Wanted: Assistant Motion Picture Producer

Robert's Drive In circa 1981

In the Spring of 1981 I owned and operated a Drive-in restaurant called Robert’s (influenced by George Lucas’s American Graffiti of course…). I was sitting at the counter drinking a malted one day and happened on to a classified ad in The Commercial News – Danville, Illinois’s equivalent of the New York Times (several times removed).

“Wanted: Assistant Motion Picture Producer.”  The ad seemed to jump off of the page! Of course I called the number in the ad immediately. Joe Larson answered the phone (I have changed his name for this article) and explained that he was an amateur super-8 filmmaker and he wanted to shoot weddings for profit. And…he wanted a partner.  I drove to Danville the next day and we decided to start our new business together.

There was one huge problem. Joe turned out to be a talker and not a doer. Most of our meetings consisted of Joe laying out issues of American Cinematographer and other such magazines and then swooning over the equipment and gear. “Look at this crane… wow… here’s a new  Chapman dolly. Months went by and we had not shot one frame of film!

One day, out of the blue. I got a call from Bill Massey, one of my father’s friends who was big-time into the Indiana Lions organization. Bill had read about our fledgling film company in that same newspaper – The Commercial News. Bill explained that the Indiana Lions Eye Bank wanted a new documentary about their eye bank – shot on 16mm - fifteen minutes long. This sounded like a real production and it was! It was also so much better and freakingly more awesome than shooing weddings on super-8 film. And yes, I just made up the word freaklingly. Get over it.

I raced over to Joe’s house that evening and surprised him with my good news.

Joe was not excited. He was not thrilled. With a forlorn look on his face he explained the realities of professional film production (his realities). We would have to rent the equipment, cameras, lights, mikes and crew. We would have to learn how to use all the new gear and then somehow get the film edited. For that we would need something called a Moviola – a huge desk-like metal film professional editing machine. Essentially Joe told me all the reasons why we could not pursue making this film for the Indiana Lions Eye Bank film. It was over our heads according to Joe.

I was stunned by Joe’s flat out rejection of this cool new project.

But I wasn’t really surprised once I started to consider it. While Joe was scared of learning new gear and striking out on a 16mm film production, I was super excited! This was going to be my opportunity!

That's Me with my Arriflex BL 16mm Camera!

Six months later, I was sitting in my mobile home (Denise and I lived in a mobile home at that time) editing my first film “Our Goal is in Sight.” A huge Moviola filled the living room (Denise freaked out at first) and there were 16mm film clips hanging everywhere, even from the ceiling!

Fear held Joe back from pursuing his dream and moving forward. Fear is what holds most people back from pursuing their dreams.

Fear of failure and fear of change.  Some are just flat out scared. This is natural. You have to get past the fear to accomplish what you want to accomplish.

Getting started is the key. Finding a mentor is essential. Then you need a system and a plan.

What I have always found is that once I actually committed myself to a goal that I wanted to achieve… any fears I had vanished almost instantly. This is true for most people. I have seen this over and over in Home Video Studio.

I do hear this a lot: “Once I start, I will commit 110%.” That always irritates me actually because anyone can say that. Talkers are talkers and doers do.

Once you make a decision to start a new business or do anything new really, you then have a different feeling. It’s like adrenaline.  A new strength flows through you and this helps you get your new thing off the ground.

If You want to hear the rest of my story – what happened after the eye bank film (it was a success) download or listen to my free audiobook: “How to Start and Run Your Own Home Video Studio.” CLICK THIS LINK.  I share a lot of the HVS plan in this book.

It does take a bit of courage to start a Home Video Studio. The first real step is to come to call me.  Call me anytime at my cell 317-358-5932.

I made a call in 1981 that changed my life.

By the way, Joe was right on one thing. I had to learn a whole bunch of things! One of them was how to get that Moviola through a mobile home door! All of it was a blast!

May the Force be with You!

Robert Hanley

Producer/Director/Editor

President & Founder Home Video Studio