Successful People In Hollywood Have These 4 Qualities by Harvey Mason Jr.

Watch the video interview on Youtube here

Film Courage: Harvey is every day a work day for you?

Harvey Mason, Jr.: Simple answer, yes. Every day is a work day and there is a lot to do. If I’m not always in the studio, I’m on the phone, I’m emailing, I’m doing a ton of meetings. There’s a lot of discussion, talking about what’s coming up next, talking about the song that we’re working on, talking about a scene, so it’s always work.

Film Courage:  What time do you normally start your day and do you put in eight hours?

Harvey Mason, Jr: …I put in more like 18 hours.  I start anywhere from 9 or 10 in the morning until 10, 11, 12 at night.  Sometimes into the early morning, if I’m working on a project.  It just really depends on where I am in the phase of the project.

Film Courage:  You always hear about entrepreneurs that they can’t really ‘turn it off.’  They are always working.  Whether they are at a restaurant and they are on “vacation.”  How do you deal with this, as part of your life?

Harvey Mason, Jr:  Yeah, I do suffer from that a little bit.  As I said I have kids.  So that pulls me out of it, for sure.  When I’m around my kids I’m not really thinking about work.  But it’s tough, if you love what you do, you want to continue to get better.  You want to continue to grow.   You want to build.    At least I do.  And I love making music.  I love working with the people that I work with.  I’m excited.  It’s not work to me, it’s fun.

Watch the video interview on Youtube here

Film Courage:  How satisfied are you with your work at the end of the day?  Or are there times where you’re not satisfied and that’s almost a good thing because it keeps pushing you?

Harvey Mason, Jr:   No…I think there are times when I’m satisfied and I try not to stop a project until I am satisfied.  I don’t do things that I don’t like and I don’t turn in things that I’m not proud of.  When I’m finished with a project, I’m usually pretty satisfied.  I think production is a series of compromises sometimes because you can’t always get everything exactly the way you want.  Maybe that is the perfectionist in me?  But I’m always tinkering.  I’m always trying to do something else.  Let me try this tempo.  Let me try to add this instrument or take this background vocal out or build this bigger.  But that’s the fun of it.  It’s like building a skyscraper and doing anything you want.  Just adding another floor and adding some more windows.  And just continuing to build this amazing kind of (hopefully) masterpiece.  And at the end of it, if you’re not happy and you’re not proud, you did something wrong.  You probably better go back and rework it.  So, I get a lot of satisfaction from my finished projects.

Film Courage:  Was [a strong] work ethic something you were born with or something over time you picked up, whether it’s the sportsman in you…

Harvey Mason, Jr:  I think it’s a combination.   I definitely was into working hard but I learned a lot from my Dad who was really, really a hard worker.  He preached that at home a lot.  Dedicating yourself and sacrificing and making the most of your talents.  My Mom and my Dad were both musicians so they were all about practicing and getting better.  And then I had some great coaches.  I had an amazing high school coach, Coach John Giuffrida and a college Coach Lute Olson who is in the basketball hall of fame and those guys both showed me the meaning of setting a high bar, setting goals, accomplishing things you don’t think you can accomplish, expecting more from yourself than you thought you could do.  And that definitely translated to music.  And I think that is something a lot of musicians don’t have because they didn’t play sports like I did.   I played sports my whole life.  Since I was 7 years old I was playing sports, all the way through college.  And playing at college at that high, high level you have to be hyper-competitive and you have to be sacrificing and intense and goal-oriented and all the things you have to do to play high-level college basketball or professional basketball.  Those aren’t things that most musicians do, so I brought that to this end to what I do.   I don’t know.  I think it’s worked for me.  Hopefully I haven’t made too many people angry how competitive I am.  But I think it usually works.

Film Courage:  I heard a quote one time that said ‘If people in Hollywood aren’t mad at you, you aren’t doing anything right [laughs].’

Harvey Mason, Jr:  Yeah…I guess so.  I don’t know.  I’ve tried to be easy to work with.  I’ve tried to be the person that people enjoy being around.  I think at a certain level, a lot of the CEOs of these huge companies, that’s when it gets to the point where people are going to be mad at you one way or another.  Right now I feel like I’m in a good place.   I feel like my company is in a good place, people respect what we do.  They find it easy to work with us.  I think it’s still a service business at some point.  You are providing someone with a service so I think it’s important that you treat people the right way and I don’t know…hopefully people like me.

Film Courage:  I actually meant it in a way that sometimes people in this town resent people for getting a project they didn’t get or something like that.

Harvey Mason, Jr:  Yeah, I think that’s true.  There is definitely some of that.  I don’t do that.  I think there is so much great work that anytime somebody else gets something, I think it’s great for them.  And it’s not like I’m dying to have all those other peoples’ projects.  I try to stay positive and be thankful for what I have and I try and support other people and encourage them as well.  So we need more of that in Los Angeles.

Film Courage:  We do.  We do.  I saw an infographic that talked about entrepreneurs and it said that (some of the traits were) that they were 1) obsessive 2) that they kind of had ideas which others couldn’t understand.  That’s what set them apart from other people.  Do you think the people that come here [to Los Angeles] maybe aren’t obsessive enough or competitive enough and then they leave and go back home because they have friends and family waiting for them?  Whereas if you have that sportsman’s mentality, where you almost have to win, that is going to set you apart?

Harvey Mason, Jr:  Yeah…I think that is something that sets people apart.  I think that anyone who has accomplished anything really, really amazing…I mean there are a few that are lucky, but most are not lucky.  It’s just really hard work and it’s competitive or being intense and sacrificing and that’s really in any craft or trait.  I think if you look at any of the biggest actors, they’re not the biggest actors for no reason.  I worked with a couple of them on this film [SING Movie].  Reese Witherspoon is a powerhouse.  She produces, directs, she acts, she sings, she does everything.  And she’s that successful because 1). She’s smart and really talented but there are thousands of smart, talented people.  She is driven and maybe I’m overstepping my bounds because I’m not that close with her.  But from what I have observed, she’s super hard-working, super smart, super focused and I’m sure, somewhat competitive.  She wants to win.  So I think that is something that sets you apart.

Question for the Viewers:  Do you like to work more than 8 hours a day?

Advertisement

 

Watch Cold Love on Vimeo here

COLD LOVE – Cold Love highlights three expeditions spanning many years of Lonnie Dupre’s career — the first non-motorized circumnavigation of Greenland, the first summer expedition to the North Pole, and the first attempt of a solo January ascent of Denali. The film’s powerful footage reveals up-close the beauty and life-giving forces of these icy realms. And in seeing, we can’t help but be inspired to love and protect our earth’s frozen places. Not only are they beautiful and fragile, but they are the global engine that regulates the climate and provides a stable environment for all life on the planet.

 

See the late Alan Thicke in It’s Not My Fault and I Don’t Care Anyway on iTunes here

IT’S NOT MY FAULT AND I DON’T CARE ANYWAY – A rich and famous self-help guru’s controversial philosophy of extreme selfishness is put to the ultimate test when his only daughter is kidnapped and held for ransom (featuring the late Alan Thicke)

 

 

 

Watch Valley of the Ditches on Vimeo here

VALLEY OF THE DITCHES – A young woman bound in the front seat of a parked car watches helpless as her captor methodically digs a grave in the desert ground. The bloody lifeless body of her boyfriend lies framed in the rear-view mirror, a fate she will fight at all costs to avoid for herself. But this is only the beginning of a brutal struggle where survival could be worse than death.

 

 

 

The Film Fund – check it out here!

From The Film Fund – Get up to $10,000 to make your short film by writing one sentence.

The Film Fund is providing funding up to $10,000 for a short film in a way that’s a lot simpler than screenwriting contests, crowdfunding, or applying to grants – read more about Founder and CEO Thomas Verdi’s The Film Fund here via his website.

 

 

Visit LeftOnPurpose.com here to watch the film and read more on Mayer Vishner

LEFT ON PURPOSE – Midway through the filming of a documentary about his life as an anti war activist, Mayer Vishner declares that his time has passed and that his last political act will be to commit suicide— and he wants it all on camera. Now the director must decide whether to turn off his camera or use it to keep his friend alive. Left on Purpose is an award winning feature length documentary that confronts the growing issues of aging, isolation and end of life choices through an intense character driven story of the relationship between filmmaker and subject. With humor and heart it provides a rare cinematic look at what it means to be a friend to someone in pain.