One way that a response to failure has evolved for Rudy Valdez (The Sentence) is how he relates to notes he gets from more experienced filmmakers. Earlier in his career, Valdez would hear the feedback from award winning filmmakers and think, “They must be right, and I must be wrong. So a lot of my early projects would start to take shape into what [other people] felt the story should be.” This had a deep personal effect on Valdez, so much so that, “Even when the pieces were quasi-successful or people enjoyed them, there was always this part of me that felt like a failure because I let somebody hijack my story.”
For his film The Sentence, which premiered at Sundance in 2018, Valdez gathered feedback from filmmakers who he really respected. Instead of accepting or refuting the notes immediately, Valdez took his time to think about them and reflected on his past inner failures created by taking peoples’ notes. Some of the notes he got resonated with him, but he explained, “There were some big notes that I had to respond back and say, ‘Look, that's a different film. That's something other than what I'm trying to do, and I respect your notes, but I'm going to continue with this road.’ I can't tell you how proud I was when ultimately we premiered at Sundance and it was so well received. People were talking about these specific avenues that I took and choices that I made that were these choices that I stuck to with my heart.”
So how does Valdez go about discerning helpful notes from those that will lead him astray? He explains, “It's about understanding the note, understanding where it's coming from, and understanding its purpose.” One strategy that he employs is to look at the body of work that the note-giver has. In doing this, Valdez has found that sometimes the filmmaker’s notes suggest adjusting aspects of your piece to something more like their own voice and style. Differentiating good and bad notes is nuanced and “There's no definitive answer to it. Some notes are going to be great from that same person and some notes just won’t make sense for you, but that's about understanding your voice and trusting yourself and having confidence in what you're making.”
Valdez says that notes often come with solutions, and frequently, those solutions won’t be in line with your vision but it is important to look for, “the note underneath the note.” This means you should take a step back and look deeper at what the note-giver could be bumping up against rather than what they say needs to be fixed or how to fix it. This evaluation often provides greater insight into what might not be working in your piece.
Note taking is a form of collaboration and like any type of collaboration, it too requires a balance. llyse McKimmie, the moderator for the panel and Labs Director of Sundance Institute's Feature Film Program, observes, “One of the beautiful things about storytelling is that there is no one right way to make a film, to tell a story. I think any artist’s evolution is walking that balance between being open to feedback, to collaboration, to other's ideas, and being able to take the things that are useful, to really have the confidence to hear those things, but also to have the confidence in your own vision and your own determination to tell a particular story as a reflection of your distinctive voice and vision.”