I believe in the old saying “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”.
If I was on a train and some drops their phone. I give it back. They turn out to be a big time producer. Everyone would say “that was a bit of luck”. But is it? That producer had an entire day before I encountered them. Their dry cleaner didn’t get to talk film with them.
If you tell someone that has worked hard for years to build a career that they are just lucky, will they be happy?
I am truly interested to hear how many people in this forum are factoring in luck as part of their future.
Craig, I'm in favor of luck and often say to myself I'm quite lucky for all the good things that happened to me. I did work to have them achieved, but I also had a bit of luck along the way.
Many people discredit pure luck just because there's no one to witness it but themselves. So they choose to lie a bit, saying that all because of my talent, hard work etc...But talent and hard work produce success after success...we can say Spielberg for example is talented and hard working guy...but when I meet or hear (and it happens a lot) about a one time successful writer, director, actor...whatever...I mean where's pure talent and hard work there?
So, to conclude it's no shame (at least for me) to contribute some of progresses to luck as well...as bumping into Hollywood producer can be just a corner away :)
I agree with Nick plus you have to get lucky even if you option your screenplay because 9 out of 10 screenplays that are optioned die a slow miserable death in development hell.
Perhaps there's a kismet to life. An instinct for timing... for being at the right place at the right time. To write a script this month that viewers will lap up two years from now as if in a frenzy. Just musing here... while unfolding the backstory of the romantic leads in my current spec.
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Thanks all.
I guess my lack of belief in luck is I refuse to leave my fate in the hands of others. Leaving things to luck (in my mind), leaves my destiny in the hands to others.
This is a two edge sword. If I take responsibility for my success, I must also take full responsibility for all my failures. No luck also means I can’t blame “bad luck”.
Thanks again. I always remember the golfer Garry Player who said “The more I practice, the luckier I get”.
The only kind of luck I believe in is bad luck - like a pandemic coming along just as I was closing a production deal.
I do not believe in "Luck" as such, same as @Craig. There is no " Outside Entity" in play determining the outcome of ones day in any physical sense, other than our own actions together with how we respond to what is thrown at us. I believe in chance which is different to luck, in that on any one day there may be a physical possibility of many certain outcomes, statistically possible given the circumstances. I agree with @Richard the virus is a real bummer and like him it shot me in the foot, not for production but to execute some teaser trailers. However I don't blame bad luck because nobody acknowledged the virus at its origin when it began China, the doctor who warned the world mysteriously disappeared and we were told later he had died. Months later like an unimagined horror film script the pope preached alone Vatican and folk were going down like flies in every country. A lot of people do not believe even that this virus began to breed by "Chance" in the wet markets of China and feel it is some chemical warfare or experiment gone wrong .
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Luck is when opportunity meets a prepared person.
I can't do anything about the luck part, so I focus on the prepared part and have a lot of great finished work. I also am prepared to meet people like this. I usually have business cards, and I used to make "flashcards" for producers and development people. Hollywood Reporter always had a picture with the news story about someone, so I would cut the picture out, put it on an index card, and start collecting information. Once, I bumped into a producer from my cards at a hotel, had a conversation with them. In those days I had a box of scripts in the trunk of my car, ran to the parking garage and grabbed one and gave him the one that he expressed interest in.
It's good to meet luck halfway.
The pandemic is horrific indeed. But that effects all of us. So (for the sake of this discussion) no one gets helped by it, like we may believe luck helps others and neglects is. I had two film in pre-production. UK and New York, two places getting their asses kicked by Covid.
As a side note. I felt so guilty on zoom during a script reading with UK cast. They were talking about deaths in their families and Australia is doing it easy in comparison.
Best deals are closed in restaurants over fine dinner and few rounds of scotch...until we have that back, we'll have networking...
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The thing is people use excuses like Luck to justify failures. Yeah, it’s not difficult to sell a screenplay or even make a movie, but can a person repeat it again and again for xxxx years/decades so this writing thing becomes an occupation?
craft/skill will keep you employed for a long time, pandemic and post-pandemic era.
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Sure, you talked to a big-time producer, but was there a 'match'? Maybe, maybe not. For what it's worth, I ones sat on a train with Bobby Farrell (for those who just woke up out of a 50-year coma, the dancer from Boney M) for five hours. Trust me, no deals were made!! We all got his signed new single, that's all. Sure, an Indian guy gave Bobby his business card, which Bobby probably threw in the trash can after he exited the train. Why? Because LUCK is PREPARATION meets OPPORTUNITY meets LOGIC. If the Indian guy would have been in the music industry, maybe another ballgame... Then again Craig, Iff he didn't just have a huge fight with a German in the train coupé next to us, he would not have switched to our coupé. So, sometimes life is nothing more than a (welcome) freak accident you still can't (or want to) profit from.
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I don't believe in luck or coincidence. I believe Allah is my guide and it is great when I feel that he may be paying attention to "me."
Sure luck might play a role sometimes but most screenplays get made because the screenwriter or their agent knew someone.
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I think a lot of "luck" is simply preparing yourself to be in the right place at the right time.
Rutger Oosterhoff for the sake of a healthy debate. That Indian dude, designed a card, had them printed, remembered to put them in his pocket every time he left the house. That sounds like a bucket load of preparation. All his friends would say “wow, how lucky are you to have a business card on when you met him”. Doesn’t change the fact he was probably annoying, but not lucky.
I know a Turkish family quite well and the idea of Kismet is big for them. Perhaps the idea of preparation is all part of it. Perhaps fate drives preparation.
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That's deep Craig, have to sleep on that...