Go Where the Action Is
Sometimes you just need to go where the action is. To put yourself “in the vicinity” of a hot artistic scene.
Bob Dylan moved to Greenwich Village in the early 1960s to be near the folk revival, and to seek out the spirit of his hero, Woody Guthrie.
Madonna moved to New York City in the late seventies and performed in clubs, eventually becoming a worldwide pop sensation.
Jackson Pollack, Patti Smith, Andy Warhol—not one of these artists was born in New York City. Each made the decision to move there.
Same with the famous figures of Los Angeles. Harrison Ford was born in Chicago. Brad Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. James Cameron was from Canada. George Lucas was from a little town in central California called Modesto, which means he literally comes from “modest” roots.
Another in a long line of stories like this is film composer Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones, Iron Man, etc.). Djawadi is of Iranian descent, and was born in Duisburg, Germany. He moved to Los Angeles and became an intern for composer Hans Zimmer’s studio.
Djawadi was there in the studio, just getting coffee. No one on Zimmer’s team even knew that he was a composer. But he had put himself “in the vicinity,” immersed, where the action was. One night the whole crew was stumped by the score for a fight scene for one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Djawadi quietly asked if he could have a crack at it after everyone went home.
At his wit’s end, Zimmer said sure, go ahead.
Djawadi worked all night, and when the crew came back the next morning, he had scored the whole scene. Zimmer said it was as if the fight scene had been choreographed to the music. That’s how good it was. Zimmer likes to say, “he never got another cup of coffee again.“ (Watch Zimmer tell the whole story here, loosened up by a couple glasses of wine—the story begins at 1:15:44).
Film composer Ramin Djawadi (far left) in conversation at Hans Zimmer’s Los Angeles studio.
Djawadi clearly had the creative skills to be a film composer. But if he hadn’t put himself in that room, he might never have had the opportunity to prove it.
So where are you from? And what does that matter?
The question is, where will you go?
It could be a major hub like New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Vienna, Prague, or San Francisco. Or it could be any number of other cities with great scenes, such as Santa Fe, New Mexico; Ashville, North Carolina; Seattle, Washington; Provincetown, Massachusetts. Maybe you find an online community that gets you “in the room” with other world-class creators.
So go. Go for a week, go for a summer, go for a few years. Put yourself where the action is.
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