This is Thomas Percy Kim’s bi-weekly newsletter, your stories for independent filmmaking, permissionless storytelling, and building a sustainable creative career.

Quick favor: My emails have been landing in spam or Promotions due to a bug. If you want to keep seeing these, please drag this email into your Primary inbox.

If you haven’t already, join 10,000+ others who
subscribe to this newsletter, Tidbits by Thomas.

📆 Upcoming Events

• 🎟️ A great friend and mentor of ours, Gabriel Gomez (co-founder of CROOKED LETTERS with Jeremy Allen White), is premiering their new feature, HOMUNCULUS this upcoming Saturday! Come say hi to them (and us) if you’re in the NYC area: TICKETS

• 🎓 We’re finally launching our much anticipated, VANDALIST ACADEMY! It’ll be a completely free, live, weekly show on everything independent filmmaking (writing, financing, producing, post-production-ing, distributing, etc). Sign up for the waitlist to be notified the link before it drops May 7th! REGISTER

Kill Your Plan B

Why the safest choice is the most dangerous one

👋 Hey, it's Thomas, guess who just signed a new lease in NYC just DAYS before my last apartment would’ve ended… that’s right, it was hell.

The best/worst part is that Callaway, my co-founder for The Vandalist, and I spent the extra $ getting a 3 bedroom spot… for just the two of us.

Why? The third bedroom is becoming a studio — a set for daily shorts and weekly live sessions for the Vandalist Academy starting May 6th.

It’s awesome… and it’s absolutely terrifying.

In a city where square footage costs an arm and a leg, we’re paying extra for a bet. Every month that rent hits, is a reminder that we chose the version of our lives that doesn’t come with a safety net.

Of course, “safety” is good. Any logical person (especially one’s parents) will tell you that “safety” is secure, and “safety” is what success looks like.

Perhaps their version of success is a $150K salary working 9 hours a day doing things that feel important but carry no weight whatsoever. Maybe it’s slaving away almost 2/3rd of your time, your life, in exchange for a fun and financially free weekend or seasonal vacation.

They’re not wrong; that would be nice. But if you want more out of life, whether financially or emotionally — if you have a hunger to create, to build, to be an artist — then we all know that it’ll take more. You’ll have to sacrifice comfort and stability for discomfort and risk.

But what does it mean to take a “risk”?

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a filmmaker. An artist. And you, above all other people, know what a “risk” feels like.

Every time you start a new project, you enter the unknown. Unlike any other career path, you walk uncharted territory, you create something that’s never been created before. And out of nothing, you create something.

And when you do, when you suffer to create that work of art, you delay gratification for the possibility of receiving ten-fold the reward after finishing said work — whether emotionally or financially.

That is taking a “risk” — you are sacrificing the immediate, predictable, safe outcome for the small chance of greater returns later. You are betting on yourself, for the chance to win it big.

In life — in capitalism — you are rewarded in proportion to the amount of risk you are willing to assume. Just think about the most successful people on the world, and you’ll see this is true.

It is no different in Hollywood — they bet billions of dollars on the ONE blockbuster hit that will pay back for ten flops before it. They just need one hit, one success to outweigh all their failures and all the times they’ve taken that risk. Same with actors. Same with us. High risk, high reward. That is the game.

The game is survival of the longest — not the fittest. The game is: who-can-minimize-their-cost-of-living-to-sustain-themselves-the-longest-so-they-can-continue-betting-on-themselves-until-they-eventually-win.

The hardest part isn’t even the game — it’s watching the people around you absorb the cost of your decision. Your partner covering dinner again. Your friends on spring break while you’re home editing. Paying for the third bedroom, the investment into yourself that you don’t know will pay off or not.

The safe route will keep you alive. But it won't close the gap. The only way out is to take the big swings by betting on yourself, because you have very little to lose and everything to gain.

I’ll leave you with this last story:

In 205 BC, a general named Han Xin led 30,000 soldiers against a Zhao army of 200,000. Outnumbered almost 7 to 1. By every conventional measure, he should have lost.

Before the battle, Han Xin positioned his troops with their backs to the river. His own officers thought he was insane. The Zhao army laughed. With a river behind them, there was no way to retreat. No fallback position. No Plan B.

His soldiers fought like they had nothing to lose… because they didn't. They had nowhere to go but through. The Zhao, who had every advantage on paper, panicked and collapsed… and 30,000 routed 200,000.

When his officers asked him afterward why the hell he did that, Han Xin said: "Put soldiers in a position of certain death, and they will fight to survive."

That became a Chinese proverb – 背水一戰 – "fighting with your back to the river."

I believe that a true artist cannot reach their full potential if they know they have another skill set they can monetize immediately. It's just too tempting — especially on your darkest days, when you're on your 10th rejection and it feels like you're shouting into an abyss.

In those moments, having a comfortable Plan B isn't a safety net. It's an emergency exit door. And if they’re there, you will use them. Because taking risks means that you will likely fail many times.

This game is a marathon. You run until you're the last one standing. It doesn't matter how fast you are or how long your strides are. What matters is whether you're still running when everyone else has stopped.

— Thomas Percy Kim

💾 Community Plugs

Resources for filmmakers, content creators, and industry professionals.

• 🎓 The Vandalist Academy launches May 7th. Free weekly live classes on filmmaking, distribution, and building a creative career – hosted live from our brand new Brooklyn studio. Everyone who attends our first show gets a free gift! Join the waitlist here – it's 100% free, always.

• 🎬 Crowdfunding a short film? The Short Film Crowdfunding Playbook is live — your A-Z guide on making your short film. Grab it here.

• 🎞️ Need a pitch deck for a short or feature? I created a comprehensive plug-and-play pitch deck template for independent filmmakers. Save time, win over producers and investors. If you use it, let me know what you think!

• ✍️ Looking for cast or crew? If you're a filmmaker searching for someone to help you fill a role, reply with a short description of your project, location, and job description — I'll try to connect you with someone in the community!

• 💡 Community spotlight: If you've recently wrapped a short, locked a feature cut, or hit a milestone you're proud of — reply and tell me about it. We highlight community wins here!

📹 Behind the Scenes

I’m not usually a negative nancy, but this one was too crazy not to share — the WORST cappuccino I’ve ever had… zero foam, all bubbles at the top, and the milk hurt my tummy after two sips. I love Ole & Steen in midtown for their pastries, but do NOT get their $7 “coffee”… whew, had to get that off my chest. Thank you for being my therapist this Tuesday morning.

If you enjoyed this story, please consider reading past editions, or forwarding this to a friend!