The fact that anyone can shoot, edit and distribute a movie or video project these days has completely changed the landscape for professionals. Not too long ago the only way to get your hands on a quality camera was by doing it in a professional setting or during school. Now the cameras that come in a standard smart phone are capable of capturing content that can be distributed on the big screen.
In a lot of ways this is a great thing, because it’s opened up opportunities for creative people that they never would have had otherwise. However, there’s a lot to consider with such developments. These changes have empowered creatives, but doing so has flooded the market. I’ve heard horror stories about amateur crews creating great work for nothing because they didn’t know any better, and many VFX artists are struggling to find opportunities that will allow them to make a living at their craft. The “race to 0” is a real concern in the industry, especially for corporate and one-off video projects.
None of that is reason to despair though, because the availability of these tools means you can find and create your own opportunities inside and outside the industry. That means everything from pitching companies to submitting passion projects into contests to telling your relatives about the work you can and want to be doing. Whether they realize it or not, companies of all sizes need content for their social presence which presents a unique opportunity for the diligent creative. All of which is in addition to the more traditional freelance opportunities that are out there.
How do you find, create and develop these opportunities? Here are just a few things to consider as you start.
Creators need to create
I’ve taken my fair share of writing classes, and some were taught by amazing teachers, while others were being led by someone who just needed a paycheck. The one thing all of those teachers had in common was that above all else, they all believed in the principle that writers need to write. It didn’t matter what they were writing about. It didn’t matter what format. It didn’t matter how long. All that mattered was that we make time to write, which would at the very least help us perfect our craft, while also enabling us to potentially create something truly fantastic.
The same is true for film and TV professionals. You might not find the material associated with a paid job especially inspiring, which means you need to stimulate your creativity in other ways. Coming home after a long day of work and essentially going back to work is a tough thing to do, but it can also be invigorating. It can allow you to apply the lessons learned that day in a new and powerful way.
When you aren’t working there’s no excuse not to devote some time to a passion project. Whether that’s something you’re doing all by yourself or as a collaboration with a group of people, the time you make and devote to such undertakings is far more important than the project itself. If the project doesn’t turn out the way you want, you can quickly and easily move onto the next one, and if it does, you have something to showcase on a reel or in a contest.
Even when you aren’t working, you should always be working, because all of that effort is going to help directly or indirectly create an opportunity for you.
Network with your peers
While your peers in the industry are ostensibly competing with you for the same jobs, the reality is far more nuanced. You shouldn’t view peers as your competition, but instead see them as resources and support for your own career. They can help you with referrals or with simple advice, both of which can be invaluable.
Of course you shouldn’t be trying to source your peers to find out what companies or individuals are hiring them to go behind their back. Doing anything close to that will get you a reputation that will follow you everywhere. Instead, talk to them about general trends or tendencies that they’re seeing, and explore what their particular market seems to be supporting. You should talk to them about what is and is not working for them, and share similar insights.
It’s also worthwhile to network with individuals that are in the industry but going for a very different type of job. If you’re a cinematographer you should get to know someone who works consistently as an editor. If you’re a VFX artist, try to make friends with a camera operator. People in those positions will always hear about needs in other departments, and having such a diverse set of skills across multiple people will help enable collaboration.
Some professionals are naturally going to be busier than others, and the same person can’t take on all of the projects that come their way. If you have good relationships with those sorts of people they can suggest you to the producer that was looking to hire them during a time when they’re booked. There are countless stories of careers that started or took off because of this exact situation.
When I was working at a post house I would always ask the artists we had on a job if they had friends who were looking for work, because I knew they weren’t going to recommend anyone who would make them look bad. That means being one of those friends can be all you need to do to book a job. I’ve also booked freelance work in production and post simply because people who don’t work in the industry know that I can “do camera stuff” or “edit things”. The people you know don’t always need to or want to know you full skill set, and that’s fine, because just telling them basics of what you can do might be all it takes.
There’s a reason that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” has become a cliché. The people you know can and will create opportunities for you with referrals or by simply telling you about what’s happening. Being able to take advantage of such things can change your career for the better.
Network with everyone else
It can sometimes be awkward to ask friends or casual acquaintances about opportunities they might know about or discuss the type of work you’re pursuing. That said, it can also be an incredible way to find out what sort of options are out there. These sorts of conversations can get people thinking about a project or idea in whole different way, and that can ultimately be very beneficial to you.
Cinematographers have been booked for trips to other countries to document missionary work because of someone they met at church, and editors have gotten jobs because someone in their family knew someone who knew someone. Obviously, the type of work you’d accept depends on where you’re at in your career, but those details can be part of the initial conversation. If you’re just looking for work, telling everyone about what you can do is probably the best way to go, but if you want to be a bit more selective, talking to them about the type of work you do, and what you are looking for, would be a better way to go.
In media and entertainment, people always talk about systematic nepotism, but the reality is that people want to work with people who are fun and easy to work with regardless of what industry they work in. There’s a reason that companies of every size have programs which pay out bonuses for any employee who finds someone else that comes on board and stays with the company. Once you’re in, no one cares how you got there.
The reality is that everyone you meet has the potential to refer you for future projects, and while that’s especially true for the people you meet in the industry, it’s also true for the world at large.
Diversify yourself
When I was hired to help run ProVideo Coalition, I was given access to the entire Creative Suite from Adobe, and at the time it was a big deal. I was really only using the suite for Photoshop and Premiere, but access to programs like Audition and After Effects felt like it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I learned both programs in my free time and that eventually led to paid freelance work. Obviously things have changed since then and everyone can access the entire suite though Creative Cloud these days, which just makes the point even more relevant.
Professionals across the industry are being asked to do more on a given project, and that scales all the way up to the top. Editors who were used to working with a colorist now find themselves having to handle such duties, and cinematographers who previously could expect to have a few extra pairs of hands on set don’t have nearly as much help. That means being able to handle multiple aspects of a project isn’t just expected, it’s required.
Whether you’re a craft editor whose sole focus is storytelling or a videographer who pitches their ability to handle a project from beginning to end, you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t make an active attempt to learn about the tools and processes which normally fall outside your purview. How valuable are you going to be to a client that is looking for an editor when you can also shoot the project? How important is it for a client to know that you can also help them with the accounting for a given project? These are things that matter to line producers and the people tasked with hiring.
Granted, there’s a danger of falling into the “jack of all trades, master of none” category when you tell someone that you can do anything and everything, but in the days of shrinking budgets and schedules, producers and employers are increasingly looking for people who can solve multiple problems. Telling and showing them what you can do is a powerful way to set yourself apart from the competition, and perhaps even increase your bid.
Inquiring, pitching and following up
Blanketing companies or organizations with pitches isn’t likely to be a successful strategy, as those messages probably aren’t reaching the right people. Even if they are, they’re prone to be marked as spam. This is where your network can be invaluable because the people you know can ensure those messages aren’t going into a junk folder, but there are approaches you can take even if you don’t have a direct contact.
First and foremost, do your research. If you’re going to pitch a company around what you can do for them, make sure you know what they do, so that you can effectively tie those two things together. If you see a company’s digital strategy is lacking, you should have a specific idea around how the content and videos you want to create can and will help them. If you can’t get specific in your first message or meeting, you’ll lose their attention immediately.
In terms of finding and getting in front of the right person, you can look through the contact page a company has listed to figure out who the best fit for your pitch is going to be. Unless the company is tiny, emailing the CEO probably isn’t a good idea. However, emailing the marketing coordinator is a good place to start. Linkedin can also be an incredible resource as you can use it to ensure you’re able to contact the right person.
What’s also important to remember is that even when you’re submitting for a specific job or gig, you’re pitching someone, and you need to approach it that way. Anyone who’s responsible for doing the hiring on a production of any size is going to be busy, which is just one of the reasons they’re unlikely to watch your entire reel. That means they need to find something interesting and relevant very quickly, so you need to make sure you’re giving them something that is both of those things. That might mean more work on your end if you have to customize a reel, but that’s a worthwhile effort, isn’t it?
Regardless of whom you’ve contacted or reached out to, make sure you follow up to any correspondence in an extremely timely manner. I realize that sounds like a given, but you’d be shocked at how many people send out their links or proposals and then take their time with a reply.
You’re unlikely to receive a response to the majority of the pitches and inquiries you send out, but don’t let that discourage you from following up with those people. You want to keep yourself at the top of mind with the folks you’re contacting, and a quick message to find out your status never hurts. Just keep that correspondence brief. People often don’t read the entire message from someone they know, so if you’re going past two or three sentences in these sorts of messages, you’re already going on way too long.
There’s a reason major studios don’t accept unsolicited pitches, and you might find yourself running into companies or organizations that have this official or unofficial policy as well. If it’s something you come across, do what you can to find and work through the official channels, and then take the exact same approach there. You never know what someone might be looking for, and an inquiry to find out can open up incredible opportunities for them and for you.
Stay up to date
How do you approach pre-production? What’s your favorite camera to use during production? What NLE do you prefer above the rest? Think about the tools you’re using now, or the way you’re using them. Now think about what you’re going to do when you don’t have them. That day is approaching.
Granted, moving away from the tools you’ve used for years is a gradual one, and I’m not suggesting you won’t be able to use other tools in their place. It’s an important point to make though, because there are numerous professionals who hold onto the specifics of the tools they use or the approach they take. It always ends up hurting them, no matter how much they like those tools or how effective they are at using them.
Professionals across every industry fall into the trap of believing in a single process or tool, and it can be damaging in a myriad of ways. First and foremost, the pace at which technology moves means that there’s likely a more efficient approach or tool on the horizon, which means clinging to the thing you’re using or doing makes you inefficient. After all, there were plenty of amazing SD cameras, but what would you say to a person who wanted to shoot or deliver in that format today?
It’s something I’ve personally dealt with as we increasingly find ourselves living in a 4K world. I’ll admit that when the technology first came on scene I wasn’t exactly embracing it with open arms, but people far more experienced than me have argued that being able to capture content in the best way possible makes sense for today and for the future, and it’s hard to argue with that position. Leaving aside arguments around how much the human eye can actually perceive, 4K represents an evolution in terms of acquisition and delivery, and that kind of development isn’t something you can ever ignore.
At a broader level, being overly familiar with one tool or so ingrained in a particular way of doing things means you’ll never be able to see or understand how much else is out there in terms of your ability. If you can only do things one way, you’ll only be able to produce a single type of work. That directly influences the amount of opportunities that are available to you.
That’s not to say you can or should embrace every change as it comes about, because then you’re going to be upgrading firmware on a camera during the middle of a shoot or trying to install the updates to your NLE when you’re in the middle of editing. Nonetheless, being open to and accepting of new tools and ways of doing things can mean the difference between work that is distinct and relevant, or something that just seems old and familiar.
Plus, there’s an inherent power in being able to tell a client that you’re using the “latest and greatest” technology, just as there is in them knowing they can tell their colleagues that same thing.
Be you
We all have professionals that we look up to, and it’s been suggested that authenticity is far more important than originality, which means we should all wear our influences on our sleeves. Whether or not you can actually “steal” something like a style is a bigger question, but it illustrates the need to be distinctive and bring your own perspective to a given project.
One of my favorite illustrations of this was when DP Art Adams was participating in an AMA, and someone asked him how they could be him. I’ll quote him directly, because what he has to say is so concise and powerful…
Oh, you don’t want to be me. Be you. It’s much more interesting…we make our living based on what we can do and our unique way of doing things. It’s important to be you, or whoever you turn out to be as you progress in your career, because that’s what people will pay for.
It’s not just about what people will pay for, obviously, but that’s a huge factor in everything. The distinct ideas and identity that you bring to a project are what will ultimately guide your career development. You can certainly book a project based on an incredible pitch or because you happened to know the person who was doing the hiring, but the work is the ultimate barometer of whether you’d get hired again, and whether or not someone wants you to apply your ideas and identity to their project.
Not only that, but if someone is just looking for a person to run a camera or slap together an edit, they can find those sort of services online with a quick Google search. There are editors out there who will cut a spot for $5. A quick scrub through your local craigslist posting will provide plenty of candidates for someone who can run whatever camera you happen to have, even if it’s just the one on your smartphone. The democratization of production and post equipment means just about anyone can learn how to use these tools.
That’s bad for the people who just wanted to make a living in the industry, but it’s good for creatives and artists who have something to say. They’re the people who will be able to make a project distinct and memorable. They’re the people that can and will be hired for projects that are designed to resonate with an audience.
And that can all be because a person who might not have even been looking to start up a project saw an opportunity they couldn’t pass up with a creative who was able to showcase their vision.
