Gabriella Megni
Attitude
Whenever I tell someone I’m a filmmaker, I’m always asked these questions: “So, what do you want to do with your major?” “What’s your favorite movie?” “What made you want to do filmmaking?” With each question, I have one answer: “I don’t know.”
It’s not that I don’t know, it’s that I don’t know exactly what I want. There are so many options, opportunities, and experiences that I can’t close myself off from. It took me a while to grasp this idea that filmmaking can bring so many opportunities. I had tunnel vision.
After winning my first award in high school, the trophy started to get to my head. I was young, and winning an award for something I created was a big deal for me. I didn’t create much my senior year of high school, the year after I won my award. I had no goals or motives to create, and instead I worked hard at other things in my life. I was still going to college for filmmaking, but I didn’t think I needed to work on anything or improve myself. I was already going down the path I wanted as a filmmaker. This was my first mistake going into college.
Sitting in my bedroom after my first semester of college, I started to feel down about not feeling motivated or creative. I wasn’t getting anywhere in college; my professors weren’t teaching me thing things I wanted to know, and I barely had a presentable portfolio. I would go to class right to my room, then my room to the classroom. I looked around me at my classmates and saw that they were doing the same thing. There was talent, but no ambition.
I had an itch to do something, but I wasn’t sure what it was I wanted to do. All I knew is that I did not want to be someone who let opportunities pass me by because I wasn’t working hard enough.
This is when my mind started to open to new prospects. I pushed myself more in filmmaking and photography than ever before. I offered my services to hundreds of people, worked outside of class, and learned more in the past few months than I ever have before. Changing my attitude about how to pursue my career made me realize that working hard will get me the results that I want, instead of sitting around and waiting for the right opportunity.
I know this is not a mind blowing concept to most people, but for someone who was given opportunities when asked, and didn’t need to work hard at most things in my life, it opened my eyes to the way I see my future. Now, I am not only a student filmmaker, but I am a hardworking creative stepping into a world of more possibilities.