10 Brutal Lessons I Learned in 10 Years of Filmmaking

If you want to become a filmmaker who

gets paid for your work and your vision,

this video could save you years of

struggle.

[Music]

I am Nyas and I've spent the last 10

years building my directing career

making commercials, short films, and

music videos while trying to earn money

from my craft. I've been lucky enough to

direct campaigns for brands like Red

Bull, Samsung, and Coca-Cola among many

others. And like so many of you, I have

started with no family in the arts, no

connections, no equipment, no film

school, none of that. And I'm going to

share 10 hard lessons I've learned

through real experience that changed

everything for me and will likely

resonate with you, too. I will start

with practical survival level lessons.

So, even if you don't watch this entire

video, you'll still get something

valuable. Let's begin. This video is

sponsored by Pitch Studio. High-end

ready-made director's treatment

templates that are easy to use, drag and

drop, and fully customizable and made

for Keynote and Google Slides. More

about them later in the video. Lesson

number one is nobody really pays you to

prepare, so you need to plan your

pricing carefully. As a freelance

director, about 80% of your work happens

before the actual shoot day. You'll be

preparing, scouting locations, creating

storyboards, pitching to clients, making

treatments, casting actors, and having

endless calls with clients, agencies,

and production companies. You'll spend

many hours preparing before you even get

hired. And then even more time making

sure the shoot matches your vision. But

despite all of this work, you typically

only get paid for the shoot days

themselves. And since only shoot days

are paid, you need to include all your

preparation time in your day rate.

you'll get better at figuring out how

much prep time you need as you gain

experience. And so, let's say after

working on about 10 jobs, you'll start

to see patterns. For example, if a

one-day shoot typically requires 40 to

50 hours of preparation with all the

treatments and storyboards and calls,

location scouting, casting, styling, and

mood boarding, you need to calculate

what hourly rate you want and include

all of that in your preparation and then

come up with that one day rate. That is

actually why you hear directors flexing

these exaggerated numbers like 5,000 a

day or 10,000 a day. And in my

experience, the workload scales

naturally. So a two-day shoot usually

requires twice as much preparation

because there are more shots, more

travel, and more logistics to handle. So

in some cases, you might want to offer

discounts for longer shoots. Your day

rate might be 2, three, or $10,000. But

for the sake of simplicity in this

video, if your day rate is $1,000, for a

3-day shoot, you might charge $2,700,

which is a 10% discount. A 5day shoot

might be priced at $4,000, which is a

20% discount. And a 10day shoot might be

$7,000, which is obviously 30% discount.

This scaling approach works well in most

situations, and as a freelance director,

you might want to keep everything in

that one simple number. Don't complicate

pricing by charging different amounts

for different preparation times and

instead have one consistent day rate

that averages out your effort across all

shoots throughout the year. So, for

example, if you get 12 to 15 jobs a

year, mostly two-day shoots requiring

about 4 to 5 days of preparation each,

keep your rate consistent, even if one

job is an outlier requiring, let's say,

10 days of preparation. It is better if

everyone in your network knows exactly

what you charge. And this doesn't mean

you can't raise your rate later. When

your portfolio improves or you're

getting booked more often, you can

increase your prices, but typically it

only happens once or twice a year.

Otherwise, keep your rate the same for

all clients and all jobs. So, calculate

all your prep expenses, gas, Uber, rent,

time spent on calls. Average it out and

come up with that one day rate number.

This way, you'll feel properly

compensated for all your preparation

time and won't undervalue your work.

Lesson two, your idea is not your film.

This lesson has two angles I want to

sort of approach it from. First, there's

always a big difference between what you

imagine in your head and what actually

happens on screen. This should actually

be very liberating. Your initial idea

doesn't need to be perfect. It is

allowed to be rough and unpolished, and

that's completely okay to get going.

You'll often begin with something basic,

just a loose concept or a vision or a

shot, and then you'll gradually improve

it. Each stage of production is a chance

to make your film better. So you start

with something very basic and then you

develop that into a script and then you

create a treatment with visuals and

concept and style ideas, lighting

techniques and set design ideas. And

then when it comes time to casting, you

then refine your vision by, you know,

adapting your script to better fit the

actors that you have access to. Same

applies to shooting. During shooting,

you might discover some layers you

couldn't have seen during writing, and

then you can improve it even further

during post-production, color grading,

sound design, or editing. It's always

better to adapt your vision as you go,

rather than rigidly sticking to exactly

what you first imagined. So then the

second part is even more important. I

think ideas by themselves are worthless

unless you actually make it into a film.

Don't think you're a filmmaker just

because you generate lots of brilliant

ideas. Unless you put in the work to

create something tangible, you're not a

filmmaker and have nothing to show for

it. Your film only exists when it's

actually made. Lesson number three,

don't despise money or you will stay

broke. There is a lot to unpack here and

many filmmakers think they are pure

artists like this avanguard painters.

They see themselves as being above

everything, above what's popular, above

what audiences want or above making

useful art and especially above making

money. And the problem there is that it

can actually quickly spiral into a

burnout, loss of interest, and deep

dissatisfaction with life, the world,

and the process of making art. Filmm is

very much a two-way street. You make

your film, and without the audience, the

act of filmm is incomplete. And unless

somebody is watching your film, it is

pointless. And when you think of money

as means to exchange value, you realize

that if people don't pay for your art,

your work, your your time, and your

effort, then nobody wants it. And if

they don't want it, it doesn't deserve

to exist. And this of course might sound

very, very harsh. Your work might help

you practice and develop your style. But

always think about your audience. Who

will watch your film and how? You can't

just make films for yourself and be the

only person who sees them. Film making

works both ways. You need viewers and

you need to create content they might

want to watch and enjoy. And so you have

to meet them where they are. Like it or

not, you need to play the game and that

means you have to get paid. You have to

build your work in a way that provides

value to your audience. And so the

audience must be willing to part ways

with their money to see it. So if you

accept this as a fundamental truth about

the human interaction, it opens your

mind to the transactional reality of the

world we live in. Then everything starts

making sense. You know, the YouTube

algorithms, the social media, because

everybody needs to get paid for whatever

value they're providing. Advertisers

want to get paid. Social media companies

want to get paid. If you want

entertainment on YouTube, you can't

blame them for showing you ads. Do you

think they're a nonprofit organization

that wants to entertain you for nothing

in exchange? Obviously not. And the same

logic applies to streaming platforms

like Netflix or even traditional cinema

experience and basically everything

everywhere you want to show your work.

So you cannot despise this entire idea

of monetary transaction and capitalism

because that's the fabric of reality our

species have agreed to utilize. Lesson

number four, this ties back to the last

lesson. If you're working in commercial

film making or trying to break into it,

the biggest paying jobs don't always

come to the most creative directors.

They go to the ones who can solve

problems. In my experience, those

problems often fall into one of the two

buckets. So, it's not enough budget or

not enough time. Sometimes a brand will

blow their budget on other campaigns and

now they have nothing for this one and

most production companies won't touch

it. But if you can find a way to make it

work, pull favors, move fast, and be

scrappy, you can take the job and make

it shine, and then you're a problem

solver, and that is valuable. Other

times, the client has the money, but

they need the project done in 2 days.

Most crews run the other way. But if you

say yes and deliver, you're solving a

rare, high stakes problem, and that is

very valuable. That's exactly what

happened with a Magnum commercial we

shot in May 2020, middle of the

pandemic. Everyone was scared. Budgets

were weird, too. No one wanted to shoot,

but I needed the money and I wanted the

credit. And my producer and I said,

"Well, [ __ ] it. Let's do it." The client

was desperate and paid us nearly double

the normal standard rate. And I don't

think we were the most talented option

for sure. But we were hired because we

were the only ones who could deliver

considering all the other circumstances.

And I personally think we nailed it and

the commercial went viral. And so the

brand was very happy and it kind of

kickstarted my whole entire commercial

directing career because we solved a

real problem, a real need. And so again,

it wasn't because we were creative, but

because we were in the position to solve

that problem. So again, the moment your

name becomes a solution, you have won

this game. So focus on solving specific

problems and get paid well. Lesson

number five, this one's brutal, but

true. Everything takes 10 times longer

than you expect, especially when you're

trying it for the first time. You think

you know how to work with a storyboard

artist, right? You've seen the behind

the scenes. You've read the articles.

Seems pretty straightforward. But then

you try it and suddenly you're emailing

five different people just to find

someone who's available. And then you

realize, oh [ __ ] I have to actually

explain every shot. You have to send

over the reference frames, maybe draw

your own stick figures just to clarify

the angles because no storyboard artist

can read your mind. Even the great ones

still need direction. And that

direction, that's what takes time. You

can't just offload the process. You end

up spending as much time working with

them as they spend working with you.

Same goes for shooting a short film. You

think you can just knock it out in a

weekend? No. You'll spend weeks

prepping, days shooting, and months

editing. especially if you're doing it

solo or if it's your first attempt. And

that's not because you're bad

necessarily, but rather because you're

learning and every step requires

decisions you've never made before. And

the truth is, your first time doing

anything will feel like waiting through

mud. Everything takes longer. Everything

is harder. And it's not just the doing

it, it's the figuring out how it's done.

Eventually, with experience, your

predictions get better. You'll start

seeing the roadblocks before they even

happen. But at the beginning, you think

something will take a week, plan for 10.

If you think it will take you 10 hours,

plan for a 100. It's not pessimism. It's

realism. And it's the difference between

finishing a project or burning out and

quitting halfway. All right. So, now

we're shifting gears a bit. We're moving

into the professional mindset section of

this video. You've stuck around this

far. So, let's go a bit deeper. Lesson

six is this. Knowing about something is

not the same as knowing how to do it.

There's actually a term for this,

declarative knowledge versus procedural

knowledge. Declarative knowledge is when

you know about something that it exists.

You know short films exist. You know

film festivals exist. You know you can

get signed with agents. You know

commercial directing is a career. Cool.

So what? Procedural knowledge is knowing

how to actually do those things because

you've done them before. and you only

understand what it means to work with a

rep when you've signed with one. You

only know how a film festival really

works after submitting getting or not

getting into one of those festivals. You

only understand how to make a short film

once you've made one and not just watch

tutorials on it. So, let me give you an

example. I used to think that signing

with a rep was the ultimate milestone in

commercial directing career. that once

you get an agent, they'll bring in the

jobs, fight for your day rate, connect

you to the right producers, and just

handle your whole career. That's the

dream, right? Well, the reality is a bit

more complicated than that. I signed

with my first rep in Europe, a company

out of Berlin. And during our entire 18

months of working together, I didn't

have a single job, not one. And so,

eventually, I had to walk away from that

partnership and found a better fit when

I signed with another production

company. And it wasn't because they were

necessarily bad. It's just that this

whole entire rep system is way more

nuanced than it looks from the outside.

So yeah, I knew about agents, but I

didn't know how to actually work with

them and how that world works. So

declarative knowledge is low value.

Procedural knowledge is priceless. You

can read scripts all day, but until

you've written one, rewritten it, cried

over it, and maybe shot one, you don't

really know how to write. Same with

directing. You can binge behind the

scenes content forever, but until you're

on set with real people, real pressure,

and real consequences, you don't know

what it means to direct. So, the simple

truth, you learn by doing. Information

is not transformation. Action is. And

so, if you want to become a filmmaker or

a better filmmaker, stop just learning

about it. Start doing it. All right.

Lesson number seven is specifically for

directors or anyone who wants to become

a storyteller in a broadest sense. Being

creative is not enough. What I mean is

you need a point of view. Just being

creative doesn't cut through the noise.

There's a ton of beautiful work out

there that will still feel empty. And

the most valuable thing you can have as

a filmmaker is a clear point of view.

Finding your taste is a slow ongoing

process. And it never really ends. It's

not binary. It's not like you have it or

don't. It's a continuum. The more you

develop it, the stronger your voice

becomes. And a great way to develop your

taste is to deeply study other people's

work. Go beyond just watching. Look into

who made it, why they made it, what

context surrounded the work. For

example, watching Apocalypse Now is one

thing, but once you dig into the

political environment at the time, the

production chaos, and then watch the

adjacent documentary called Hearts of

Darkness, you'll understand that film on

a completely different level. You have

to learn by analyzing and that's what

sharpens your voice and helps your work

resonate with people personally. One

example from my own work is my recent

piece morning routine. You could call it

a short film, a fashion film or what I

call a tonal sketch. And visually it's

strong and beautiful, but it's only half

of it. The real reason I made it was to

respond to the insane perfectionism we

see on social media right now. The that

girl aesthetic. waking up at 4 am having

a perfect life, pushing an impossible

standard with no individuality, and it's

all noise and it's spiraling out of

control. And I could have just turned on

the camera and rant about it, but that

would have sounded preachy or snobby,

but I still really wanted to say

something. So, I made this film as my

way of commenting on it wrapped in a

strong visual sound design and technical

execution. So, yeah, being creative

isn't enough. You need a point of view.

That's your weapon. That's your most

valuable asset. Lesson eight, be

meticulous, not pretentious. When no

one's watching, when no cameras rolling,

when there's no one to impress, you

still have to be meticulous. Now, social

media pushes us to look hyperproductive.

And a lot of people start chasing that

image before they've actually lived it.

And it's all because they know

productivity is good. They want to be

seen as someone who's got their [ __ ]

together, but they're projecting it

before earning it. You see how that goes

back to declarative versus procedural

knowledge? The truth is, what separates

good from great is what you do when no

one is looking. And to be frank, I've

caught myself doing this a lot. Spending

an entire day shooting a productive

morning routine, faking morning light

when it's actually noon, meticulously

setting up the perfect breakfast shot,

filming my gym routine, or looking

focused while doing the hard work

instead of actually doing the hard work.

And so I think that time is way better

spent actually doing it rather than

pretending to be cool. So again, be

don't act be meticulous. Don't act

meticulous. Be hardworking. Be

productive. Don't try to seem bigger

than you are. And don't waste energy to

project that image. I think that is

crazy important in today's world. All

right. So, now we're moving into part

three, which is going to be a bit more

about the inner game. Lesson number

nine, face it. Always face it. Always

face the thing that scares you.

Everything you want is on the other side

of fear. You know, if I think back to

whatever little amount of success I've

had so far, it'll kind of started with

attacking something I've been

postponing, avoiding, or not even

letting myself think about because I was

scared to death. One of the

life-changing events for me was when I

was 16. didn't even finish high school

and I went to study in Shanghai, China.

I enrolled in this college program in

English which I didn't even speak back

then. Foreign country, knew no one, no

friends, no mentors, no guide, no one to

look out for me, which I realize now is

the case for a lot of foreign students.

But it was [ __ ] scary. And at the

other end of it, it changed me. It

changed me a lot. I became more

understanding of different cultures,

different worldviews, more tolerant. And

weirdly, at the same time, I became more

aware and more proud of where I came

from, more aware of what I had, what I

could bring to the table. It was scary

at the beginning, but looking back, it

wasn't that bad. Nothing that would have

killed me. And I'd argue that 99% of the

fears we carry every day, and I'm

quoting Alex Herozi here, a mile wide,

and an inch deep. They seem huge,

uncomfortable impossible

life-threatening even. But once you

start chipping away at them, yeah,

sometimes it takes time. Sometimes

money, sometimes risk. But once you're

in it, once you're already moving

through it, you realize, huh, that was

it. Like, I let this thing control my

life. It's an inch deep. It's not that

scary. It's a puddle. You won't drown in

the puddle. It's crazy how many times

I've let a small fear grow quietly in

the background. Then months pass and now

it's a big fear and now it's shaping my

decisions and now it's running the

entire show. and I end up in places I

didn't want to be just because I was

avoiding something that in reality was

so simple. Sometimes it's hard

conversations. Sometimes it's

relationship stuff. Sometimes it's the

big move geographically or emotionally.

And sometimes it's picking up a new

skill. And sometimes it might be saying

no to a bunch of [ __ ] that feels scary

to lose but actually really frees you

up. So yeah, guys, face it all the time.

Which brings me and this is a perfect

segue to the final lesson. Lesson number

10 is focus. It's saying no to 99% of

the things so that you can say yes to

that 1%. And this is so big, so order of

magnitude large that downstream of it is

basically every other decision you make

in your life. You've got to sacrifice

absolutely everything and anything that

is not your goal. And people have so

many weird reactions to this. So much

baggage, so much to say about it. They

always feel emotionally charged when I

say this, but I feel like they don't

really want to dig deeper to understand

why. Once I adopted this mantra that

focus is the most crucial skill you'll

ever have in life. Once I really paid

attention to this, my life got

substantially better. I feel so much

happier and more content because I

started saying no to a lot of stuff.

Now, my hypothesis as to why people get

so emotionally charged about this is

fear. It's all fear-driven. And society

loves telling us about this work life

balance thing. Work life balance is this

all-encompassing term, but it means

completely different things to different

people because it's so ubiquitous, so

overused. We have these projections of

what it should look like. Especially

when you're young and you're not very

experienced in life, you start imagining

it means having a laptop at the beach

with a cocktail and a straw, working one

hour a day, hitting the gym, hitting

them smoothies, exploring, socializing,

going out, dancing, having a drink,

traveling, meditating, all that in one

day, every day, all year round. And

where that image crashes is when you

realize maybe that's not what I want.

Maybe that's not where I derive value

from. Maybe that's not where I'm best

used. Maybe it's a waste of my

potential. Maybe I have goals in life

that are bigger than myself, that are

not about consumption, not about

enjoying or relaxing. Because all of

those things I just listed, they are

consumption. Now, if you have goal

that's based on serving people, you can

only accomplish it through work. If you

want to serve people and feel useful,

then work becomes the most fulfilling

thing ever. You get long-term value out

of it. It becomes process driven. It

brings you endorphins, stimulates

dopamine, and you build that neural

pathway where your sense of reward,

accomplishment, and happiness comes from

doing something hard. And so bringing

this back to 99% saying no, what's

important is that a lot of society lives

in fear of being judged, fear of living

in a different life, of trying to please

everybody around them, trying to please

their parents, their friends, their

social circle. And then that puts

pressure on you. showing up to parties,

showing up to social gatherings, saying

yes to this wedding, that birthday,

saying yes to this person asking you for

advice, that person asking you for

feedback, saying yes to someone who

comes up and says, hey, we should invest

in Bitcoin or should start this business

together just because you're both

professionals. Or they go, I've got a

script. Have a read. Give me feedback.

Want to direct it? Or someone pulls up

and says, we haven't seen each other in

a year. Let's go to Bali and chill for a

week. And just imagine saying yes to all

of that. You're wasted. You've got

nothing left for yourself, for your

goals, for your dreams, or your

potential. And obviously, this is not

binary. It's not saying no to everything

or yes to everything. It's a spectrum.

It's about saying no often enough and

being intentional with those few yeses.

So, there's this story with Steve Jobs.

He'd open weekly meetings by asking,

"How many things have you said no to

this week?" And then each person had to

list at least one. Now, you'd think it's

easy. I said no to ice cream or to other

junk food, but that was too obvious. He

wouldn't even tolerate that [ __ ] These

nos had to be really, really hard. The

sneaky ones, the ones that look like

opportunities. Like for example, a

banker calls you up and says, "Let's

meet. I've got this idea. Could be a

great integration for your system, but

you decline because you're focused on

what actually matters to you at the

moment." Now, whether that story is true

or not, we don't know. I have not been

there. But the point is, the price of

your success is everything you say no

to. You've got to get good at

recognizing what's a legit opportunity

and what's a disguised distraction. The

sexy ones, the shiny ones, the tempting

ones, they'll mess you up if you're not

careful. And so, how does this all apply

to film making? Well, people will tell

you all kinds of stuff. Have gear rental

business here. Book a DP job here. Be a

director, writer, editor, run this

hustle, that hustle. Even if you go one

level deeper, say you're a director,

your rep will start sending you jobs.

And for example, you're not in love with

comedy, but you kill it when it comes to

fashion. That's my experience. I've

faced it. You'd think your rep is going

to be the biggest help, but no. You have

to train them. You have to teach them

how to work with you. A lot of the jobs

they send won't be your profile. But the

day's great. It's a travel gig. It looks

tempting, but it's a comedy. I don't

love comedy. I'm okay at it, but it's

not what I want to be doing more of. And

the thing with agents and reps is that

if you say yes to one thing, they will

send you more of that. It's like an

algorithm. Especially if you succeed at

it, then you will just get more of that.

So I had to decline again and again and

again. It was like 10 nos for every yes.

That was the ratio. So yeah, I'd say

that's the single most important skill

that I've learned in 10 years. And not

just film making, everything. Absolutely

everything. Even in relationships, you

choose and you stick to that choice. In

dating, if you want a family, you pick

someone and that's it. You close every

other door. That's commitment. You don't

say yes when some hot chick shows up.

You shut that door. Period. So, yeah,

those are the 10 lessons and that's why

I'm sharing them here and now. So, I've

built my whole career learning these

lessons the hard way. Like I said in the

beginning, I didn't have anybody to

teach me this. Never went to film

school. Never had any filmmaker mentors.

Never had any filmmaking related family

or friends or anybody who could bring me

into this world and show me the ropes.

None. Everything I have right now I have

learned through battle by myself. I have

tested these things and now I'm bringing

this to you here to save you a decade of

your life. And the one tool I wish I had

from day one was this a clean way to

pitch my ideas. This is where Pitch

Studio comes in. It's a company I built

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whoever they want or need to. Let's say

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start pitching better and faster today

so you can become a better, more

successful filmmaker tomorrow. All

right, guys, that's all I have for you

today. I hope you really like this

video, and if you did, please consider

subscribing to my channel, and I really

wish you a lot of luck and success, and

see you in the next video.