Work In Films | It’s All About Attitude!

Interview with Film & Video Director Christopher Knox

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The following is Part I of a two-part interview (edited for understanding) with Film and Video Director Christopher Knox talking to Robin Kincade, Owner, Kincade Productions, LLC.

I first met Chris Knox in 2011 on a series called I (Almost) Got Away with It, produced by Indigo Films out of San Rafael, California. I was working as a Location Scout and he was the Production Manager.

Camera crew and actors on set with I (Almost) Got Away With It (2011) showing an arrest scene next to a swimming pool.

Right away Knox (as he prefers to be called) struck me as someone who was up and coming if not already “there” in the bay area film community. He was kind, easy to be around, and he consistently made decisions that made sense. We have been through the “film wars” together, producing low budget crime shows—a real challenge!

Knox is currently working on a number of corporate and commercial projects for Facebook including: Social VR Ecosystems, Oculus, Facebook Spaces, and 360 Photo Capture.

Knox is also known for I Faked My Own Death (2011), The Saving of Julia (2010), and I (Almost) Got Away With It (2010).

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Robin:  Tell me about how you got into business. It was something about fencing classes?

Knox:  I got in the business as a child actor. I grew up always wanting to be an actor. I fenced. I did sword fights and whatnot. I used to fence at a fencing school in Los Angeles. My biggest film I ever did as a child actor was a little film called Hook (1991). 

Basically, the story is, someone in casting said, “Holy crap! We need 80 kids who know how to sword fight. What will we do?” Someone else in casting said, “Don’t worry. There’s a fencing school right down the street,” and they hired all of us. So, I was one of the Lost Boys on the movie Hook. You can go see me in the special features if you go watch Hook on iTunes.

Bob Hoskins threw me down the staircase 20 times. It’s my big claim to fame. Thank you Bob. Rest in peace. He was lovely to work with. He very gently threw me downstairs. And yes, I would have continued with acting except I grew freakishly tall. I’m six foot five and that was sort of the end of my acting career. I was 5’10” when I was 12, and I was 6’ when I was 14. I had a deep voice and started to sound and look a certain way and they were like, “I’m sorry, you’re a child who looks like a man.”  We don’t need you, go away, and that was that.

But I grew up, went to high school, had a life and was like, “What am I going to do with myself as an adult?” I always loved show business, so I went to school for TV and film and became a Production Assistant as fast as I could.

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I went to school for TV and film and became a Production Assistant as fast as I could!

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Robin:  Do you remember the very first day you walked onto a set? What was that like?

Knox: The first time I walked on set as a working actor was the movie Hook (1991). It was absolutely incredible; It was this empire in a paper bag. It’s this little town that springs out of nowhere there’s hustle and bustle and politics and roadways and walkways and stuff’s going on. There’s leadership, mentorship and then people are laying down copper wiring for electricity and it’s such a little town that’s built in a week.  There’s an amazing energy because it’s all there. It’s all real. It feels so permanent and then it vanishes— days or weeks or months later. Sets are such magical places. They are these beautiful little towns, these beautiful old magical cities that exist for a short while and then, whoosh, are gone like so much sand in the wind.

Robin:  All right, you’re out of high school now. You’ve had this incredible experience when you were younger and that really influenced you. What happened next?

Knox:  After high school, I went to college and immediately looked around and said, okay, I’ve got to get into a broadcast, cinematography, or a filmmaking course, which I did. I went to college in San Mateo and they had internships at their local TV stations. I begged and pleaded and pounded on doors and asked people questions, so they gave me an internship. It wasn’t like, “oh, here’s the internship program.” It’s not easy. It’s like you have to ask and ask and ask and ask and pester people. People will eventually let you in. That’s honestly how you get into this industry. It sounds like a weird piece of advice to give, but everyone I know who got in said they just kept asking, asking, asking, and asking until someone finally says, “Here’s a broom, go work.”  That’s how you get in. One internship led to another and one thing led to another and I’ve ended up here after all these years.

Robin:  Can you tell me when you felt you were stable in the business? How long did that take from the time you went into the business?

Knox:  Gosh, that’s a great question. I will be totally honest, it is a very material business. I don’t know if you ever truly feel that you’ve made it. You are constantly only as good as your last job, constantly only as good as your last joke, your last gig, your last project, or your last film. That is the nature of this business; it’s a very unstable business. I wish it weren’t, but it is. 

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Things you want are generally hard; things that are easy, everyone has

If you’re taking this course, How To Be A Successful Production Assistant, then you can do this. It’s not impossible, but it is hard. Things you want are generally hard; things that are easy, everyone has. 

Don’t worry yet about the feeling of making it because that has to be an ongoing process. It’s like meditation. You’re constantly trying to get to enlightenment, but it’s chasing the rainbow. You’re constantly chasing “that thing.” It’s the chases and the journey, that’s about it. So yes, don’t be waiting for that magical moment of feeling “I finally arrived!” because it’ll probably never come. And that’s okay.

I mean, one of my favorite TV shows is Mad Men (2007-2015) because you have these characters who essentially have everything you could want. Don Draper, the character in the show, is a successful creative director. He’s got the house, the two-car garage, the kids, the wife, the successful Manhattan job, the suit, he’s 35, he looks great, and he’s not happy. He’s just not happy. 

One of the dangers of this job is that people often find their sense of identity and their source of happiness in this job. We as an industry, we rely on that, we talked about passion, we want you passionate. When you’re passionate about your job, there is this thing what happens when you’re not working; you feel terrible. But then when you are working you feel great. That is a thing you have to be aware of. It’s a problem we’ve had in our industry since the dawn of time. The only way I know to combat that is to have something outside of work that is yours and yours alone. That can be meditation or yoga or exercise. You need to have something that grounds you, something that you can find value in that keeps you sane.

Robin:  Tell me a little bit about the journey of a PA.

Knox: The journey of a PA; it’s an interesting route. I started out as an intern at a TV station; I was essentially a PA. Then I had an internship at CNET over at 2nd and Folsom here in San Francisco, where I was shooting and editing. I was also getting the coffee, watching the van, and minding the gear being the standard and doing all the grunt labor. Filmmaking at any scale is often like a game. We need a lot of hands to get this done in parts and there’s a lot of hard tasks that need doing. That’s why we need the PA’s, so creative can be able to do this stuff.

Gear for Goliath Season 4 shot on location in on a street in the Financial District in San Francisco, January 2020. PAs are needed to watch the gear, while everyone else does their job as director, camera, actor, producer, lighting, makeup, props, etc.

If we didn’t need PA’s we wouldn't hire them. You need to know your job and what you should be doing as a PA. You need to think about two things:

• What does my immediate boss need to be successful?  What can I do to fill that need? 

• What’s your exit strategy for being a PA? 

A PA is, in essence, a short-term job. You’re either going to stay in that department and move up as an AD or you’re going to go into production, camera, grip, wardrobe, makeup, or somewhere else.

You are going to go somewhere else—conceivably. You need to be thinking about what you want to do though because you very quickly get typecast in this industry. If you’re good at something, then you end up in that department. Think about what you want to do. Make friends with people in those departments. See what they do, see if that’s what you want to do, and then go after it.

Robin:  What do you say about these kids that come out of school and think that being a PA is just like beneath them or not going to work for them?

Knox:  There’s a theory now, there’s a line of thinking right now by a lot of young people. A lot of new people in this industry don’t want to be a PA anymore, and I totally understand it. We’re at this age of the democratization of filmmaking. I can go make a film on my iPhone; it’s the 5G revolution.  Some say, “I don’t have to do those other jobs or go in with that start as a PA process. I can just go buy a camera and go shoot my films.” That is a choice if that’s the way you want to go, great, more power to you. There is value though in being a PA.

There is value because when you are a PA, you get to work on extremely big shows and shows of all shapes and sizes. You get to learn so much more. You get to learn more about the broader, bigger world. A lot of my success comes from being a PA and having that time to look around and do stuff. I was also making my own shows and my own movies on the side. But I still wanted to go be that PA and see how the AAA varsity level people were making their work. It’s a great opportunity for training and learning and you’re just not going to get it anywhere else.

The other essential thing about being a PA is that you’re going to work with a variety of people who you don’t know. It is lots of fun and very enjoyable to go get three or four of your friends and go make a show with them, with people who are like you. This is very tempting and totally fine. However, when you go to work as a PA, you’re going to work with people who aren’t like you, who are from different cultures, different backgrounds, different varieties of people, and different experiences. You’re going to work with people who are twice your age or older, who have vast amounts of experience, and who are not like you. You will learn about other perspectives, other ways of thinking, other modalities. There is a ton of value in learning to work with people and collaborate. That comes when you work as a PA.

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How about getting into the business without a college degree — is that possible?

Robin:  How about getting into the business without a college degree is that possible?

Knox: The film business is interesting. You do not need a college degree to work in the film business. I want to say half of my friends who work in the film business don’t have a college degree and I would say half do. There are pros and cons to both. When I started out in the business I had a college degree. It took me six years to finish my undergrad. When I entered the business, I entered and I saw people who entered when they were 18, with six more years' experience than I had, and I was like, “Oh, I screwed up. I shouldn’t have gone to college.” I felt really foolish.

The truth is, I’m now 39 and I've been working all this time. I am now grateful I have a college degree. I’m really glad I had the college experience. The liberal arts, the English, the math, the science, the history, and the social studies that I learned in school has value, has benefitted me. Many of my friends who did not get college degrees are now in their late 30s and early 40s and really wish they’d finished college or done the college route. It is a personal choice depending on the kind of person you are, what you value, what’s important to you, and what’s going to benefit you. There’s a certain level you need to take responsibility for and what’s going to make you happy. But if I had to recommend it, I would tell you to go get a college degree, just because I think a college education is an amazing thing and you should do it.

The film industry is an interesting place. We are nothing if not an industry of passion. If you are passionate about working in this industry, then the way you get to is “you be you’” just keep knocking on every door. It really is about persistence. Persistence is a pretty word, but what persistence really is, is the ability to withstand that dreaded word, “No.” How many times can you hear someone say no, sorry, we don’t need you, we can’t have you, we don’t have a job. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not next week. We’ll call you don’t call us.

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If you can survive two “no’s,” you can survive ten. You’re going to hear a lot of no’s, and that’s okay.

How many times do you hear no? This is really the great filter of the industry and if you can survive one “no” you can survive two “no’s. If you can survive two “no’s,” you can survive ten. You’re going to hear a lot of no’s, and that’s okay. That’s just how this industry runs. If you can push through all those no’s, you can succeed here in the film business at whatever stage of life you’re at.

Robin: Let’s talk a little bit about having another life, because we really didn’t touch on that. You touched on a little bit but how important it is not to be obsessed with this business that is so much fun.

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The film industry is a ton of fun!

Knox:  The film industry is a ton of fun.  It’s a ton of fun, It’s also exhausting. In the film industry, we will take every bit of energy you have to give us. We always need more hours, more time, more this, more that, more view, more work. We are an industry chasing after perfection. A shot can always be lit better, mixed better, performed better, framed better; there’s always that thing to keep grinding away to make my craft perfect. We will take all that energy because we need it. That’s how amazing films get made.

Having said that, you need to also spend energy looking after yourself. Self-care is extremely, extremely important. It’s everything from getting enough sleep, to getting enough exercise, to eating right, and to looking after you. You need to look after you whether that’s yoga or meditation or swimming or running or reading,

End of Interview Part I.

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