Andrew Morgan Smith

Customer service is gonna become more and more a part of the job in Film. I already feel it happening in my sector. Going extra mile off your client is not gonna become unusual, it’s gonna become the norm because that’s what’s gonna set you apart when everyone has tools that can

It’s easy to overdo elements on your movie. Sometimes we’re trying to impress our peers. Sometimes we’re trying to entertain ourselves, but in the process of it, we end up losing the plot of the project. What is this project truly about? It’s not about all the little bits and

If I’m ever in a spotting session on a film or creative discussion, a trick, I like to use to help reenter if we’ve kind of gone off into the weeds is to ask the question, what are we trying to say or what are the most important elements of this scene? And usually this helps to

Don’t make your important movie first. So many people want to make the movie they care about Furst. I understand and can appreciate why you might want to do that, but you are doing that project to disservice by doing that. You will make a ton of mistakes on your first movie,

Something I find so fascinating with Filmmaker and Artist is that we tend to think that we are the exception to the rule. If there’s something that just doesn’t usually work, we assume that oh but for us it’s gonna work. And I find that really fascinating. Because we probably

I always wondered why some studio executives made such bad choices for their brands. Until finally, I met a former studio executive who enlightened me on why. He informed me about something called the Peter principal, which is that everyone rises to the level of their own

I’ve seen some Filmmaker get very upset whenever people say to make things on an iPhone. They’ll get Ben out of shape because iPhones are not cinema cameras! But what I don’t think people are realizing is, it’s not about the Toole. It’s about getting the reps in. The more reps

If there is one thing that I have learned, it’s that if anyone ever tells me oh my nephew could do that because he has a camera or GarageBand or whatever it’s not worth fighting for that job. They’re not gonna value what you’re doing. They’re just going to beat up on you. I

A lot of people who work in post don’t wanna hear that their job is made to service the movie. They often are very focused on their one job. This happens with composers all the time. They think oh this is the most important thing and they lose track of everything else. If you

If you’re constantly cutting people favors, are you actually just the budget option for people? A friend of mine the other day was making this argument saying that if you are cutting people deals it’ll never help you out. I am a bit more nuanced. I was saying well sometimes if

People will watch things that were shot on completely trashed set ups. But they won’t watch stuff that is recorded on trash set ups. Your final audio mix is so important on your movie because if people can’t understand what’s going on, they will check out and leave. Make sure

I understand that sticker shock for professionals and Film can be real. But I have been called more times than I can count to fix score problems. There are expectations, deliverables, workflows that you develop as you go through the ranks and get into higher Productions. So

In any creative job, you are an amalgamation of your previous work. It is the hours you put in that you learn how you work how you get inspiration and all that kind of stuff. So the sooner you start getting those hours in the better you are off. As a Film Composer I always tell

#greenscreen temp music can be a bit of a hot button issue for a lot of people. Composers often hate that they have to deal with temp music. I am a bit lukewarm on the subject. A lot of times you can’t get stuff approved without temp music and yes, sometimes things can be very

The one thing that I always recommend to beginning, Filmmaker is not to waste anyone’s time. Wasting a Director or producers time can be the end of your career with them. If they feel like you are wasting their time, a lot of people won’t come back to you. Because it doesn’t

I found this demo on my hard drive the other day and I thought why not release it? See what you think is happening in it. We all write probably hundreds of demos in our lifetimes that don’t see the light of day. So I figured why not put it out into the world.

I’m curious what the most shallow thing you’ve ever seen in Hollywood is? Mine was a buddy of mine was working as an assistant on a show to a writer. And he was driving around a nice car and one day. I asked him about that car. Because I thought maybe that Assistant job is

Feature films are exponentially harder to make than short films. It doesn’t quite make sense, but it’s more like 10 times as hard than four times as hard. You’re wrangling far more logistics on a feature than you do on a short. Usually, it’s a bigger crew cast post process all

#greenscreen let me tell you about the time I accidentally created a successful music artist. I decided to make a big band Christmas album because I was working on a ton of movies that always needed Christmas music. And so I produced this Christmas album to put it in Christmas

I recently had someone come at me and saying that gatekeeping was happening because so many wealthy people work in the Film industry. But I think that’s a poor excuse for what really is happening. #filmmaking #filmproduction #postproduction