What do you do? - A fellow creative - Someone you know gets a decent job in an area of your own interests, whether it be in writing, producing, directing, camera, sound, editing, vfx, animation or music, do you...
a) Pat them on the back congratulate them and maybe even share their post a bit & vote for their film on a website or something if required (whether you've been involved or not)?
b) Bitch about them in jealousy and decide to compete with them unnecessarily?
The answer is ("obviously") b - but you'd be surprised how many stories there are with regards to a. I don't understand this... It's petty and non-sensical. Our creative success depends 'heavily' on our our networks and our 'book of contacts' we can walk into a job with. I / they can extend you a recommendation to an employer / other creative or choose to ignore you. Think about it... I'll come back to this later with some of the support I've offered myself, I suggest you try. In the meantime, I mentioned 'employers' - Yes let's talk about those guys, shall we?
Through my travels, whilst I’ve had the privilege of working with some great people I won’t deny I’ve worked with some right assholes too. Not too many blogs ago, I asked my readers to do a simple job hunt into my field as either one or more of the following: a scriptwriter, producer, director, cinematographer or editor to see what they found. Unfortunately, the results are always the same – that’s my point. In my last blog you’ll see the term ‘videographer’ and the +10 job roles as a filmmaker they expect to cover and under pay for it. Fairly recently I even got close to getting a job with a great company called ‘Osprey.’ A good showreel bought me an interview, where I expressed my keenness for wanting out of the freelancing circuit. Believe me, the term is NOWHERE near as glamorous as people think. Almost ‘every’ day looking for the next employment lead, re-tarting up the CV, showreel, cover letters, signing up to recruitment sites giving out all your personal information and work experience over several pages worth, answering all their bullshit questions then waiting for your rejections with some of the best generic ‘copy & paste’ excuses you’ve ever heard.
a) Pat them on the back congratulate them and maybe even share their post a bit & vote for their film on a website or something if required (whether you've been involved or not)?
b) Bitch about them in jealousy and decide to compete with them unnecessarily?
The answer is ("obviously") b - but you'd be surprised how many stories there are with regards to a. I don't understand this... It's petty and non-sensical. Our creative success depends 'heavily' on our our networks and our 'book of contacts' we can walk into a job with. I / they can extend you a recommendation to an employer / other creative or choose to ignore you. Think about it... I'll come back to this later with some of the support I've offered myself, I suggest you try. In the meantime, I mentioned 'employers' - Yes let's talk about those guys, shall we?
Through my travels, whilst I’ve had the privilege of working with some great people I won’t deny I’ve worked with some right assholes too. Not too many blogs ago, I asked my readers to do a simple job hunt into my field as either one or more of the following: a scriptwriter, producer, director, cinematographer or editor to see what they found. Unfortunately, the results are always the same – that’s my point. In my last blog you’ll see the term ‘videographer’ and the +10 job roles as a filmmaker they expect to cover and under pay for it. Fairly recently I even got close to getting a job with a great company called ‘Osprey.’ A good showreel bought me an interview, where I expressed my keenness for wanting out of the freelancing circuit. Believe me, the term is NOWHERE near as glamorous as people think. Almost ‘every’ day looking for the next employment lead, re-tarting up the CV, showreel, cover letters, signing up to recruitment sites giving out all your personal information and work experience over several pages worth, answering all their bullshit questions then waiting for your rejections with some of the best generic ‘copy & paste’ excuses you’ve ever heard.
Examples:
1st
Place:
“We’ve had
a number of great responses and we will not be taking your application any
further but will take your CV for future reference and wish you all the best
for the future.”
2nd
Place:
“Upon
review of your application, we’ve decided to proceed with other applicants who
‘more closely suit’ our criteria…” (see above example for rest of response)
3rd
Place:
*there’s no
exact quote for this but in laments terms: “Just because you’ve not physically
done this ‘exact’ thing before, you’re unable” (again… see above for rest of
response)
OBVIOUSLY - There are going to be times where I, you, we, they are going to be less qualified than others but it doesn't help us to go through pages and pages signing up to new sites just to make a 1-off application nor when the employer doesn't know what they're employing for.
What you
have here is people usually asking for prior agency experience of some
description, which involves being in an environment where everyone earns money,
has a controlled schedule and duties and does a controlled bunch of projects in
an assisted amount of time. Indie filmmakers are expected to believe that their
work putting together budgets out of nothing, assigning freelance crew and cast
as volunteers or minimum wage to construct a project in the space of usually 3
– 5 days – is far easier therefore doesn’t count in an employer’s
consideration. I don’t claim to be a mind reader but surely its easy for
someone to figure out crafting a narrative, the shots, in which to tell it, the
equipment and planning that ‘alone’ takes and running it all to schedule,
coming through post-production and then even going on to make festival
selections or even winning them… That’s not harder than filming a quick advert?
Bollocks!
One of my latest final
stage interviews had started out as incredibly insightful. A practical exercise
about delivering a product video in the style of a visual story. VERY quickly
ruined when I was told they were giving me less than a week with no budget,
equipment, cast or crew to pull it off. And I didn’t tell you the best part –
coming in and being given only 2 hours to edit it. At this point I realised
just how under-educated they were in filmmaking but I had no choice if I wanted
this job. Don’t moan – just get on with it. I cashed in a couple of favours,
got a model a 1st AC with his own car and borrowed the best camera I
could get at short notice; a Canon 700D – this was it. No tripod, shoulder rig,
lights – nothing. I’m already grateful enough as it was – people giving up
their time to help me for nothing. I shot 1 of 3 ideas I came up with, based on
what they asked. I couldn’t finish the edit in time but it wasn’t too far off.
This is what I was able to do:
Think you’ll
believe me when I say I have ‘a lot’ of filmmaker friends! The one’s who saw
it: “A skateboard tracking shot… Whoa!” / “Not bad for less than a week mate,
have to say” / “and they didn’t cover anything, right?” / “What they moaning
about?” - Of course there was PLENTY of shit that could be better - there always is but think the pro's far outweighed the con's under the circumstances but despite everything...
The response was:
“I must
let you know that you have not been successful with your application for the
role of Visual Content Editor.
We felt that your work did not demonstrate the
storytelling or the creativity we are looking for as part of this role.
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you
every success for the future.”
The brief
was a 3 – 4 minute ‘visual story’ of the Duro pack titled ‘Born To Run.’ Their
previous company videos (as you can see for yourself) are mostly all Drone
(non-product focussed) almost looking to sell landscape and scenery as if I was
booking a holiday… (p.s: the role was actually advertised as a ‘Visual Content
Producer.’) but… THAT WAS IT… I mean it.
Quote(s):
“As we mentioned, we have put together a two
part creative task for the 2nd stage of our interview process, which we hope
you will enjoy":
1.
Filming - We have sent you one of our new Running packs called the
‘Duro'. During the week before your 2nd interview we would like you to shoot a
short video story (and a few stills) to promote the pack to consumers, we would
like this to be an emotive piece that really excites and engages the consumer.
I have attached some more info about the Duro pack, including strapline which
is, “Born to Run.” as well as a user profile for you.
2.
Editing – We would like you to spend half day with on on the day of
your second interview to finishing editing your short video story of the Duro pack.
We will have an iMac with Adobe Premiere Pro, Creative Cloud and After Effects
available for you to use. Please feel free to bring any of your own equipment
with you.”
 |
I absolutely love Bournemouth but I just can’t survive here any longer. I’ve obviously been looking elsewhere but its only family charity that’s saving people like me from signing on at the job centre, whilst I look forward to shaking hands with some rich, robe wearing stranger on stage next month on a £200k+ salary; (this is the greedy git behind it! - There were loads of these reports (image on right) posted around the campus, even the staff don't take them down!) I mean to collect a piece of paper that says I should be proud to be in this position. Yes its not solely down to my education, its obviously a lot of bad luck too but if you ‘just look’ at what I’ve achieved in the past year alone in and around my time as a student on an under delivered MA course… This shouldn’t be happening, should it really? Then again failing to provide any TV (what was billed on the ‘title’ of the course) experience, studio, multi-cam, drone, animation, 360, VR or green screen or more importantly no syllabus working with even other students in advertising, PR or marketing at all is unforgivable.
After the
screams and cries of frustration it comes back at some point to what I’m best
with – People. More importantly; pro-active ones. In the past year alone I have
continued to support more indie’s on their way in to this messy film business.
Sickened by the overall experience I was provided with at uni I held onto my
experience at Met Film School, which is how I delivered in an interview to get
a part-time job teaching video editing at Screen South's BFI Film Academy in Kent. The approach is WORLDS better. I teach with other active practitioners and unlike higher education, these 16-19year olds come in and do an intensive 9-5 stretch working in teams,
doing a bit of everything, just as in my Met Film days and get hands
on help to be FAR more effective filmmakers without wrangling thousands and thousands of pounds worth of debt. I'm loving it - on the staff, we just wish ALL film production was taught this way.
Furthermore, I’m taking more frequent requests from ‘Nepris’ to do more
volunteer classes for kids wanting to learn more about the mechanics of film as
far as the U.S. I was on a location recce with a Polish DP cinematographer and
an aspiring director from Lebanon the other day where we were left wondering
‘why the hell are we still wasting time with essays in this kind of work?’ It
was a great day to share some moaning about similar stories to the one I shared
earlier whilst we just got on with what we did best. At least having my
bullshit piece of paper, certain institutions will allow us to teach and
improve on the crap of our own education so that the next generation get it
better. Undoubtedly, I’ll end up sharing more of their work and supporting
these people in future too.
This is
what I wanted to build to on this blog. You cannot just concentrate on your own
shit. Whilst promoting yourself is great, the last thing you want to become is
just to be bigging yourself up… C’mon, you know you know these people too. I
must have backed 3 crowdfunding projects in the past 2 – 3 months alone… Not by
a little; around £75 - £100 at least so that you’re counted. Its not money I
can afford to throw away but I’m always willing to invest in other hard working
filmmakers with manners and a track record of good relations and content behind
them – more so if it’s a noble cause.
Last year I
was backing KT Parker. A really strong writer on the South Coast who it turns
out has been working as a writer far less than me but her ‘A Face To Paint’
script reach finalist at one of the best script competitions in the world ‘Big
Break’ after it was already in the ¼ finals with me at BIFF Screenwriters
Residency Program. Not only had we already met – you’ll find writers get on
extremely easy J but
I would rather see someone I know win than someone I don’t + her crowdfunding
perks were that she would offer her Hollywood notes to writers once she was
wrapped with the event, provided she raised enough money from us to get herself
over to Paramount Studios for the most important networking event of her life.
Ever looked at what masterclasses and networking things like this cost? Yeah – Would rather invest my money in KT Parker. Some examples of my other contributions this year are:
Stefano
Petroni (a young cinematographer I know who wants to work with me) and his team
for their Memoria Nueva project.
Why: It’s a
noble cause, an important cause, they’re eager to make a difference and will
most likely work together next year on our first project.
Gabi Arnal
(a young graphic design and animation fanatic), they reached out for my
individual contribution towards their Toymaker project:
Why:
They’ve gone to extreme lengths to erect their own studio, work hard and their
continued gratitude I may ask for a favour from their offices to do me a quick
favour or even who knows… Stay with one of them to have a collaborative project
abroad with people who appreciate it.
And most
recently I even backed a project with someone who even auditioned for the lead
in my proudest production to date; Survivor. Her name is Luisa Gurreiro; an
actress who wishes to put a great spin on theatre as we know it, called The
Crystal Egg.
Why: Because
it plays to an area of my interest in the context of ‘interaction’ – an area I
have a lot of interest in and delivers another kick in the teeth to traditional
storytelling, which given the chance would be an awesome thing to go see and
would be very interested in working on myself.
How do you
know these investments pay off – You don’t! Do you think they’ll forget about
you – I doubt it! I’ve met SO many filmmakers that have NEVER watched anyone
else’s short film work let alone bother going to networking events. I’ve also
known A LOT who want me to chase down contacts for them without even returning a
favour – so much as in the moments of throwing in a 3-click process vote for a
film festival one of my films may be in, when I’ve staffed a crew or cast
member which saved their film. What do you think I’m going to do – Recommend you
to someone else? There are the brilliant one’s who always reply ‘I’m busy’ even when it’s within a week of the shoot and can’t spend barely a minute sending a
quick message… I'll bet you most've these guys haven't promoted or supported anybody but themselves either. Would you like to see how busy I get? Name one time when someone
hasn’t had a response back from me within 24 - 48 hours. It’s all part of creating
the reputation.
Conclusively,
I didn’t get what I wanted out of this year (I know there’s still time but…)
the amount of projects I’ve pulled off and people I’ve helped - I'd like to think I still made it a
success for others.
