Woody Allen's biography is rich in both examples of incredible success and the release of very mediocre films. He not only wrote screenplays for movies, but also staged plays on Broadway. Actor, director, playwright, experimenter and innovator — Woody Allen was never afraid of failure, he learned from his mistakes and moved on, each time trying something new. And when he failed, he just shrugged his shoulders. Having been nominated for an Oscar 4 times, he never came to the ceremony. All this turmoil and lavish parties are absolutely not for him. Woody preferred to go to a bar, go to bed quietly, make toast and coffee in the morning and find out from the New York Times at breakfast that he had won an Oscar.
«Everything you always wanted to know about sex, but were afraid to ask», «Match Point», «Vicky Cristina Barcelona», «Midnight in Paris» and much more — you can adore him, you can hate him, but you can't deny his success.
Some of Woody Allen's films are just awful. And he doesn't deny it. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1976 , he said:
I would like to fail in the eyes of the public… What I want to do is look into the areas where I feel insecure and in which I'm not so good.
He could continue to make comedies every year, but he's moving on. He wants his creativity and work to evolve, and constantly takes risks, trying new and new techniques.
Woody Allen has a definite vision of what will happen to the world in a few years, how people's tastes and preferences may change. So in an interview with the Washington Post in 1977, he stated:
We are probably living at the end of an era. I think it's only a matter of time before watching movies at home becomes as simple and economical as we would like.
Foresight is a very valuable quality for an entrepreneur, no matter what he does.
For me, the film grows organically. I'm writing a script, and in the process its essence changes. I see people coming, and then I decide... to change here. And everything changes if Keaton doesn't want to stick to this line and I don't want to do it — and we dodge. The scenario is changing. And everything changes because of a million reasons.
If you think that in order to produce one film a year, write articles in magazines and play in plays, Woody Allen works around the clock, you are mistaken. He believes that 3-5 hours a day is enough for really productive work. And it is advisable to start serious business in the morning while everyone else is still either sleeping or having breakfast. And then by the time the first person appears on the threshold of your office, they will start calling and writing letters to you, the main and main part of the work will be done.
He can write a comedy in one month, and a drama in three months. The main condition is to sit down at the typewriter every day.
On the one hand, it may seem to us that it will be quite difficult to move forward without external incentives. It's so nice to get nice reviews, comments, letters, likes — yes, anything. On the other hand, we become dependent on someone else's opinion, and if suddenly the close circle that created the appearance of public opinion for us wakes up today in the wrong mood, our mood can deteriorate considerably. Sometimes, in addition to the mood, work also suffers, since our hands drop and we, having succumbed to the influence of someone else's opinion, can either make a lot of stupid mistakes, or completely abandon the idea.
For Woody Allen, public opinion didn't really matter. He was creating and he liked what he was doing. He has not been to any Oscar ceremony, even knowing that his films have been nominated. He quietly spent the evening and only in the morning, at breakfast, learned from the newspaper that his film had received the highest award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts.
When we start doing something new for us or something that no one has tried to repeat in practice, we feel insecure. Because in order to understand and evaluate what will happen in the end, we need experience, which we do not have. When Woody Allen was shooting the movie Husbands and Wives, he used an interesting shooting style, as if everything was being filmed with a handheld camera. Jumps, tremors and other moments made this film quite unusual.
The confidence that comes with experience allows you to do things that you would not have dared in earlier films. You become more thick-skinned… You allow your instincts to act more freely and stop worrying about refinement.
Woody Allen believes that 80% of success is the ability to always be in sight. You should be constantly on the move, constantly talking about yourself, speaking at conferences, looking for investors and new clients. By themselves, they will not magically appear on the threshold of your office.
Yes, at first it is difficult and takes a huge amount of time and effort. Therefore, the temptation to give up on everything and go on vacation is very great. But in the end, at the very top are those who worked while the rest went skiing.
In order to become a really good director, Woody Allen didn't just hone his skills. He borrowed the experience of previous actors and directors. If you are working on something, study the examples not only of your contemporaries, but also of what came before you. Draw your inspiration from the world around you, look for interesting examples and unusual solutions. If you can combine all this into one whole in your work, you will not just get another good project / book / picture / program. It will be included in textbooks and will remain an example for a long time, on which more than one generation will learn.
