Show Business or No Business?
#SHOW AND TELL
If you have decided to pursue a career in the creative field, more often then not it is a passion that burns deep within your soul. While other people struggle through their 9 - 5 job with little to no enjoyment with their chosen career path, you’re busy chasing your dream. While those jobs don’t feed their passion, they do offer structure. Working for big businesses comes with a template of what must be done in order to achieve goals from A to Z. As a creative, this goes against all the visions you had in your head before you decided to follow the beat of your own drum. The joy of being creative is that you are free from the shackles of corporations, and the suit and tie lifestyle that businesses thrive and succeed on; reports, deadlines, meetings, are all a part of the machine to keep big business moving forward. When you talk with friends of old who are caught up in the system that you managed to escape, there is a jealousy in their eyes. They are envious of your child-like exuberance, and would rather hear about the fun adventures you get to have over the monotony of their Groundhog Days at the office. In contrast, you get to hone your craft, tell stories through film, music, image or text. Full-timers can only imagine having a life as carefree as yours. However this would require them to forgo the safety of a steady income, and this is the part of the creative lifestyle that most people often forget.
#NEGLECTED
It isn't just about the show, there is very much a business that goes on behind the scenes, which more often than not is neglected. Dream Chasers often forget to step outside their dreams and see how to turn them into a reality. I was once at an acting school many years ago, that had a quote on the wall that really bothered me; 'We aren't people, we're actors'. This thought process is almost elitist in its view. What makes an actor so special that they are above people? Is it because the actor was able to follow their heart and have the strength to risk a financially unstable future? Not everyone wants to act, but everyone has dreams which, believe it or not, some non-artists successfully follow. They also risk the same uncertainty with their finances. Getting a business off the ground isn't easy and costs money, but will it bring in revenue? Having the ability to dream doesn't make you better than anyone else. The problem that comes with the dream, however, is that we forget a very important part of our creativity; we are a business. The film industry is littered with a lot of unemployed creatives that don't do anything to improve their business. The very basic starting point is to improve your skillset, but you need to do more than that if you are to open more doors.
#RESPONSIBILITY
Opportunities won't fall into your lap. This isn’t to say that they can't, but why would anyone want to sit and wait for something that may never come knocking. You need to own all aspects of your work. How can you market yourself and get yourself out there in a way that best represents you? How best can you invest in yourself that will bring back a return in your investment? Take a look at Richard Branson. He had a dream and a vision. At first it didn't go according to plan, so he readjusted. And the rest is history, as they say. Looking at successful entrepreneurs is a good place to start when trying to see yourself as a business. Obviously on paper, it looks very different. But in essence, it's all the same thing. You have a product and you need to sell your product. Do people want to buy it? If not, why don't they? This is where you need to take responsibility not just for your craft but for your product, YOU. Doing student films year after year may not continue to increase your skillset, meaning the product that you are selling is no better than it was last year or the year before. When new players are consistently coming onto the scene, staying on top of your craft is the bare minimum you can do. The next stage is showing everyone you are something they would like to purchase. What do you offer that others don't? That could be as simple as a really enjoyable personality, or your hard work ethic. Maybe you build a network of really talented creatives that can vouch for you. Maybe you release weekly content online and build a following that way. You might decide to start to frequent networking events, meet new filmmakers or like-minded people and get involved in their next projects.
Whatever you decide, understand that you can't neglect the business side of your dreams. It is equally as important as all the creative things you do. However without the skillset, you are trying to sell a product that nobody wants to buy.