A year ago I took part in a TV show called Maine Music Hangouts. I was the executive producer with my dad being the assistant producer for the show. We spent most of our time filming at a quaint coffee shop tucked into a historical town on the coast of Maine. We would record live open mic nights and interviews afterwards. From the time I spent working on the show and interacting with musicians I came across a funny little observation: You can become most anyone if your a good enough actor.
You see, all the big language I just used was in essence just fancy words for: My cousin had a camcorder, I had an idea, and we made a deal where I would record shows and he'd edit them in his apartment for a small active audience of 100 people. The capacity of the channel reached about 1,000 people, but since it was in a very small town with not so many people watching the local cable show, we really didn't have a big enough audience to capture a few second glances while walking down streets or possible recording deals for the musicians who appeared on the show. But we faked it, and people really responded to it.
The saying "fake it til you make it" has never been so true in my eyes. No we weren't intentionally trying to fool people or appear as scams, but I find it important that when you start anything professionally: your appearance, the way you talk, the way you hold yourself, is #1 in the books. Performance and diligence comes second.
What if I walked into that coffee shop with jeans and a stained t-shirt and offered my proposal of a TV show saying something like "I mean, I was kinda thinking about doing a show here. It wouldn't really offer anything big to you guys but I just had a lot of free time so I thought why not. Whaddaya say?" They wouldn't have taken me seriously and they probably wouldn't find any benefit in letting me film there.
So I found it very interesting that if you present yourself like an executive producer, and hold yourself to those standards, people take you seriously.
I had people come up to me and treat me in a way that was so different, somebody who had authority and power. I even had a couple musicians come up to me and make it a point to make a lot of conversation with me on the account that I had a basic clip board and the fact I was standing behind a camera with headphones. They asked if I'd take their email, and if I'd look up their work on youtube.
When really they had no idea I came home, got in my sweats, and watched gossip girl for the next 5 hours. The fact I spent 4 hours with my best friend dressing up in prom dresses and took pictures outside cause we were bored. The fact I was your basic 19 year old girl with boy issues and friend drama. But because I said I was the "executive producer for Maine Music Hangouts" I became someone entirely different.
Being the young 19 year old that I was meant that it took a lot to gain respect from older people though. While my dad and I never had experience in entertainment or film, they would turn to my dad most times to gain information about the show, ask questions, and exchange contacts. Some of them seemed a bit surprised when they realized that my dad was only the assistant and I was in fact the producer. It was a struggle but I learned a lot that helped me grow. My entire experience taught me two lessons that I found were important as I move forward in film, business, as well as life in general:
1. People's perception of you, is determined by you.
2. Don't let age hold you back from accomplishing your dreams
I could of let the idea that they thought my dad was in charge cripple me, and I could of decided to just wait until I'm older to try a project like this again. But then I realized that I made it this far because I was able to carry myself in a way that made others believe in me and that was all the motivation I needed to keep going.
