My Biggest Lesson: Mark Dymond

Obstacles are surmountable. Problems. Big ones. Small ones. Medium sized ones…This is in our wider industry, but more specifically in production. I mean it sometimes feels like the whole job is only about problem-solving… But we manage it. Somehow.

The obstacle that doesn’t feel surmountable is the asshole. The Dickhead. The Wanker if you will….

This individual is the toxic industrial overspill that seeps into the groundwater of our working lives. And we’ve all met one or two. They are horrible. They make our jobs harder. They make us question why we even do our jobs… 

I am now a company owner, and get to choose (mostly) who I would like to work with, but on the long journey to get to this spot, I encountered some of the aforementioned assholes. 

(This is where I say: they know who they are… but they probably don’t… sigh).

There was one type of asshole that believed that no creative process was complete without conflict: ‘I am not here to make friends. I am here to create brilliance.’ 

Now once or twice the work was brilliant. Really brilliant. But not always. Sometimes it was downright shit. Other times average. Forgettable, maybe? Who even remembers. But the single most consistent thing in that work era, was this individual’s unwavering commitment to asshole-dom. The basic premise was maybe that you had to suffer for your art? I call bullshit. Experience has subsequently taught me that you can make great work AND be nice. Who knew? It turns out most of us…

The production team is a glaring example of this principle, but it really is in every team that assholes have seismic influence - like the fault line at the intersection of two tectonic plates: potential human suffering lurking around every corner.

Too much?

I stand by the metaphor, because every time I encountered the negative energy of an asshole, it was never without serious repercussion. Not just for the job, which would undoubtably suffer in some way or the other, but to me. To my confidence. My belief in myself and my job. Whether it was professional gaslighting, or general meanness, it would make me think I didn’t belong. That I wasn’t good enough. 

But I did belong. I was good enough. 

In amongst this flagrant therapy session is a point for all of us: Filming is hard. It takes talented people working as a very specialised team. It requires co-ordination and creativity. Military precision and intense, agile, point-perfect problem solving. 

It doesn’t need an asshole. 

Now all filming jobs are waaay more nuanced than this sketch suggests, but (in broad strokes) we need kindness and encouragement within the very strict guidelines of every person’s job. 

This attitude mostly trickles down from the top, as I have more recently learned. So if you are lucky enough to be able to choose who you work with – whether you are in production, in an agency, the client, post production, or even a bobsled team – please take care, because your attitude to the people you hire might just make a better set, and who knows, it might just help make a better world. 

Too much?

I stand by it.

Here is a quick check list: 

You might just be that asshole.*

Now go and listen to ‘People are Twats’ by the Lovely Eggs.

*Probably not!