One of the greatest pitfalls in filmmaking (and any career, really) is a refusal to listen to people outside your circle-of-trust. When we're in the middle of trying to accomplish something that is very important to us, we tend to put the blinders on to hide our critics and jump headfirst into the task. Oftentimes this is necessary, and there are plenty of situations where this type of attitude is warranted, but you run the risk of blocking out important points.

Don't misunderstand me...I get it: there are a lot of people out there who simply wont be satisfied with anything you ever do. They make it a point to try and belittle or berate you no matter what you are doing. They make you out to be a total buffoon not worth the attention, yet they spend day after day following your every move, jumping at the chance to point out something you did wrong. Any serious blogger, online journalist, or web-movie maker has a slew of people like this, who the majority of the time, appear in the form of the dreaded 'Anonymous hater'. They show up on your site, make a footprint or comment that is overly-rude, unnecessarily spiteful, and extremely hateful. Then they leave their 'opinion' in the form of an Anonymous post, and scurry away. We've all gotten them.

It's the internet equivalent of the burning, poop-filled brown paper bag, except it's a lot easier to put together: it just requires a keyboard, computer, and often, a low degree of linguistics.

Some of us delete them, some of us 'hide' them, some of us mark them as spam...but very few of us will sit there and assess them. With good reason.

These types of comments aren't constructive. They're meant to hurt your self-esteem and make you feel like dirt. They're meant to be rude. They're meant to be vile. And you should ignore them.

Of all the actors/actresses I know who have been involved in online video, the first thing I'm told the directors will tell them is: 'DON'T READ THE COMMENTS.' While I'm sure this is said with the best of intentions, this is where content creators get into a bit of trouble.

First off: when you make a blanket statement like 'Don't Read The Comments', you've instantly made your mind up across the board that you won't be listening to any criticism. That's a problem.

While the hateful 'Anon' commenter is out for blood, peppered into the crowd of senseless ramblings is oftentimes a large amount of much needed criticism. Merriam-Webster defines 'criticism' as:

n. the art of evaluating or analyzing works of art or literature

When you and I went to Kindergarten, we received report cards every now and then. These cards, along with our grades, contained a small little section at the bottom where the teacher could write a quick note to your parent/guardian, where you were critiqued as a student. Some of ours said that we were 'good listeners', or 'attentive'. Some might have said that we 'talk too much', or that we 'don't pay enough attention in class'. While these were sometimes discouraging to us, they helped our parents get a better idea of what we were struggling with (socially speaking), and they knew what they needed to help us work on.

And, even though it might seem a stretch to many web content creators today, those Youtube/blog/Twitter comments are our social-network report cards...and a lot of us aren't making the grade.

It seems that, in an effort to block out needless hating, many of us have forgotten something extremely important: sometimes even your toughest critics will have valid points.

Case in point: well known social entertainment company EQAL (Harper's Globe, Level 26, Get Cookin' With Paula Deen) presents itself to potential partners as the front-runner in terms of online content and new-media. But to a large pocket of people in the general online community, EQAL represents true social-entertainment hypocrisy: a company that parades its 'established communities' around on a mantle, yet completely ignores the outcries of hundreds of their fans.

The instance of EQAL may be truly unique: a company that was literally founded by a group of friends managed to amass a large cult-following that, in turn, spent countless man-hours into promoting and spreading the word about grassroots shows they had created. A company that created low-to-no budget short 'movies' used an audience of die-hard fans to generate free publicity, and eventually was able to create such a convincing business plan, the company is now estimated to have a net worth in the millions of dollars.

The problem? With great revenue came great expectations, and like most small companies-turned-big, EQAL forgot what made them successful: the community. The content creators of EQAL had a well-known relationship with the fans, and spoke with them regularly concerning show productions. After the money started rolling in, that relationship seemed severed as EQAL transformed its established websites, and site functionality began to completely break down.

Much to the dismay of fans, the EQAL message boards were taken down and replaced with a 'customized' software package. This new software was met with large complaint by the fanbase, as accounts were no longer customizable, personal chat became non-existent, and even the most routine of forum characteristics were missing. This resulted in huge vocal criticism by the majority of the fanbase. The reason? No community support = no community. Without a forum to congregate, the EQAL fanbase had to resort to their own blogs, personal sites, and chat rooms in order to stay in touch. Naturally, this resulted in a mass exodus by fans.

But the greatest tragedy? Fans pleaded with members of EQAL to fix certain site issues, yet their comments went unheard for one sole reason: the company had put on the blinders. They didn't want to get discouraged by 'meanies' who 'Anon-Hate' and run away, so they stopped reading blog feeds by fans, stopped looking at emails, and stopped scanning through comments. By doing so, they instantly cut-off the 'relationship' that they had become known for, and now the EQAL name is severely tarnished in several corners of the web.

What can we learn? Sometimes your critics are your greatest assets. Through proper critique, you can learn what you are struggling with, and you can start to develop plans to fix your errors. This is hugely important for filmmakers, especially when running a set. Got an actor or a crew member who is disgruntled? Hear them out. Even if they're constantly in a bad mood, and it seems as if they always want to be the Debbie-Downer in the bunch, lend them your ear. Even for a few moments. Consider what they have to say. Sometimes, the issues they might be upset about are real problems, and they may even offer to help fix them.

I've had my fair share of this, personally. On the set, there have been times where folks were upset and frustrated. Sometimes I'd accept their criticism, and sometimes I wouldn't. Eventually, through experience, you learn how to filter out legitimacy from pessimism. If you discover there's a problem, then the best thing to do is man up, apologize, promise to make the necessary adjustments, and move on.

I deal with it outside of production as well. We received numerous complaints about the site, and your questions and concerns haven't gone unheard. If the fans of our work don't like our site, then we aren't doing our job right. So, we took the site down, made a lot of adjustments, and we gave the new design a try. Are there still issues? Sure. Problems? You bet. But we do our best to fix them if we're able.

We've gotten our fair share of senseless hate (mostly during times of triumph), but we understand it's just part of the business. During our run with 'Syringe' during SATO48, we got a few people who were upset that we were allowed to take home awards when our short film contained a voice-over (The rules of the competition stated that there could be no voice over 'ie omnipotent narrator', and many competitors took that to mean there could be no narration at all.) Mind you, we probably wouldn't have gotten any complaints if we hadn't won, but chances are because we took home a record amount of awards for the year, several mean-spirited folks decided to be more 'vocal'. (Note: no one cares about hating you until you're happy with yourself.) What was our response? We got the rules clarified, made our point, and walked away smiling. 'Anon-Haters' or no, we weren't going to let anyone spoil our victory.

But constructive criticism is different. Just because there were some 'meanies' in the bunch, we still listened to constructive opinions concerning the short film, and we took note to improve on areas we were lacking in.

For aspiring filmmakers, remember: you're going to face a lot of people who will bash you senselessly day in and day out. Ignore them. You aren't filming for their approval (at least, you shouldn't be). But, don't take an axe to the tree just because there are some bad apples: Find the true critics and take their advice to heart.

Don't hide behind an iron wall just because you're afraid of a few stray arrows. Strap on a shield, keep your eyes open, and sprint through the battlefield without fear. (Okay, I know...bad metaphor...I'm working on them. You get the point.)

Leave me your thoughts in the comments.