Preparation (not H)

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell

A little over a decade ago I got one of my front teeth knocked out of socket while playing basketball.  I needed immediate care, but my regular dentist was unavailable.  I was grateful to have a second option who took time on a Sunday to tend to my suddenly defunct smile.  He gave me a root canal and ground down the newly dead tooth in favor of crowning with porcelain.  The only problem was his crown didn’t come close to matching the rest of my pearlies.

To say the least, I was unpleased, especially when he wouldn’t fix his work.  For several years I was embarrassed to smile fully because of the discolored, gray-bordered, misshaped front tooth which was, I’ve been told, a hundred times more noticeable to its owner than the rest of the world.  We actors tend to take minor details about ourselves and magnify them in our minds, but this was one of my defining features.  I like to smile.  I do it often.  Sudden self-consciousness over this fill-in dentist’s awful work resulted in mostly lip smiles until I finally had it fixed by a more qualified professional a few years ago.

I don’t know very well the backgrounds of either dentist.  Which one studied more?  Which one has logged more crowning experience?  I do know the first dentist paid no attention to aesthetics.  He had no comprehension of the importance of a smile to someone who relies on it to get work.  Granted, I was in college when it happened and hadn’t started acting professionally yet, but I knew it was in my future and having a timid smile was not a big boost to my confidence.

Whether the second dentist (who did a marvelous job, by the way) was truly more prepared than the first, I do not know, but I have a hunch he was.  At the very least, he promised to work on the tooth until I was happy with it.  Apparently that was too much to ask of the previous driller.

The lesson here is that no matter what we’re doing, we want to be doing it with the very best.  Going in for dental work?  We want the best dentist.  Going in for surgery?  We want the best surgeon.  Having our car worked on?  We want the best mechanic.  Going out to eat?  We want the best chef.  Making movies?  We want the best writers, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, grips, gaffers, hair and makeup artists, animal wranglers, masseuses, coffee makers, M&M sorters, grape feeders… or something like that.

The only way to be the best is to prepare as such.  Experience is indeed the best source of knowledge, but before you can earn the hands-on experience, you have to study from others’ hands-on experiences.  I’m offering what I can at this blog (check the archives – you’ll find something useful – I promise), and I’m going to make better efforts to offer more links to resources from professionals further advanced in their careers than I.  Hopefully, I can connect somebody to the information they need to take the next step in their career.  And hopefully I take a big step so my words can be validated or corrected as needed.

Let’s be the best dentists – I mean moviemakers – we can be!  Prepare, prepare, prepare, execute!