Is making commercials/big features the only way to financially survive as a director?

J

jghenderson

Well-known member
The more I know about this industry the more it's seeming that the only way to make a decent living is to either make commercials or decent budget movies (let's say $5 million+).

I enjoy making music videos, and recently got one accepted into a pretty big festival, but there definitely doesn't seem to be any money in that. I know people who have made videos for well known national artists, and they told me you're lucky if you can even get $10,000 for a video, and almost all of that will obviously go to production/post.

My passion is narrative, but i'm not near ready to make a big feature so my only options are short films or ultra low budget features, but there doesn't seem to be any way whatsoever to make any money off these, and in fact they are usually money sinks as they are often self financed.

The only way it seems to make enough money to live without having to have another job is to make decent sized commercials and features, but of course it's very difficult to get into a position to make those.

Is this one of those things where you just have to accept it, take other jobs, and hope that one day you'll be given a chance to do something big? Or is there actually a path to survival as a filmmaker outside of these extremes? I feel like I already know the answer, I was just wondering if anyone had any examples I might not know about. It seems sad to me that so many people pick this career path out of a desire to actually do something they love, and yet seemingly almost everyone ends up being forced to predominantly do things they don't enjoy (industrials, weddings, crewing, editing, etc.), and almost always end up not producing as many passion projects as they would want because "life gets in the way". Im just looking for a glimmer of hope here if there is any.
 
jghenderson said:
The more I know about this industry the more it's seeming that the only way to make a decent living is to either make commercials or decent budget movies (let's say $5 million+).

I enjoy making music videos, and recently got one accepted into a pretty big festival, but there definitely doesn't seem to be any money in that. I know people who have made videos for well known national artists, and they told me you're lucky if you can even get $10,000 for a video, and almost all of that will obviously go to production/post.

My passion is narrative, but i'm not near ready to make a big feature so my only options are short films or ultra low budget features, but there doesn't seem to be any way whatsoever to make any money off these, and in fact they are usually money sinks as they are often self financed.

The only way it seems to make enough money to live without having to have another job is to make decent sized commercials and features, but of course it's very difficult to get into a position to make those.

Is this one of those things where you just have to accept it, take other jobs, and hope that one day you'll be given a chance to do something big? Or is there actually a path to survival as a filmmaker outside of these extremes? I feel like I already know the answer, I was just wondering if anyone had any examples I might not know about. It seems sad to me that so many people pick this career path out of a desire to actually do something they love, and yet seemingly almost everyone ends up being forced to predominantly do things they don't enjoy (industrials, weddings, crewing, editing, etc.), and almost always end up not producing as many passion projects as they would want because "life gets in the way". Im just looking for a glimmer of hope here if there is any.
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Well, there's good news and bad news :) The good news, is you CAN make a living even if you are not making 'A list'
commercials and movies. I do it and I live in a isolated small town in Alaska with no road access. Of course, the
bad news is......you don't generally make any money off your 'passion projects'. Unless you can find someone else
who has a passion for the same things and will fund you. You make money, by making films that people will pay
you to make. That means, you are making other people's projects, and not your own. Sometimes, you find another
person's project that fits with your interests, and those ones are really fun. But, the reality is, that people mostly
are willing to pay you to 'Make Something That Will Benefit Them', not to make 'Something You Want To Make'.
In other words, lots of corporate and organizational promo films. Which kind of makes sense if you think
about it :) My course of action is that you use a little of the money from the 'paying' projects to help
fund the 'passion' projects. The good thing about this, is that the 'paying' projects, actually help develop
your skills, and the 'passion' projects, while they often don't make you money, can do a good job of
getting you exposure and building some 'buzz' around your abilities.
 
I understand your concern. But I can tell you that there are lots of people making a decent living shooting. The key it seems is to be in the business for awhile and hope that the friends you have in the industry are doing well and they want you to shoot for them when they get projects. There is one thing to have an outstanding reel and then there is another to know the right people that have the confidence in you (Or trust) to use you on a regular basis. Seems in this day and age social media plays a part in it, too. I can only see this being more common in the future.
 
Indeed. Nepotism and cronyism rank far above creativity and technological expertise in most forms of upper/middle management, directing included.
 
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