Peter Hedges & Jeff Katz

It was my great pleasure to meet one of my idols since high school, writer/director Peter Hedges. Hedges gave a lecture at the Memorial Union building on campus at Iowa State University. He happens to be an Iowa native and graduated from Valley High School, the same high school which I graduated from last year. Peter Hedges has a new book out called The Heights. After the lecture, there was a book signing and my opportunity to finally meet him. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that meeting this man was something I'd hoped for since my junior year in high school (three years is not an obsession).The brief encounter didn't give me a chance to go over my life story with him, but we chatted about Valley and he signed my copy 'What's Eater Gilbert Grape', which was written by Mr. Hedges. He also wrote and directed 'Pieces of April' and 'Dan in Real Life'. Courtesy of Esther van Oostenrijk, here a picture of myself (left) with Peter Hedges (right). Click to enlarge.

Looks like the future me, right? The lecture was about Peter Hedges' success through failure. It was very inspirational learning that even successful people have to fail, although that also means one will fail before they succeed. Hedges began college pursuing an acting career and then decided that writing/directing was better fit for him. God forbid I have the opposite journey and end up becoming an actor. Hedges centered much of his lecture around the advice that one of his professors gave him. The advice was that it takes twenty years to get good at something. Strangely, my father gave me similar advice the other week when we were discussing my college plans. Twenty years to get good at something? This means I don't have to beat myself up if I'm not a good director before I turn forty. In the spirit of this theory, I'll begin counting down twenty years. When this clock hits zero, maybe it is time to try a new career.

20-Year Countdown (Started April 16th, 2010)

Iowa State had one other VEISHEA lecturer who also happens to be in the movie business. Jeff Katz is a producer and comic author. Having never heard of him, I didn't expect to take much from his lecture. He ended up becoming one of my new idols by the end of the night. Katz produced movies like 'Shoot Em Up', 'Snakes on the Plane' and 'X-Men: Origins'. Probably not the biggest blockbusters out there, but that is part of what made him cool. In my mind, a producer has always been some uptight guy with lots of money. Katz didn't fit this stereotype, if that is a real stereotype at all. He was very down to Earth. His goal was to shatter the myths of Hollywood, talk about how the movie industry is changing and how a young filmmaker like myself can take advantage of that. Maybe I will go deeper into what he talked about in a later post, but here is his website, check it out: GeekWeek.com

His advice was to make it into the business through making relationships. This sort of networking has always been my philosophy and something I count on. That's why I surround myself with friends who have the potential to be successful (that's you Patrick Crowley!). Jeff Katz talked about how Twitter and Facebook can be used to make these relationships, and he gave us his Twitter username. The way I see it, he is basically asking me to stalk him, right? Something Katz and I have in common is that we're both published comic authors; however, he makes comic books and I make my comic strip, Hysteria Syndrome. Pardon the shameless plug. During the Q&A, I asked Mr. Katz how important a college education is for a young film student. He encouraged me to stay in college and not run off to Los Angeles. Never hurts to have a backup plan, right?

P.S. Jack, my cat, came home. If anyone was wondering.