Fox Helms—On the Hidden Mechanics of Directing, Working with Bad Actors, and Filtering Good from Bad advice (#3)

Guest Introduction

Fox Helms is a 4th year undergrad studying film at Chapman University. He is deeply interested in the intersection of story, philosophy, science, and technology.

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[0:00] How Fox and I first met

[3:00] How Fox discovered his overlapping interests in film, philosophy, and technology/science

[7:20] How Fox’s mechanistic-oriented mindset relates to his work in directing

[11:55] Can you accurately diagnose whether a film is held back by a director or some other aspect of the team?

[17:15] Fox describes his experience working with bad actors and what he does to help the situation

[24:20] Fox describes his experiences with screenwriting

[28:00] I describe how "serendipitous” moments emerge in medicine and tutoring

[30:30] Why consistency is a prerequisite for serendipitous moments and why consistency is so hard with writing

[34:50] Emotions are not always included in memories and how that makes advice of others less applicable to your own circumstances

[36:30] The Causal Cake analogy. Why causality in the real work is like baking a cake with many ingredients

[37:40] How does Fox filter advice from others through the lens of their experiences and biases?

[40:12] Finding advice that repeatedly works may tell you that you have found a “law” rather than a “rule”

[44:36] Fox asks me when I feel like I’m working but I’m not doing actual work and when I do not feel like I’m working yet I am doing good work

[46:25] The process of deliberation I use to distinguish between more useful and less useful advice when working with students