put in that kind of time and effort - at whatever it is you're trying to achieve - you can get to the point where you become impossible to ignore, because you appear to be able to do something that normal people can't. Ali said it in a different way - "The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses‚ behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road‚ long before I dance under those lights". When you step into the ring it's everything that came before that moment that decides whether you get your ass handed to you or not. When we see amazing films all we see is the end product - we never really see the years of effort that went into getting to the point that the film was even possible. You can dream about making the perfect film all you want, but if you're not willing to put in the insane amount of effort it takes just to get to the point where it's possible then it'll never be anything more than a dream.
