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Yesterday: Review

Yesterday, Copyright: Universal Pictures ©

The concept of a parallel world that differs from our own has held a certain fascination for humankind for quite some time, having manifested in a plethora of films on the subject. The explorations differ from explorations of world-level major shifts (THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE being a classic example, a world in which Nazi Germany won in WWII and has overtaken the world) to the minor, personal-level stories (works like THE FAMILY MAN and LAST ACTON HERO) where the protagonist goes through some kind of life-shift in the everyday world and finds themselves in new circumstances. 

YESTERDAY is more of the latter, where the protagonist Jack seems to be the only one who can remember The Beatles and their songs, and he proceeds to use that information to leapfrog his dying career further and make a series of questionable decisions that lead him astray from the things that he wants. Above all, the film is a love letter to the Beatles and a world without them, with some arbitrary choices on what did and didn’t make the cut in this parallel universe (Pepsi is available in all of its glory, with no one ever having heard of Coke - a product placement I sure hope Pepsi paid Danny Boyle an arm and a leg for). 

The film is an adept adaptation of all of the traditional film elements - the acting, execution, and inclusion of The Beatles is all well handled. But unfortunately, the constructed universe lacks depth given that it seems to have been constructed without any logic, which holds the film back from joining the canon of brilliance observed in Boyle’s other films.

The shift in universes includes a number of exceedingly arbitrary choices on what is missing and what isn’t, and it is wholly left unexplained, for example. A global power outage randomly occurs, and when the world wakes up, only 3 people remember that The Beatles exist. Why? You never find out. Does it matter? Maybe not. But the story relies repeatedly heavily on the gimmick of things missing and things remaining - so not knowing the logic behind the choices could lead to some head-scratching frustration, leading you to ask yourself - was the only reason this world doesn’t have this attribute a joke? Indeed, it seems like the repeating punch line oft relies on this single beat. 

Admittedly, there are moments of brilliance in the film where the concept of commentary on today’s society in an alternate universe are fully capitalized upon; the irate, devilish and money-obsessed manager trying to convince Jack to change the title of the song from “Hey Jude” to “Hey Dude”, the board meeting where they reject all of The Beatles’ original song titles, or Jack’s Dad’s indifference to his success and talent even in this new world. So you’ll walk away with a warm feeling and questions of “am I really being the me that I am”, but without the logic of the “why did this happen”, you probably won’t wonder if this could ever happen to you - and that was a missed opportunity for this to have been the film’s most thought-provoking takeaway. 

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Documentary Observations (including fundraising)

One of the documentaries I’m producing is the upcoming The Reunited States, based on Mark Gerzon’s book of the same name. Working closely with the talented director Ben Rekhi (whose killer film, WATCH LIST opens at the Seattle International Film Festival, or SIFF, in competition this Friday - tickets here, Deadline article here), we’ve been mapping out some of the ways to make the story as emotionally and socially impactful as possible (especially because the subject matter relates directly to civic engagement). As a result, I’ve been ploughing through a bunch of material on fundraising, the social impact potential for documentaries, as well as watching a bunch of award-winning documentaries as well. The below is a summary of my findings in case it is useful for any other budding filmmakers who may be as equally out of their depth as I am right now.

Creating a Social Impact

To begin with, I was led by this LA times article (’Leonardo DiCaprio, Don Cheadle praise the power of social impact entertainment’) to the Doc Society’s Impact Field Guide & Toolkit, a rich set of resources including a template that can be filled out for your own documentary that will help you postulate exactly what kinds of goals you want to set for your doc (and the metrics you’ll want to track in order to ensure progress), a well as a rich database of case studies on documentaries that have successfully made an impact. I found a couple of resources to be particularly helpful:

- Strategic Plan template - filling this out, especially aided by example case studies of well known documentaries (Blackfish & No Fire Zone, amongst others) helped crystallize exactly what the goals were that we were trying to achieve

- The Safe & Secure Checklist, also developed by the Doc Society - outlines some basic legal and insurance hygiene practices that any documentary filmmaker should keep in mind 

Using the strategic plan template, we’ve now crafted a draft of our social impact plan, including a list of more than 100+ NGOs and civic organizations that we’ve been reaching out to in order to create a foundation for the people and tools that we’ll be able to leverage to help us, as well as a list of places we’ll be able to hold screenings

Fundraising

The IDA’s fundraising table is a pretty comprehensive list of all of the grants available globally to filmmakers, and you can filter by region, type of doc, etc. We used this to create a Google spreadsheet of 50+ foundations / grants / film funds that we then began applying to. Having a spreadsheet made it easy to track as we could note down the status, our login details for any apps, and also link to another Google doc that held our Documentary Core Application Checklist materials, a standard that many of these grant-making organizations use in building their applications. A couple of other links that we used as well to create our full fundraising list:

https://www.docsinprogress.org/funding_documentary

http://www.filmdaily.tv/grants/documentary

https://blog.storyhunter.com/25-documentary-filmmaking-grants-you-need-to-apply-for-this-year-6000cfba2600

http://edn.network/nc/resources/docalendar/showevent/rogers-documentary-fund/

https://www.amdoc.org/create/filmmaker-resources/#.Uz8IHqhX-uZ

http://www.impactpartnersfilm.com/sites/impactpartnersfilm/files/SOURCES%20OF%20FINANCING%20FOR%20DOCUMENTARY%20FILM%20--%20FINANCING%20101%20-%20Dan%20Cogan_0.pdf

Once we finish our full fundraising cycle, I’ll post our spreadsheet here so that readers can see the exact mechanics we used to keep on track (frankly, I’m surprised there isn’t a technology product that helps people with this). If you need it sooner or would like to have a conversation about how to optimize this process for our own project, don’t hesitate to reach out at raj@california-films.com. Fundraising can be difficult, and we want to help. 

Festivals

It’s still early in our festival strategy, but we’ve started to build a list of the festivals we’ll be going out to in the fall and the spring. I’ll post more information here as this strategy becomes solidified, but the biggest ones on our radar right now are the prestige circuit (e.g. TIFF, Sundance, Berlindale, SXSW), the doc-centric ones (IDFA, Doc NYC, Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, and DOXA Doc FF in Canada), and especially the doc festivals that also have a market where you could meet potential buyers (Sheffield Doc Fest has MeetMarket, Visions Du Reel in Switzerland has the Doc Outlook International Market, and Hot Docs in Canada has The Doc Shop). Some resources below that we used to build our list, including the list of festivals where your documentary can potentially be nominated for an Oscar (surprisingly, there weren’t any in the US):

https://filmdaily.co/craft/best-documentary-film-festivals-2019/

https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/92aa_doc_feature_festivals.pdf

http://www.documentaryfilms.net/festivals.htm

The Films

The journey into the depths of the documentary world led me to watch a number of recent classics, especially the ones focused around creating some kind of a social impact. I caught BEFORE THE FLOOD, CHASING ICE, and CHASING CORAL on the streaming platforms, and I caught FRAMING JOHN DeLOREAN at the Roxie Theatre as a part of the SF Indie Documentary festival. Finally, I also managed to watch the wonderful SKID ROW MARATHON at a recent CAAW (Camera as a Witness) event at Stanford, where the movie was screened in association with the United Nations Association Film Festival (another prestigious documentary-centric film festival, which takes place in Palo Alto in October 2019). 

There were some interesting similarities and differences in styles and techniques that I observed, including:

- Central characters -  Every film had a strong, empathetic central character that goes on a transformative journey which allows the audience to better relate to the unfolding events. CHASING ICE and CHASING CORAL were particularly interesting in that their main characters were not necessarily well known celebrities like Leonardo Dicaprio or John DeLorean, but highly specialized scientists who are building specialized equipment in order to be able to capture the time-lapse photography to show the decline of the world’s glaciers or mass coral bleaching events. Fisher Stevens, the Director of BEFORE THE FLOOD, summarizes the impact of having the story track a main character in this State of Impact Entertainment (SIE) report:

Having Leo as our main character meant that he became our tour guide for the issue, and he  was able to take the audience through the narrative as it unfolded, allowing the audience to learn in tandem with him. That made everything far more compelling. It also made it feel less like the film was preaching — and with films like this you can’t preach or you’ll lose people. As a result, we were very careful and if we ever thought that the material was veering in that direction, we’d cut it.

I also believe that you have to make films like this personal. I tried to draw that aspect out of Leo in Before the Flood because that’s what really makes these films resonate. A good example of this is An Inconvenient Truth because Al Gore was going through a period of turmoil and change in his life and was so open about that in the film. It revealed so much about who he is as a person and the audience was able to connect with him and the film because of it.

Judge Mitchell in SKID ROW MARATHON is another compelling example; stoic, hard-working, and an extremely accomplished Los Angeles Superior Court judge, the camera tracks his unflinching style as he both dishes out justice in the court but goes to extreme lengths to try to inspire positive social change in the homeless and ex-cons by building an inspiring running movement.

- Climatic presentation - In CHASING ICE, CHASING CORAL and BEFORE THE FLOOD, all the main characters deliver a climactic, powerful presentation summarizing the findings of their journey in front of a large audience. What was obviously impactful here were the reaction shots of the audience, many of whom wept; you would think a coral bleaching event would be a pretty dry, academic affair, but seeing the emotional reactions of scientists and viewers at the end made the world’s mass bleaching events made it feel like you were losing something close to you 

The most “out there” documentary was probably FRAMING JOHN DeLOREAN. It was shocking to learn about the history behind the pop culture icon of the DeLOREAN car, made famous by the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies. But the directors also used a hilarious, unconventional storytelling narrative in that they combined a traditional journalist re-telling (relying extensively on audio and video footage, including the infamous FBI takedown footage) with re-enactments (with the famous star Alec Baldwin playing DeLOREAN). However, there was a third element I found to be the most irreverent and also illuminating in terms of really understanding the psyche of the subjects - the actors analysis of the characters they were playing, as the actors themselves, while they were on set or in the makeup room getting ready to play the characters themselves. It was hugely beneficial in understanding the complexity of a man like John DeLorean to hear the actor’s assessment of how he would feel on different days based on the events being portrayed, and how he saw the state of mind of the subject even when he may have engaged in nefarious activity. I thought it was a fascinating look behind the curtain of a psyche of a complex person that we rarely get to see, displayed by the experienced actors playing them. 

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Understanding the basics of photography

It took me a while to wrap my head around some of the fundamental principles of how to take pictures from a DSLR (fancy acronym for most digital cameras today). Truth be told I was a little embarrassed that someone close to me had gifted me gear worth a small fortune for my engagement (a Nikon D7200, an 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G lens, and an even nicer 35mm f/1.8G lens, all for a grand total of close to $2000), and I hadn’t even touched it for at least two years following. After feeling guilty, lazy, and downright sloth-like (and getting skeptical looks from friends and family who had put up with claims that I want to be a filmmaker for the last 10 years), I finally realized that understanding photography would be good for my goals. And so, I recently dusted off my equipment and have engaged in a self-taught crash course on photography. This article summarizes my findings thus far so that I don’t forget (and in case anyone else finds it useful). 

It was anything but easy at first, but now I’m getting the hang of it. Part of it was being able to boil it down to some of the key elements that I needed to understand after a lot of digging and reading a famous photography book, Understanding Exposure. 

The most fundamental element of photography worth understanding the exposure triangle, made up of three key elements - shutter speed (usually measured in seconds), aperture (measured in f-stop values), and ISO (an international standard for photo sensitivity, typically between a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 25600). Most modern advanced cameras will have settings that allow you to control all three, and varying these three will give you the levers you need to create stunning photographs based on the subject matter and the look you’re trying to achieve. 

There’s a bunch of good articles on Google that will describe these three elements and their relationship with each other (a few decent ones here, here and here). But truth be told I didn’t really understand what the hell it was all about until I read the seminal Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, which finally illuminated what aperture was (probably the most important of the three elements, in my opinion), and crystalized the relationship between the three elements and how you can manipulate them, as follows:

The aperture is a “hole” located inside the lens. Also known as the diaphragm , this hole is formed by a series of six overlapping metal blades. Depending on your camera, you either make aperture adjustments on the lens, or you push buttons or turn dials on your camera. As you do this, the size of the hole in the lens either decreases or increases . This, in turn, allows more light or less light to pass through the lens and onto the digital media (or film). For all lenses , the smallest aperture number — either 1.4 , 2 , 2.8 , or 4 , depending on the lens — reflects the widest opening and will always admit the greatest amount of light . Whenever you set a lens at its smallest numbered aperture (or f - stop) , you are shooting “wide open.” When you shift from a small aperture number to a larger one, you are reducing the size of the opening and “ stopping the lens down.” The largest aperture numbers are usually 16 , 22, or 32 (or 8 or 11 with a fixed - lens digital camera). Why would you want to be able to change the size of the lens opening? Well, for years, the common school of thought has been that since light levels vary from bright to dark, you will want to control the flow of light reaching the sensor. And, of course, the way to do this is simply by making the hole (the aperture) smaller or larger. This logic suggests that when you’re shooting on a sunny day on the white sandy beaches of the Caribbean, you should stop the lens down, making the hole very small. Back in the days of film, doing so would ensure that the brightness of the sand didn’t “burn a hole” in your film, and while you would never burn a hole in your digital sensor today , stopping down prevents too much light from getting into the scene. This same logic also implies that when you’re in a dimly lit fourteenth - century cathedral, you should set the aperture wide open so that as much light as possible can pass through the lens and onto the digital media / film.

Peterson, Bryan. Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition (p. 42). Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

What is an f-stop value?

For the technical minded out there, an f-stop is a fraction that indicates the diameter of the aperture. The f stands for the focal length of the lens, the slash (/) means divided by ,and the number represents the stop in use. For example , if you were shooting with a 50mm lens set at an aperture of f / 1.4 , the diameter of the actual lens opening would be 35.7mm. Here, 50 (lens focal length) divided by 1.4 (stop) equals 35.7 (diameter of lens opening). Whew! It makes my head spin just thinking about all that. Thank goodness this has very little, if anything, to do with achieving a correct exposure .

Peterson, Bryan. Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition (p. 19). Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

Basically, messing around with the f-stop value lets you change aperture, which lets you mess with the depth of vision in a picture - which is also known as the “bokeh” effect, which is the mysterious special effect tht gives you a blurry background to make a picture feel more “cinematic” (a lot of film scenes are shot with low f-stop values which provide shallow depth of field, and its a feature the new iPhones digitally recreate in portrait mode). 

Having understood this, here’s where it gets really good, and what I believe is perhaps the single most important theory in taking good pictures:

Most picture - taking situations have at least six possible combinations of f - stops and shutters speeds that will all result in a correct exposure. Yet normally, just one of these combinations of f - stops and shutter speeds is the creatively correct exposure. As we’ve already learned, every correct exposure is nothing more than the quantitative value of an aperture and shutter speed working together within the confines of a predetermined ISO. But a creatively correct exposure always relies on the one f - stop or the one shutter speed that will produce the desired exposure. Let’s pretend for a moment that you’re at the beach taking pictures of the powerful surf crashing against the rocks. You’re using an ISO of 100 and an aperture of f / 4. After adjusting your shutter speed , you get a correct exposure (indicated in the viewfinder ) of 1 / 500 sec. This is just one of your exposure options! There are other combinations of apertures (f - stops) and shutter speeds you can use and still record a correct exposure. If you cut the lens opening in half with an aperture of f / 5.6 ( f / 4 to f / 5.6 ), you’ll need to increase the shutter speed a full stop ( to 1 / 250 sec.) to record a correct exposure . If you use an aperture of f / 8 , again cutting the lens opening in half , you’ll need to increase the shutter speed again by a full stop ( to 1 / 125 sec . ) . Continuing in this manner would also produce the following pairings of apertures and shutter speeds to achieve a correct exposure : f / 11 at 1 / 60 sec . , f / 16 at 1 / 30 sec . , and finally f / 22 at 1 / 15 sec . That’s six possible correct exposures for the scene — six possible combinations of aperture and shutter speed that will all result in exactly the same exposure . And I want to stress that the word same here means the same in terms of quantitative value only ! Clearly , a picture of crashing surf taken using f / 4 at 1 / 500 sec . would capture action - stopping detail of the surf as it hits the rocks ; a correct exposure of that surf using f / 22 at 1 / 15 sec . , on the other hand , would capture less action - stopping detail and show the surf as a far more fluid and wispy , somewhat angelic element . This creative approach toward exposure will reap countless rewards if you get in the habit of looking at a scene and determining what combination of aperture and shutter speed will render the most dynamic and creative exposure for that subject. The choice in exposure is always yours, so why not make it the most creative exposure possible? As we just saw, you can make many different exposures of a given scene , but only one or maybe two are the creative exposures. You can break down the three components of exposure — ISO , shutter speed , and aperture — to get seven different types of exposures , and since , of these components, it’s either the aperture or the shutter speed that’s most often behind the success of a creative exposure, I’ll start there : Small apertures ( f / 16 , f / 22 , and f / 32 ) are the creative force behind what I call storytelling exposures (this is exposure option 1) — images that show great depth of field (see this page for a thorough discussion of depth of field) . Large apertures ( f / 2.8 , f / 4 , and f / 5.6 ) are the creative force behind what I call singular - theme or isolation exposures (option 2) — images that show shallow depth of field . The middle - of - the - road apertures ( f / 8 and f / 11 ) are what I call “ Who cares ? ” exposures ( option 3 ) — those in which depth of field is of no concern . Aperture is also the element in close - up or macro photography that showcases specular highlights , those out - of - focus circular or hexagonal shapes ( option 4 ) . Fast shutter speeds ( 1 / 250 sec . , 1 / 500 sec . , and 1 / 1000 sec . ) are the creative force behind exposures that freeze action ( option 5 ), while slow shutter speeds ( 1 / 60 sec . , 1 / 30 sec . , and 1 / 15 sec . ) are the creative force behind panning ( option 6 ) . The superslow shutter speeds ( 1 / 4 sec . , 1 / 2 sec . , and 1 second ) are the creative force behind exposures that imply motion ( option 7 ) . These factors make up a total of seven creative exposure tools to call upon when reaching for your goal of achieving the one most creative exposure. 

Peterson, Bryan. Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition (p. 38). Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

Understanding that might take a bit of time, but it’s worth it since if you know the 7 modes, you’ll know what settings to manipulate in theory, and then it’s just practice from there. The other thing that was difficult to come by was the same image that were shown taken at different settings to understand some of the differences, visually in action. In the book there are several, which made it easier to understand, and there are also a couple of websites (examples here and here) that have some photos as well.  

The other interesting thing that I’m going to try to understand next is color balance (see blurb below on cool vs warm colors) and white balance, which is apparently a very important setting. 

Not so, with the temperature of light. Color temperature is measured by what is called the Kelvin scale, which is nothing more than an extension of the Celsius scale. On any given day, the color temperature of the light that falls on our world is measured in degrees Kelvin ( K ), from roughly 2,000 K to 11,000 K. A color temperature of between 7,000 and 11,000 K is considered “ cool ” (bluer shades would fall in this range ) , a color temperature of between 2,000 and 4,000 K is considered “ warm ” ( reds would fall in this range ), and a color temperature of between 4,000 and 7,000 K is considered “ daylight ” (or the combination of red , green , and blue ). Cool light is found on cloudy , rainy , foggy , or snowy days or in areas of open shade on sunny days ( the north side of your house , for example ). Warm light is found on sunny days, beginning a bit before dawn and lasting for about two hours tops and then beginning again about two hours before sunset and lasting for another twenty or thirty minutes after the sun has set. During my last six years of using film , I made 90 percent of my images with Kodak’s E100VS , a highly saturated color slide film . One of the problems I had with digital photography in the beginning was its inability to produce in the raw file these same highly saturated colors — until I stumbled upon the Cloudy white balance setting, that is .

Peterson, Bryan. Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition (p. 26). Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

Last but not least, the rule of thirds has been pretty handy in terms of understanding where to frame the subject in an image to make it more visually impactful. 

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Chowkidaar: The Guard - Chapter Two (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/nGMDNKikgT A poor security guard faces off against a legion of corrupt New Delhi police officers and government officials whilst trying to protect one his building's residents.

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First chapter of a new novel - 

Chowkidaar: The Guard (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/GG8hIWjEeT A poor security guard faces off against a legion of corrupt New Delhi police officers and government officials whilst trying to protect one his building's residents.

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The Best of Self-Help

In 2018, I went through a number of the self-help classics (How to Win Friends and Influence People, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Think and Grow Rich, & The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, to name a few) and found myself noticing a number of parallels and overlaps between the works, which allowed me to converge on an overarching philosophy that might be useful to summarize so that we don’t forget. As we embark on the process of trying to execute on filmmaking and actually get out there and make some meaningful art, it will be important for us to be ambitious but also level-headed in our methodology by using time-tested techniques articulated by the masters who have done it before. 

The Overarching Rules of How to Achieve Success

Lets start with the seven habits of highly effective people, since this is probably not only the most famous self-help book but the content is also perhaps the most universal within which the other book's messages could be encompassed. The seven habits (in a nutshell) are:

3 principles of independence - working well on your own 

1. Be proactive - take ownership, don’t make excuses

2. Begin with the end in mind - set goals, write them down 

3. First thing’s first - get out there and do stuff in a prioritized order

3 principles of interdependence - leveraging others to achieve your goals 

4. Think win-win - how can you help the other person achieve what they want?

5. Listen - listen and understand other people with real empathy

6. Synergize - combine strengths to achieve 1+1=3 type outcomes 

And the final rule - #7, which is to “sharpen the saw” as the author Stephen Covey calls it, i.e. the concept of continually improving oneself and the approach to the six habits above through keeping your spirit, mind and body healthy. 

Perhaps the most useful piece of tactical advice in the book is to create a “personal constitution” - a piece of writing that captures your goals, values and the ethics that you hold dear and will use to live your life (e.g. focus on family, always be a good brother, etc).

Carnegie’s Two Fundamental Techniques on the Journey to Success - Influencing People and Remaining Worry Free

Dale Carnegie’s books are highly insightful, specifically on the subject of the best ways to influence people and also remain worry-free along your life’s journey. They’re also filled with heartwarming personal stories from his students and colleagues who have applied the stuff he preaches. 

While I consider his material less fundamental than the above rules, these techniques can be seen as tricks to keep in your tool-belt as you develop your overall routine and framework according to the seven habits above. If you’re not able to effectively influence people, you won’t be able to conquer the principles of interdependence; and if you’re not able to remain worry free while you try to achieve success, you may as well forfeit it all since you’ll be plagued with stress, which could destroy your personal life and health (as well as become a psychological impediment to success in and of itself). 

Carnegie breaks down the several principles of each of his seminal topics - influencing people, remaining worry-free. I won’t reproduce them all here (you can read my full notes on How to Win Friends here), but here are the high level summaries:

How to Win Friends and Influence People: Make people like you by being genuinely interested in them, smiling, and being a good listener (see the parallel with rule #5 above?). Talk in terms of the other people’s interest, and make people feel important - sincerely. Avoid arguments, be friendly, and be sympathetic to people’s ideas. Praise people honestly, point out their areas for improvement indirectly, and be lavish with your compliments. Use positive encouragement and make the other person feel happy and proud to do what you’re suggesting. 

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living: If something is bothering you, write down all of the facts and weigh the outcomes. Assume that the worst outcome occurs - then what? Usually, these outcomes aren’t as bad as they seem. Keeping busy and not worrying about the little things is one of the best ways to not worry about arbitrary things. Be positive, peaceful, and fill your life with prayer (prayer not necessarily meaning religious prayer - just meditation and positive thinking). Ultimately, take comfort in knowing that if you’ve done your best, that is all you can do, and you have one life to live and you should enjoy it. 

The Most Fundamental Technique

Napolean Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” was trippy, to say the least. It is an amalgamation of decades of research that Hill conducted by interviewing hundreds of the most successful contemporaries of his time, including the likes of Andrew Carnegie, John Rockerfeller and multiple U.S. presidents. I was expecting it to be a lot more tactical than it actually was. It was still a fascinating spiritual read, with the main “supreme secret” (and what I think is the most fundamental technique in life and achieving success) being belief. Believing that something will happen, reinforcing this belief through repetition (literally saying it to yourself every day), and then working hard (with “positive consciousness”) and methodically working hard over a long period of time to make it so. 

Bringing it all together

So the key to success is apparently quit straight forward. Perhaps if you can leverage some of these techniques and framework in your life planning, you’ll be ahead of the curve in terms of achieving meaningful outcomes. The more self-help books and articles I read, the more I find them either mirroring some of the 7 fundamental habits, or providing additional techniques that supplement the habits (like Hill and Carnegie’s works). This isn’t to say that the journey of self-help is over or fully discovered; we’ll continue to read, revise, and refine our theory over time. But at least it’s a starting point of synthesizing what we’ve learnt by standing on the shoulders of giants, and hopefully a starting guide post in our humble journey to try to build our movie production company (and be good people along the way).