Here I am again. I'm sitting in front of my computer during a late night shift at a job that I don't hate enough to quit. Paralyzed by choice. I rapidly Google online tests to tell me whether or not I should stay at this job, in this place, with my significant other. The answers are unsatisfying at best. Everything seems to point to quit, move, leave them. Yet... that doesn't feel right. On any given day my gut instinct about these three big questions sways in a totally different direction. How can you possibly make big choices like these without feeling like you're leaving another option behind? In today's world there are so many opportunities sprawled out in front of us. I've found this one simple question has gotten me on the right path when I'm really struggling to come up with the answers myself. Sitting here in front of my computer, I have long forgotten the first time I asked myself this. When I ask myself this question again, it will likely change the path I'm on for the better and I feel a huge weight being lifted from my shoulders. [Note from a year later: It did drastically change everything. I moved halfway across the country and then back again after asking the big question again!] The Million Dollar Question
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One of the main endeavors that has been consuming most of my time is working with Sideline Pictures. The company is Vincent Barnard's movie production company and soon to be much much more than just that. Early in 2014, Vincent and I set out to create a long-form episodic narrative called Blue Card. The idea was first and foremost to create a compelling project on the lowest budget we felt possible. Equally as important, however, was using this series to test the waters in the ever murky distribution landscape of today's film industry.
Many artists and professionals occupy a domain on the web; it's an essential part of putting yourself out there for potential job and project opportunities. The portfolio site becomes a lot like your home on the web; social media is the town square, but your domain is your home (or storefront).
A few months ago, I completely overhauled this site (quietly). I changed just about everything from a 3rd person, professional tone to a more personal tone. There were a few reasons for this, but the major reason was that I am a very friendly and outgoing person. I wanted the site's tone to express that when someone visited, whether that be to view my portfolio, read my blog, or just get an overview of who I am and what I do; this way it's a little more inviting and less coldly professional. It's not just me though. When I'm searching for talent to hire for a project, a personal voice on their portfolio site always makes me more interested in reaching out to them. I can immediately see if this person sounds like someone I would want to spend long days on set with or not. I really recommend you try this with your website. I'm not going to try to convince you with statistics. I'll be honest, my site garners a very small amount of traffic daily. However, this traffic is usually people that are close or already in my network. So my goal is much different than a site raking in 100k unique views on any given day; my goal is to stay in touch with a large number of people, and usually to write posts about things that I find myself talking about over and over again. (This post being one of those things.) In addition to having a personal tone with your site, here are a few other tips I have on creating your online home and welcoming your extended network in: No matter what your career goals are, it's inevitable that you will be working towards that goal for awhile before you even get close. Chris Nolan didn't make Momento until he was 30 and Inception until he was 40. Mark Cuban didn't sell his first company until he was 32 years old! Van Gogh didn't even start painting until he was in his 30's. (Maybe a bad example... but still.) A major key to success is perseverance. The longer you work at your craft, the better you'll get; It will take quite some time before you have made it and you're work is at the level you are likely aspiring towards. That's okay! What It Means To Make ItLet's take a second and try to define making it or succeeding. This can mean a lot of different things depending on what field you're in. For the most general definition, let's say making it is the moment you can afford to live sole on work that you love doing.
I'm a filmmaker. I want to produce and sometimes write or direct films (or web series). Oh wait... I already do this. Ah! But there's a major difference here. I still can't support even a modest lifestyle off of this passion. Let's tack this phrase onto the end of that sentence: and make a living doing it. I'm not quite there yet; however, I am starting to make some income from projects I love working on and having to decide which ones to spend time with. That income is growing (very slowly) every year as my skills become more refined. It would be safe to assume that I'll be making a living doing what I love before I'm 30, and that's pretty awesome. Hold on though... how am I supposed to put food in the fridge, pay for rent, and keep up with my student loans until then? Here's 6 things I've learned about how to make do before you make it: This is a kind of resolution. Maybe a mid-year resolution since the ship has sailed on the good ol' New Year's resolution and I'm not going to wait around until 2016 to start this. This resolution is, however, related to my New Year's Resolution.
Consume Less At the beginning of 2015 I made a resolution to consume less and create more. I pride myself in being a creator and it's very much what keeps me engaged as a member of society. I found myself getting "sucked" into television shows, video games, and general content much more for longer periods of time than the amount of time I spent creating new content. Although I obviously think consuming content has a lot of value-- I don't create exclusively for selfish reasons-- I do think creators often get stuck in a rut of consuming too much. I really appreciate a well driven story, fantastic performances, and edgy cinematography; so, I find myself watching content that has these things for hours and hours every day. It's easy to write it off as "studying your craft" as a creator, but after a certain point.... it's not! Let's be very clear. You NEED to study your craft in any way possible, but the proven way of doing that is to create. Very few successful creators consume considerable amounts of similar content as "research." Some very successful artists even suggest studying something other than your art to get better at it. Yes! Do that! One thing is for certain, I need to follow that advice more. Create More So this blog post, and the following posts will be the second step in that resolution. I have significantly cut back on how much content I consume-- with the occasional binge--relapse. So what's the next step? Create more. This year hasn't been completely wasted; I have created a considerable amount. Most have been for other people's projects though. This is a valuable part of the puzzle, but I'm still not feeling creatively satisfied from it. Between my work on Blood On The Leaves, Tracing Outlines, and Music Videos I've been plenty busy without all those 10-season long TV shows and open world video games. My ability to sort though my thoughts and ideas has been limited though. This blog is going to be exactly that. A combination of thoughts and ideas; if it happens to be informative, then good. I have a series of topics ready to go-- a tactic I highly suggest if you're thinking about blogging. These topics-- much like my creative work-- are loosely tied together and certainly won't fair well traffic-wise against bigger hyper-focused blogs. I'm not too worried about that though. So here is the goal: A blog post every week for at least 6 months. Make the posts as engaging and informative as possible while staying personal. Have fun with it. If someone reading would like to take on a similar goal, I'd love to read your blog (let's keep each other accountable.) Wish me luck! ------------------------ Expect a blog post from me every week for the next few months at the least. You can tune in via Twitter, Facebook, or Email if you want to follow these posts. If not, stop back at any time and find something interesting to read.
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