“When Earl Newton was 10, he convinced his friends he was born on another planet.”
The Destin Log
“Long before Robert Rodriguez, (Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein) was the original writer/director/editor. Here was a man, similar to myself, far from Hollywood, figuring out movies without a film school (in his case, none existed yet).”
Earl Newton
I don’t know much about filmmaker Earl Newton other than he is from “a small town in Floirda”–somewhere in the Panhandle. But he wrote an excellent article on John August’s blog called Self-taught and self-doubting. There the recently turned 30-year-old covers his 10-year journey to carve out a niche in production. If you’re living in a small town somewhere in the world with limited resources, then his post his a must read.
The truth that few people talk about is a large chunk of the people that make it in the traditional film industry have some family money and or history. They not only go to some of the finest and most expensive schools available, but they also have parents who can float them for a few years before their career kicks in. This doesn’t get much press, but that’s the truth. It’s not uncommon to hear USC and UCLA graduates talk about how tough the business is because they aren’t covering their basic expenses in LA on their unpaid internship or their $2,000. a month entry-level job.
But for a lot of people in the world the fact is that those film school grads have already won the $100,000. educational jackpot that most will never experience. But here’s the good news. Earl Newton proves that you don’t to pay $100,000 for an education. He writes, “When you are poor and poorly connected, you exploit the only teaching resources you have available: books and practical experience.” Since Newton was homeschooled, he was used to independent learning. He read books, blogs, and bought a cheap camera and began shooting and editing anything he could.
You can read his article where he talks about some of the crappy jobs he’s done, how he got better as writer/director/editor/motion graphics guy. How in 2007 he started a web-series called Stranger Things and found some success and eventually moved to LA where he is now working mostly as a freelance editor (but also writing and directing his own projects). But Newton’s story is not one of those once a year off the charts feel good stories of a new filmmaker who has swept Sundance and just lined-up a big studio feature. His story is more grounded in reality.
“I’m no overnight success. It’s taken me almost ten years just to move here, and I’ve only just begun. But it was a ten years I spent with friends and family, not starving, and focused on honing my own voice.”
Earl Newton
Keep in mind that he wrote his first story when he was 13 and his first script when he was 18, so in one sence it’s been a 17 year journey. So don’t scoff at those community college acting classes—you gotta start somewhere. (And a good start is Newton’s post over at johnaugust.com.) You can also follow Newton on twitter @strangerthings and his blog http://blog.earlnewton.com/.
PS. The young editor who worked for me for a couple of years and went to L.A. in February to work as an assistant editor cranked out more than 100 hours last week editing a music video. An opportunity built after basically cranking out small projects for 10 years far from the Santa Monica post production house he now works out. Dream big, but spend your free time doing tutorials at lynda.com (or less structured free ones on You Tube) rather than playing video games.
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[…] “When Earl Newton was 10, he convinced his friends he was born on another planet.” The Destin Log “Long before Robert Rodriguez, (Russian filmmaker Seigei Eisnstein) was the original writer/director/editor. Here was a man, similar to myself, far from Hollywood, figuring out movies without a film school (in his case, none existed yet).” Earl Newton […] Original Source… […]
I read Earl’s article and he does have a flair for words! I noticed he received a shout-out from one of his inspirations he mentioned in his article, David Ball (in the comment section), who seemed very taken with him. Good for him!