In the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher says and I paraphrase,
“Watch your thoughts as they become your words.
Watch your words as they become your actions.
Watch your actions as they become your character.
Watch your character as it becomes your reality.”
The nature of reality is so important that there are many books and conferences on it.
I think we understand that each of us has our own reality based on our own individual experiences. Because of this, Bruce Lipton, author of the Biology of Belief, says if you put two people in the same situation they will react differently because of their past.
Some will see opportunities and others won’t have the same “fields” to see opportunities. Since I am concerned with filmmakers funding films, I think he means someone raised around money vs. someone who was not. Those who never had to worry about money will see more opportunities in the same situation than those who were living on low incomes.
The way out of this Bruce explains is to find those “old tapes” playing in your psyche. Those tapes from childhood saying, “you’re not good enough” or “you don’t have the money.” He suggests we put ourselves into a quiet place, visualize our goal and ask what is blocking us. Then listen to the answers that our mind has stored. He thinks we should take them one by one and remove them. and he fully explains how to do this in his YouTube films.
For film financing of either a documentary or a feature film, the most important issue is you. Are you ready to receive; are you worthy of all this money? It’s looking inside to see what may be blocking you and removing it so money can flow in, especially if your background was not financially comfortable.
My favorite American Indian prayer says, “Give me strength Great Spirit; not that I will use it against my enemies, but that I may overcome my greatest enemy, myself.”
Funding films requires total belief in self and total faith in you and your film. This statement by Margaret Thatcher is important to all of us. We need to watch our thoughts and words so we are always supporting ourselves and our film.
Carole Dean is the author of The Art of Film Funding: Alternative Financing Concepts.
