We’re Surrounded By Bullsh*t
In This Note: Some thoughts, CT: The Art of Stopping, and Life Lately..
(Holy shit, after writing this I read online that the ideal newsletter length is 200 words. I'm still figuring this thing out so I'll aim to be more concise in the future 😂)
I dont know about you, but lately It seems like everywhere I turn I'm surrounded by bullshit. It's as if everywhere you turn there's someone else promising you the world if you just do what they say.
My instagram inbox is full (read: 2 or 3 requests a week, I'm being dramatic for the sake of the newsletter) of editors promising me a "10x growth rate" if I only pay them to edit my content, only to look at their account that has cookie cutter edits with burn transitions and cheap graphics that emulate the last 10 viral videos I've seen.
Everyone wants a piece of the creative economy because of what it promises: 4 hour work days, 7 figure incomes, working remotely, creating the life of your dreams. How enticing.
If only it were that easy. The reality is, cheap replication will only get you so far, and spamming inboxes is the new door to door salesman and as seen on tv advertisement.
The thing noone wants to hear is that it takes a ton of 16 hour days (or even more 8 hour days, X 2 to be exact) to gain a real creative skillset. And if the backbone of your creative desires is to make a boatload of money over night, well, you may be disappointed.
I dont say this to discourage you. Just the opposite. So what is the solution?
The key to turning your passion into something you can do for a living is ironically by pursuing something you love so much that you'd do it for free, not chasing the next shiny strategy that comes across your feed.
This doesn't just go for social media either.
My career as a stuntman for film and tv had years of famine before I started to make a living. But I love the craft, and its something I was happy to continue pursuing as long as I was able because of the love of the pursuit itself. "The Journey" and all that.
To be perfectly honest with you, I'm still trying to figure all of this out myself. I have a great career outside social media that I love and that I've had success in so why am I doing this?
I've been compelled to create things like what I post online and this newsletter because I want everyone to have a piece of making a living doing what lights them up. I want you to have a piece of it.
Whether its helping people learn how to hone a their creative skills as a filmmaker, or motivating them to chase the thing that lights them up, I'm here for it.
I'm planning to do a live Free Q&A on zoom, anything goes, Cinematography, social media, life, or whatever else. I just want to get to know you guys and see what you're working on and how I can help. If you're interested shoot me a message
The Art of Stopping
One of the hardest things for me to do is to get started. A blank page with a cursor blinking is my Kryptonite. But once I get in the flow, I can usually stay on a roll. A practice I picked up from a book I was reading called "Rest" is The Art of Stopping.
Instead of finishing a video I'm making or a script im writing and calling it a day, I use the creative momentum to start something else, that I can then stop in the middle of. Even if it's just a few lines of a new idea or a few shots for the next video, this allows me to know exactly what I'm going to start on the following day without having to start from scratch. It's been a total game changer for my productivity.
Me and my girlfriend recently went on a trip to Sequoia National Park. Fall here is absolutely bonkers and if you've never been it's straight up like being in Alice in Wonderland. Here are some epic photos from our trip. If you like the look of these images I have some adventure presets for lightroom you can check out here
Overwhelmed by information? Simplify your learning.
Growing up in Arkansas in the ‘90s and 2000s, I never imagined I’d find my way into the entertainment world.
But when I finally picked up a camera at 22, it changed everything—and now, I’m ready to do more to help others make their own breakthroughs.
When I was learning, finding a quality tutorial online probably took longer than just experimenting long enough to figure out the answer for myself.
I've spent thousands of hours and the better part of the last 15 years (oof) piecing together a tutorial and experience based "film degree."
Instead of going to film school, a buddy and I hit the ground running.
We used our money (i.e., loans and credit cards) to buy our first RED camera, which led to producing and directing music videos featured on Vevo and MTV.
Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience even more of a masterclass by working as a fight coordinator and stuntman on multi-million dollar films with award-winning filmmakers.
If you follow me on social media, then you know I’ve started giving a ton of this knowledge away for free.
Cinematography, filmmaking, photography, and content creation have all become the vehicles I use for self-expression.
And through this creation process, I’ve discovered something I’m equally passionate about:
Sharing it.
I’m excited to let you know that, for a limited time, I’m available for 1-on-1 mentorship.
Whether you need clarity on things you’ve already learned or you want to fast-track your knowledge without piecing it together from a thousand different sources (and trial and error) like I did, I’m here for you.
Maybe you want to learn more about cinematography and content creation, or maybe you need motivation and accountability in navigating your goals.
They say that if you have the opportunity to steal someone else’s 10,000 hours, you should.
I’m more than happy to share mine.
And don’t worry—I’ll still be publishing all kinds of free material online and through this newsletter. That won’t change.
But if you’re ready to accelerate your journey, you can find more information here:
calebspillyards.gumroad.com/l/1on1mentorship
During your first session, we'll start with a free 30-Minute onboarding to go over the info sheet I'll send you so we can get a clear view of where you're at, and what your goals for the session(s) are.
Some ideas for topics we can cover are: camera/shooting, lighting, color grading, editing, my personal workflow, gear, and more.
Because I want to give everyone my full attention, I’m only going to be able to accommodate a limited number of spots for a limited time.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out, and I'm looking forward to working with you.
Caleb
How being Broke and Stranded in NYC Kickstarted my dream career.
I’ll never forget the day our 1985 church van crawled through New York City at 35 mph, on the brink of disaster.
I’m 22 years old, in the driver’s seat, rushing my band to our first-ever record label showcase. The transmission is blown, but little do I know that this ‘bad thing’ would lead to a series of events that would change my life forever.
People are PISSED. Horns are blasting, and middle fingers are flying. *Sigh* New York.
We knew something was wrong outside the city, but we couldn’t stop. We’d just pulled an all-nighter to be here on time.
Atlantic, Universal, Vagrant, and a few others are waiting to see if we have what it takes to be the next band on their roster.
And because we can’t even drive the speed limit, we’re dangerously close to being no-shows.
We finally make it to the venue, followed by a smoke cloud that smells like a mix of burnt rubber and transmission fluid, just in time for sound check.
We play the set, shake the hands, and exchange the information. Mission accomplished. But now,
we have bigger problems.
You see, we did what we came to do, but now we’re stuck in New York City, 1,200 miles from home, with a blown transmission.
And because we’re in a dinosaur of a people mover, the transmission shop across the Hudson tells us it’s going to be at least 10 days before the special order for the transmission parts will arrive to make the repairs.
We’re stuck. Stuck, stuck.
For what ends up being three weeks waiting for parts, we’re stranded in a two-bedroom apartment with some friends. Eight people in a Manhattan apartment. Yeah.
We spend a couple of days sightseeing, but before long, we’re out of money and on a financially induced house arrest.
We're broke, frustrated, and stir crazy. It’s miserable.
All we can do is watch the 30 or so DVDs in our friend’s collection and rotate between flavors of ramen noodles.
Watching Sweet Home Alabama for the fourth time is anything but glamorous, so on a whim, and out of sheer boredom, I decide to start watching the behind-the-scenes features of every single DVD.
Little did I know, this decision would change my life.
Looking back through the years, this single event is what sparked my interest in filmmaking. It’s because of this that, as my music career started to dissolve, I began pursuing acting.
My curiosity about the filmmaking process, birthed from this event, led me to buy a camera. From there, I learned everything I could about shooting and editing so I could create my own content.
When I started pursuing a career as a stuntman, it was that ability to shoot and edit, and my understanding of the filmmaking process as a whole, that gave me an unfair advantage over my competition and ultimately landed me on stunt teams working on the biggest Hollywood films.
The point is this:
If you look at my band and me being stranded in New York City with a busted transmission as an isolated event, it sucks.
But this “bad thing” started the landslide of events that has created almost everything I’m passionate about in my life.
I think it’s tempting to see our strokes of bad luck at face value—to see the bad things that happen to us as just bad things.
But the reality is, the things that happen to us are just things that happen to us.
It’s up to us to take the lessons we learn or the experience we gain from our misfortunes and sew the silver lining into our lives.
It’s an active, conscious process.
When I look back through my life—from my struggles in the band to my inability to get auditions or book an acting role for two years to my battle with cancer—each and every one of them is lined with lessons I learned and experience I gained that I now leverage for every good thing in my life today.
So when things aren’t going my way, I refuse to believe that a bad thing is just a bad thing. Time and experience have taught me it isn’t.
I hope this helps.
________________________________________________________
Now here are some things in the works:
As usual I'll be pumping out loads of free content you can use on your filmmaking journey and if you missed it, grab the free LUT Filmic Fade I launched a few days ago here:
I'm also working on these more extensive projects
• Filmmaking course: Learn the techniques that helped me break into the film industry.
• Color grading tutorial: Getting cinematic color in your videos.
• Gallery prints: Check out my photography work on instagram at @calebspillsphotos
I'd love to hear from you, what you'd like to learn, things you're having trouble with, or things you'd like to see more of. Drop me a line - I read every message.
Thanks for being here!
Caleb
If you want real freedom you need this skill.
If you want real freedom, you need this skill.
If you've spent much time with me online, then you know that my career is as a stuntman for Film and Television. And while it's a career I love, I’ve been pursuing being a creator online for the last year.
Why? Because last year, the entire film industry shut down. Performers went on strike over concerns about artificial intelligence, and we were terrified that by the time it was over, we might not have a job to return to.
What was I going to do if I didn’t? I’d spent the last decade of my life pursuing this path.
I had been dirt broke and filed for bankruptcy. I clawed my way back from financial ruin and hustled my ass off. And after all these years, I had finally been successful, only to arrive at a place where a digital replacement threatened my way of life.
It was during this time that I began to ask myself, If this was the end, What was something that AI couldn’t touch? Where would I be safe? Sure there are physical jobs a computer can’t do but what was something that I resonated with? What’s the most human thing?
After a few days of contemplating this, it hit me.
As we move closer and closer to the Artificial intelligence age, people are going to crave human connection more than ever. And it’s already happening.
People are craving REAL STORIES. And that’s why I think that the key skill to freedom now and in the future (and in the past for that matter) is storytelling.
The creator economy is the future.
It's not hard to see what’s happening. To see that more and more people are finding the keys to free themselves from the prison that is the conventional 9-5. People are rushing to social media and The Creative Space like Walmart during black Friday.
But this will be for nothing if you can’t tell a good story.
Storytelling is the foundation of creating an emotional connection with people. And as you grow as a storyteller, so will your connection with your audience.
Stories are what make us huma, and there are many different vehicles for delivering them: Speaking, writing, photography, and of course the one I've chosen, filmmaking.
My advice: Start learning how to tell stories, pick a vehicle to do so, and do it now.
I've already begun creating some basic content around learning filmmaking on my social media channels. And I'm working on developing a start to finish filmmaking course. Why Filmmaking?
Because, in my opinion, it’s the best storytelling vehicle. Why?
I'll tell you in a future entry.
Have a great week!
Caleb
Starting a fire attracts other people that want to be warm.
I was stuck.
I was living in the south, with my heart set on becoming an actor.
in a place where the closest you can get to being in front of a camera is being in a cheesy green screen car commercial or being a news anchor.
Sick.
My 9-5 was a retail job where, for the cost of living in arkansas, I made great money.
Great money, locked into a routine I hated.
It went like this:
Clock in
Spend the first 10 minutes of my shift sitting in the break room with my head in my hands.
Will myself to go out onto the sales floor.
Sell products I didn't care about for a company that didn't care about me.
Rinse and repeat, day after day after day.
The same singular thought bouncing around into my brain from the time I clocked in to the time I clocked out. I'm wasting my life.
Then it occurred to me:
If my only hope for opportunities was to wait until I had enough money saved (and courage summoned) to move to a thriving entertainment hub like Los Angeles, then I had to figure out a way to create my own.
If there were no projects available near me, I had to start one.
So I bought a camera, and with the help of youtube and a little bit (a lot) of obsession,
I absorbed every piece of filmmaking content and tutorial I could get my hands on.
Shortly after, my first creative project Step-Brotherly Love was born. (I've linked it here if you want to go down the rabbit hole)
For the next decade I honed my skills shooting and editing and over time became an expert in that process.
A skillset that I learned out of necessity in order to create my own opportunities has been pivotal to getting me to where I am now.
And because of it, I'm entering my 5th consecutive year making multi 6 figures as a fight coordinator and stuntman for some of the biggest film franchises.
On the surface being a stuntman relies on your body and your athleticism.
But my unfair advantage was that I came into the industry armed with the knowledge of how to create films from start to finish.
I spoke the language.
Being able to perform but also being able to shoot, edit, and sell an action concept to a director in a time where that was hard to come by, fast tracked my career.
It's like when you take shortcuts on Mario Kart and smoke your friends.
Wanna take the shortcuts in real life Mario Kart? Letsaaaa go!
Here are 3 lessons I've learned by creating opportunities for myself when there were none.
Lesson 1: Your skill stack determines your value.
Realize that you can learn anything you want for free.
We live in a time where you can spend a couple hours a day on youtube and over time learn almost anything.
Dont believe me? Go to youtube and type in "How to ______"
If you dont turn up a gazillion results I'll buy you a cookie.
Filmmaking? I’ve done it. (highly recommended you learn this skill to be totally self reliant. More on that in the future.)
Photography? Absolutely.
Home decor? It's there.
How to fix cars? Yup.
Cooking? Mhmm.
Wanna learn a backflip? An army of 12 year olds with their own successful youtube channels will show you how.
Literally anything. You just have to sit down and do it.
Like my with my stunt career, there are no wasted skills.
I learned filmmaking for the purpose of shooting my own projects.
But the skills I learned helped me survive the early years by shooting freelance music videos.
They allowed me to take on graphic design and photography projects to stay afloat.
And eventually allowed me to jump years ahead in my stunt career (my ultimate goal).
Your skill stack determines your value.
Lesson 2: Starting a fire attracts other people that want to be warm.
Creating opportunities attracts external opportunity because it doesn't take long for people to start seeing you as "the person that does that thing."
I may do stunts as my main career, but lately my friends approach me talking about the motivational stuff I've been posting on social media. I've become "the guy that makes those videos."
The reality is, people aren't that different. There are people in close proximity who are just like you, and who interested in the same things.
They also feel stuck. These are the people you want to involve yourself with. A handful of people participating in the same created opportunity become a team.
Teams get shit done. Teams become your tribe.
The steps look like this
create an opportunity around something you love
Involve people in that opportunity
become a team
become friends
beat their asses in Mario Kart.
My entire circle of close friends, who are also my network, can be traced back to the beginning through a common interest. Birds of a feather and all that.
Create opportunity for yourself, put it out into the world, and be loud about it. People will find you.
Lesson 3: Trial and error is the only way to stack failure reps. Success requires reps of failure.
If I had waited to move to Los Angeles to get in front of a camera I'd be back at my corporate job by now.
Filming myself allowed me to see what I sucked at.
Trying to improve got me comfortable enough in front of the camera to pursue being in short films.
Being in short films (and sucking) gave me experience taking direction. It allowed me to get used to being in a high pressure environment and helped me learn how things flow on set.
The point is, the road to success is paved with failures.
You can't get reps failing without trying (and in turn cant gain the tools and knowledge you learn from failing)
You can't try without an opportunity
You won't have opportunities unless you create them (at least in the beginning)
I sometimes wonder how much unrealized potential is out there because of people that waited on things to come to them.
Don't be this way.
The bottom line
No one you admire in the upper echelon of success got to where they are by waiting for things to come to them.
We all know that.
For some reason, we (myself included) tell ourselves these stories about how other people have it easier than us because it's easier to accept that than it is to accept the pain of our failures along the way.
Accept them. There will be many.
But the only true failure is giving up. Everything else is growth.
I hope this helps.
Caleb