The Beauty of Failing is What Comes Next

J.K. Rowling is one the best writers in the world. The size of her fortune would have you believe that she’s written hundreds of books. Her fans certainly WISH she did. But no, she has only written eight books in all (Harry Potter series and The Tales of Beetle the Bard). 2007 was the year when she published the last book in the series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last movie in the Potter franchise hits theaters this summer. It’s not a secret to anyone who lives in civilization the amount of success that Jo has achieved with one BIG idea back in 1990. But before all of that success Jo, as her fans call her, went through situations one after the other. The death of her mother, marriage and then divorce, chronic depression, poverty near being homeless… In all a very hard life. Jo talks about the “benefits of failure” in her speech. She talks about how hitting rock-bottom in different times in her life (all leading up to the publishing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) helped her delve deeper into her stories and the world that she created in the series. In her failures she found clarity. In her failures she found the will to keep going towards what she most wanted, which was to be a writer. A lot of press would say that her story is one of fairytales; the things she overcame would’ve done with another person’s life what it didn’t do with hers. She kept going strong, not just for herself, but also for her daughter, her sister, and the memory of her mother, who never knew that Jo had started writing incessantly about six months before she passed away.

Her story is one I greatly appreciate because we all go through trying times. We all go through things that challenge our faith not only in God but faith in ourselves. It leads us to question ourselves even in moments where we know what we want. Fear of failure does that to a human being. You can be the most confident person in the world, everyone has insecurities. The difference is that a confident person sees that as a challenge and keeps going. Jo tells us to embrace that failure and make something positive of it. She did. That’s what she encouraged the Graduating Class of 2008 from Harvard University in the Commencement Speech.

She’s inspiring to me because I’m not what you would call the most confident person in the world. For all you knew through my writing in this blog, is that I’m a very confident person. But I’m not. I’m 26 years old and I live with my parents. In an island that doesn’t give many opportunities to people that specifically want to work in the arts; unless they know you, the road becomes an uphill battle. One remembers stories of people like Jo, who in the midst of her depression turned it into something that the entire world would support wholeheartedly. She is a definite role model. It’s not a coincidence that my Deathly Hallows copy is sitting right beside me in this very moment. This series represents a struggle, not necessarily between good and evil, but a struggle with yourself to do what is right for yourself, to not be selfish with yourself. To find the truth in things that matter. It’s the best story I have ever read in my short life… and for that I thank her. 

For more information on how she has contributed to causes related to MS and fighting poverty, think of the happiest thought or memory you can think of and then say Expecto Patronus!

Image courtesy of: http://ideagirlconsulting.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-1-new-trailer-teaser-director-david-yates-novel-jk-rowling-screenplay-steve-kloves-daniel-radcliffe-rupert-grint-emma-watson/ 

Puerto Rico Film Commission?

The Puerto Rico Film Commission is the most important entity dedicated to “promoting the development of all the elements that comprise the audiovisual industry”. Its highest achievement to date is offering one of the highest tax incentives offered by any film commission.

The PRFC was created by act of law in 1999 primarily to develop the arts and sciences of the film industry on the island. Their primary incentive is a 40% tax credit on payments to PR residents and 20% tax credit on non-resident talent. These incentives are also offered to off-island producers who may want to carry out their shoots in Puerto Rico.

Their service is pretty basic, as well as any other city Film Commission. They act as a liaison, helping investors, studios, and production companies and independent producers find all the services needed to film their projects in Puerto Rico.

They also offer a “phone book” of all the people that make up the industry in the island. Pre Pro has all the numbers you’re looking for when you are a producer in Puerto Rico. Not only possible assistants, camera crews, lighting technicians, but food services, transportation services, laundry services, among others.

All of this information is great for international producers and/or if you happen to have $50,000 and give them exclusivity, just to get them to hear you out. For local filmmakers is very difficult to acquire that quantity of money and getting them to help you out with the distribution of the film. I know this sounds a bit unorthodox given the fact that I live here, and, of course, my business would be located here. But, I know this from former experience, one of the islands’ own directors, famous for his educational style of filmmaking has been through a very difficult run to produce the movie. He resorted to a very odd strategy of funding.

He came up with the idea of through selling tickets for the premiere getting the money. You don’t need me to tell you that the movie hasn’t even begun pre-production. The reason why he resorted to this odd strategy is because he simply didn’t have the money to finance it.

And to me, that is the biggest problem with the Commission. They filter too many of the projects that get to their desks and subsequently cut the wings of the rest. In other words, if you don’t have either enough money, or a good story (to their eyes) to tell, you won’t get help at all.

As an aspiring filmmaker one gets disheartened by this circumstance, it’s very difficult to get support from the government for us locals, and is why the industry in the island is suffering. The arts are not being developed or nourished by either the government or the Commission.

I didn’t want to make this post “controversial” for lack of a better word, but, the situations have been so many in which it’s been very hard to get funding, that I just couldn’t stand here and say nothing about it. Yes, it has great tax cuts, but that’s about it. I think they can do better than that to help improve the chances for us commoners to get our stories out there.

I truly hope other hopefuls don’t get the terrible luck that we have, and hopefully do whatever you can to get your stories out there for people to admire.