Career Goals

[Nick Griffin]

Gee, why do so many of the really good threads start when I’m out of town at a conference or neck-deep in a shoot? My two cents: As others have said and I’ll try to say more plainly, add skills and keep adding skills. And then… add some more.

As someone who has been self-employed since… well let’s just say it’s measured in decades… I’ve had to continually re-invent what I do, almost always without leaving any of the previously developed skills behind. This has taken me from radio production, to sales, to advertising, to PR, into computer consulting, from still photography into videography and production. And I’ll say with the exceptions of radio and computer consulting I’m still doing most of these things for a highly select group of clients.

Never stop learning (as Mr. Zelin so succinctly points out). Keep learning new things so that you stay valuable to your employers, or should you decide to go out on your own, to your clients.

I also agree that step one is keeping the day job and branching out from there, as long as it NEVER conflicts with the day job. Those who equate going into business for themselves as an either/or proposition are setting themselves up for the strong possibility of failure. I was dumb and lucky. Most are not. Build a business on the side that’s already up and running before you expect it to pay all of your bills.

[Ned Miller]

OP writes: “we want to start a family.” Uh-oh…Independent video/freelancing/producing and having a family don’t go together unless:

1) You married a rich girl.
2) You married a girl who makes a high salary.
3) Preferably a combo of #1 & #2
4) You are from family money.
5) Most preferably a combo of #3 & #4 which many in video are!

Otherwise you’re forced, as a male who wants to start a family, to go staff/steady paycheck. I’m an exception to the rule, being freelance for 36 years, but my generation rode the Golden Wave of making great money (until Digital/Internet/DSLR destroyed it). What was good for the masses was bad for the Pros. You was born 20 years too late. Now there’s too much competition to make a really good living like we did. Sorry! Supply and demand, Econ 101. Too many people now doing video. Clients now have a lower expectation of quality and won’t pay like they used to. Unfortunately, video production has become a commodity if not DIY, unless you find or stumble across deep pocket clients which is getting to be like finding hens teeth.

Everything changes, not when you get married but when the (first) baby comes and it gets tougher when the stork keeps dropping by. Then your career choices narrow because you have to make even more (steady) money and you become: The Bread Winner. At that time a steady paycheck with job security and insurance overrides all. Even with the Affordable Care Act because that has very high deductibles. Your “happiness” takes a back seat to putting food in the fridge, making the car(s) payments, rent, etc. Even if your wife goes back to work it will be tough. Once you have two kids it can be cheaper for your wife to stay home with the kids than the price of day care for two or three kids. So be prepared: You must figure out a way to make the most money, regardless if you find the work “fulfilling”. Sorry about that. I hope I’m not the first one to tell you.

Unfortunately Zellin is right. Things look different when you’re young and starting out, bright eyed and bushy tailed, overly optimistic. When you start in a “cool” occupation that perhaps once was a passion or hobby there’s an excitement level, when you have to do it as a way to make money, then it can become work or the clients/projects/mission grind you down. I know this from dealing with too many people who quit their day job to get into video or stills as a livelihood.

I would say for your generation, if you have landed a corp video staff job, the “secure” career path I have seen (I shoot for many Fortune 100s) is to get a more advanced degree and/or certifications, that will allow you to stay in a creative dept (marketing, advertising, video, PR, etc.) and make more money. Since you want to start a family keep that gig and figure out how to use it as a stepping stone but DO NOT go freelance or independent unless you have that family money security mentioned above. As Mark said you can release your inner filmmaker on your side jobs, maybe do charity fund raising videos for non-profits, music videos for local bands, etc. But…your priority is to provide for your family once the first bambino comes.

The REAL PROBLEM of the video biz is basically there’s no real cash flow like a for real biz, it’s a PROJECT centric business, like contracting:

• Look for work
• Get work and complete it.
• Get check (which can take awhile).
• Spend profit
• Repeat- over and over. And there’s no predictability or stability.

It is however the perfect profession for people who do not care for regularity and that is why freelance creative services draw the ADD & ADHD crowd. That may be what’s bugging you: The Regularity of Corporate Work. Many of us life long freelancers can’t handle the regularity but deep down we’re jealous of a steady paycheck and matching 401K contributions, and did I mention health insurance?

If you go independent there are 4 identifiable stages to your career:

1) Who is Ned Miller?
2) Get me Ned Miller
3) Get me a YOUNG Ned Miller (meaning I’m considered too expensive)
4) Who is Ned Miller?

I am in stage 3 right now and trying to elongate it.

So nowadays, if you aren’t from money or married into it (which many in the creative arts are) it is nigh impossible to:

• Save for an engagment ring.
• Pay for a wedding.
• Save for a down payment for a house then make payments.
• Afford kids
• Have decent car(s)
• Save for a college fund
• Have a nice annual vacation
• Put money away for retirement
• Etc. Adult life. Ugh!

I have two kids in their late 20s and I would not recommend this business to them (or anyone). We made the mistake to teach them to “follow your bliss”, it’s more important to be happy than make money. Well, my wife and I were wrong. Mr. Rogers was wrong. Now they are doing something that’s fun, fulfilling, challenging and helps Mother Earth but there’s NO MONEY in tree hugging. It is hard to be happy when you’re older if you’re broke. In fact, that’s an old expression: “There’s no money in it.” Even in a corp video dept, which is susceptible to the axe in hard times, it doesn’t pay that well. That’s why you need to move up the corporate ladder, learn how to play golf, be good at shmoozing, etc. Get an MBA, get certified:

https://www.iabc.com/abc/
https://www.prsachicago.com/professional-development/accreditation-apr/

You want to have a lot of letters after you’re name if you’re in a corp. And in regard to those posters who suggest starting your own “production company”, if you are a one-man-band you are NOT a production company, you’re a freelance producer. That’s me, I know.

I know from whence I speak, I was just hired as a Wisewords Advisor which is consulting to people wanting to enter the DP profession. I also will be starting a blog for young DPs on my new website, mainly because I do not have the time to answer every email query about how to get into the biz. I will tone down my real perspective but I can tell you honestly, if you are planning to have kids, in this crazy irregular business, keep your staff gig at all costs and save every damn penny. LBYM (Live Below Your Means). I am one of the fortunate few but that is because I entered the biz at the right time. Now it is too late, unless you have that back up money mentioned above.

So normally I would charge you for that advice but since you’re a buddy on our forum it’s gratis. Here is the site where you can get advice for $25:

https://www.wisewords.co/experiences/all/?page=1&cat=30

Well good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Bob Zelin]

I LOVE Ned’s Post –
Ned writes –

1) Who is Ned Miller?
2) Get me Ned Miller
3) Get me a YOUNG Ned Miller (meaning I’m considered too expensive)
4) Who is Ned Miller?

Let me translate, for those too young to understand. In #1, you are no one, and you work your behind off to become someone. Then “everyone” says “get me Ned Miller” (or get me Bob Zelin). Then Bob Zelin gets too expensive, and “they say” get me someone like Bob Zelin or Ned Miller, but who charges half that amount”.
As the years go by, the “new kids” who are now 30 years old are starting to become established, and unlike the “old time professionals”, these new successful kids have NO IDEA of who Ned Miller or Bob Zelin are, and we may contact them, and they say “who are you”. Which for us “professionals” is the ultimate insult, and we want to say “don’t you know who I am” – but in reality, we are no one, because there is probably some 35 year old that can run rings around what we do. If you don’t want to face up to these facts, that the world keeps changing, and if you don’t keep up, and keep fighting, you will be unemployed, and forgotten, then you should NEVER consider going into this (or any) hi technology business. Because the #1 Panavision Cinematographer is NO ONE to a 30 year old producer that want to shoot with a RED Epic Dragon, and the 60 year old Academy Award DP can only say “6K, what is 6K”.

If you don’t like this reality, just get a job, and have a family.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

quick summary to my last post on this subject –

“who is Walter Biscardi ?”

Anyone that can’t answer that question should not be allowed to work in the post production industry.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Mark Suszko]

Depressing item of the day:

While I’ve been scrabbling at a living these past 27-odd years, there’s an 8-year-old kid on the internet, clearing over a million dollars a year on YouTube, just unboxing his toys in front of a locked-off camera.

And he’s not the only one.

This fact is making me mightily struggle with Matthew:20. I’ll get over it, but the take-away should be that there still are million-dollar ideas out there in areas you may not have considered.

[Tim Wilson]

[Mark Suszko] “the take-away should be that there still are million-dollar ideas out there in areas you may not have considered.”

Exactly my point. Even without the million dollars. Just talking about happiness and maximum creativity. No contemplation of a career path should ONLY include options for staying on the CURRENT path. Certainly not in one’s 20s.

[Linda Naks]

Hallo David,

With only 17 years of LA under my editing belt, I’m only just getting started now. The following is the best I can give you:

It’s stupid, it’s cliche, but it’s so very true: do what you love, and love what you do. Whether in production or in post, this is not a 9 –>5 industry, any way you dice it. When your day has reached hour 14, or hour 26 (no, not a typo, that was my world record to get a show to air,) you need to love your craft or else you’ll do a Walter White. I recently had the privilege to work with one of LA’s finest companies, and in my first of a 2-week gig, I put in 80 hours. It was (cough) challenging to say the least. I missed sleeping and eating. Often I was in quite a lot of pain. But I wanted my new boss/client to trust me, and trust me he did. The experience was invaluable, and loving my job made the hours so much easier.

TV/Film is not the easiest road to take. A mere 5 years into the game, I cracked under the pressure and quit, stating I’d never touch a computer again. Rigged parachutes for two years. Re-screwed my head back on, and now, I love editing so much, that my DVR is perpetually max’ed at 99%. I watch anything and everything. I watch stoopid diaper commercials in slow motion and sketch out the designs of how a seemingly-mundane spot actually solves fitting a lot of attractive graphics into one screen. Learn from everything and everyone.

Learn the legalities of the business. Keep everything legit to a T, and always keep your deals in writing. I truly think that our particular industry tends to bring out the worst in many people, more so than do other industries. BUT, I have also met so many of the finest, kindest, most genuine folks as well– folks who have become the best of the best, simply because they love what they do. When you find a great individual, or a super company/client, work hard to keep them tight.

Everybody knows EVERYBODY. This is sometimes good, other times very bad. In a random elevator at a random network building, in stepped a former colleague from an ugly gig many years ago. You will cross paths again which you wouldn’t even believe, so always remain polite and remain professional. The past tends to resurface around town, and you want your interactions to have concluded nicely. EVERYBODY talks, and it’s easier to live up to a good reputation than it is to live a bad one down.

All of the above replies are excellent and a joy to read. I hope you can find some nuggets in my ramblings here as well. Stay strong, be good, remain honest, in whichever road you take. I’m sure things will work out just fine, even when you hit some inevitable (but temporary!) potholes, sinkholes, tornadoes, and collapsed black holes along the way. It’s a fun ride, so enjoy 🙂

[Joe Knapp]

Sorry I’m late to the party….

Truth: Corporate in-house video can be both savior and enslaver. What do you really want to do, in your heart? Do you like video for video’s sake, or do you deeply desire to make particular types of content?

Corporate video can be a great source of stability, tends to pay better than peers at production/post companies, and can be a great learning ground where you can sample many different aspects of the video production universe. Depending on the company, you can have a great deal of creative control.

Conversely, it usually is very dry and repetitive, unless 1) you’re in the right company, or 2) you’re in the right mindset. Your ‘ladder-climbing’ options are usually non-existent, your creative direction is often overruled by office politics or whims of an executive, and you tend to get isolated from others in the industry. And how many talking-head and year-in-review videos can one person take, FFS? 😉

Know that it’s pretty important that you decide early in your career which direction you’d like to go in. Otherwise, you get addicted to the corporate teat (corporate & federal government work tend to pay pretty nicely). The other reason is stigma. Broadcast-oriented people want people who have broadcast experience, no matter how great you edit/produce/animate/composite. And it gets harder to jump to the other ship later on. It’s pretty hard to take a sizable pay cut and try to beat out others that have industry experience. Not impossible, but difficult.

TL;DR advice: Give yourself 4-5 years of stability, save your cash, continue to freelance. At the 5 year mark, that’s a great point to decide whether to stay in-house corporate, or jump to other parts of the industry. Good luck, brother.

[Richard Herd]

We can only assume you are still paying on those loans. And what does “crappy first gig” mean?

[Kylee Pena]

Of course I’m still paying on my loans. My crappy first gig after school only paid me $12 an hour.

I would describe it to you further, but it’s probably best to stay a little more positive. I learned things and grew and after four years of waiting out the economy, I got the opportunity to leave. During those four years, I was also able to get my side work set up and do passion projects that really rounded my skills out as an editor.

blog: kyleesportfolio.com/blog
twitter: @kyl33t
demo: kyleewall.com