I was reading about some of the Oscar nominated films for best VFX. Something struck me about what the teams behind The Creator and Godzilla Minus One emphasized: tight feedback loops.
Both films accomplished great feats in visual effects in untraditional ways. The teams credit small teams, extremely close collaboration and frequent communication as keys to their success.
It made me think of the power of designing intentional feedback loops and how we can use them in our filmmaking.
That begs the question…
What are feedback loops?
“Feedback loops provide people with information about their actions in real time, then give them a chance to change those actions, pushing them toward better behaviors.”
—Thomas Goetz
Feedback loops are in essence:
Action → Feedback → New action.
They are present and influence every part of our lives, from the way our body regulates, to how are mind operates, even how we tell stories.
A feedback loop can maintain or strengthen any type of behavior. Author, James Clear, defines two types of feedback loops:
- Balancing feedback loops: keeps things on track or stabilizes a system
- Reinforcing feedback loops: increases the effect of a system or process(this is what we’ll use as filmmakers to get better)
The feedback loop is often quietly working in the background while we mind our own business, but not always for the better.
Say you’re writing a screenplay. Every time you open Final Draft, you get this urge to check Twitter. Just a quick peek.
Final draft → Open Twitter → Doom scroll.
The more this behavior is repeated, the stronger the connection grows. All of a sudden you’re thirty minutes down a rabbit hole on coffee grinding, and your screenplay is still waiting.
We should spend less time letting feedback loops shape our lives in invisible ways and more time designing the feedback loops we want and need.
-James Clear
A couple of weeks ago you and I talked about the importance of awareness. Feedback loops are a perfect example of how awareness helps us grow and get better.
How to use feedback loops in your filmmaking career
When we’re conscious of the feedback loops influencing our lives, they become a resource.
The most obvious example is when you finish your film.
Release the film → The Audience reacts → You take that feedback to improve the next film.
This is nice in theory, but more often than not we don’t get clear feedback from our audience. Or we get mixed feedback. Or none at all.
I used to assume when a film of mine didn’t get into a festival or go viral when I released it online it meant the film sucked. Do you see how flawed this feedback loop is?
We’re drawing conclusions based on a metric we can’t accurately measure.
A film not succeeding could be because the film wasn’t good, but it could also be:
- a failed festival strategy
- a lack of presence online
- no or bad marketing
Unless you’re consistently putting out content for your audience, and learn to read their feedback, this kind of feedback shouldn’t make you change the way you make movies.
It should make you curious to dive deeper and figure out where the breaking points are for your film.
What we need is a process we can go through at the release of every film, and even at every stage of making a film. This process needs to use what we know about feedback loops to help us improve our craft and our films at every junction.
The questions I ask to improve 10x faster than other filmmakers
Reviewing and reflecting on your work is the secret to improving ten times faster than your fellow filmmakers.
Why?
Because no one else does this.
By taking charge of our learning, we put ourself in a position to make our next films a lot better because we know where we went wrong on the last one.
I like to review my film and the progress I’m making at each stage of the process:
- Ideation and writing
- Prep and production
- Editing
I ask these three questions of each phase:
- What did I do well?
- What can I do better next time?
- Which skills do I most need to upgrade for my next film/or the next phase?
When the film is done I review the film as a whole and ask myself:
- How did I execute my vision from idea to screen? Where can I improve?
- Did the audience react the way I thought they would? Why/why not?
- How did I connect with the audience once the film was released?
- I consider the platform/festivals the film released on, who the target audience turned out to be, how I can keep growing this connection.
I write up a one page document of lessons from the film and set a goal for what I want to focus on improving on my next film. This document becomes a great guide moving forward.
How I would have done film school differently
The faster we want to improve, the shorter we should design our feedback loops.
In film school I made 4 short films over the course of 3 years. 2 in the first year and one in each year after. That’s a short film every 9 months.
I should have made 30+ shorts.
If I could go back, here’s how I’d do it:
- First semester: 1 short/week with classes built around improving every aspect of these shorts, minimum 15 shorts made.
- Second semester: 1 short every 2 weeks, minimum 8 shorts made
- Third semester and fourth semester: 1 short every month, 9 shorts total
- Fifth semester: 2 shorts
- Sixth semester: 1 short, thesis project
This might sound insane, but hear me out.
Starting with a short every week, the feedback loops are tight. We learn by doing, reflecting on our work, and doing it again.
It doesn’t work without the middle part. We have to reflect on what worked, what doesn’t and make clear plans for how to improve.
This process strips out all the fluff. If you’re making a short every week you don’t have time to plan giant shoots, with lots of complicated moving parts. But you have time to tell a story.
Storytelling is the core skill so few film schools nail. Yet it’s the skill that lets you leapfrog thousands of people with a longer track record than you when you get into the real world.
What do you think? Would you enroll?
Conclusion
Feedback loops shape our lives and filmmaking careers, whether we want them to or not. By being intentional about what we measure, and the actions and lessons we take from the measurements, we get to take control.
Intentionally designing feedback looks lets us:
- take back control
- learn from our mistakes
- grow faster
How are you using feedback loops in your filmmaking?
Next week I’ll tell you about the project I’m working on right now, and give you an inside peek into my development process.
See you then,
Morten
