Nektonic
Veteran
I think if you want to be a filmmaker (direct narrative or docs, or music videos?) as opposed to a video producer or event videographer, you might be able to get more accomplished in the cinematic arts if you had a steady job, and then worked on weekends or nights/days off on your movies.
As you probably know, doing a full-time video production business takes a lot of time and energy to keep it going. I'm in that same boat, and have pretty much lost all momentum in pursuing my real dream, with is making films and writing scripts. I do wedding videos now, and some other events. Just keeping up with that and trying to compete in that market, I haven't done any corporate/commercial video work for a couple years now. It is brutal, and as others have said, the potential money you can make keeps plummeting as everybody and his brother grabs a DSLR and tries to make extra cash on the weekends doing events and wedding video.
If you really want to make films, it can be hard or nearly impossible to do that on the side while you run a small business. Running a business means you almost never clock out at the end of the day as you would with a regular 9-5 job. You take the burden home with you. It keeps you up at night. Personally, I'm kinda miserable at this point in my life due to this.
One of the best periods of my life was about a decade ago when I was 22-23 and making my first real attempt at shooting a film. At that time I worked at a coffee shop and saved as much as I could towards my film. It was a silly action/sci-fi feature shot on a crappy mini DV camera (this being right before the legendary DVX100 was unleashed). I was of course stupid and didn't get permission for locations. We had realistic looking cap guns, painted squirt guns, and pellet guns for some props. As you can guess, we had the cops called on us. I thought I was screwed. My record seemed that it was gonna be tarnished with the blurb arrested for making a movie. In the end, I never got all the scenes shot, and the actors flaked out a bit near the last days shooting. The final movie I was able to put together sucked horribly, but it was a great learning experience that I should have built on and tried to up my game and improve my technical filmmaking skills.
Instead I listened to all the practical advice from those around me, friends and family who said, "you'll make a good living shooting weddings and corporate vids, Hollywood is a pipe dream" etc. Of course, this was negatively reinforced by low confidence since high school, when I first admitted to parents and friends that I wanted to get into narrative filmmaking as a career (middle school years was when I was obsessed with special effects), and was shot down like a skinny bird caught in a hail of anti-aircraft flak. The thing is, once the 2008 economic meltdown hit, a lot of the "practical" advice that I received in school and during my early 20's was completely useless. I was pissed, and still am a bit to be honest. I feel like I wasted a good deal of my life, and now in my early 30's, I might be too old to continue pursuing screenwriting (from what I hear, the studio execs don't like you starting out past 35 at the latest). Same with directing. If you want to get your foot in the door, you have got to make it early on. The reality is that there is much less positive reception and interest towards middle-aged or older voices in the arts and entertainments industries nowadays.
So grab your dream by the reins and go for it. Sure you need some sort of job while you work towards a big break or just getting your foot in the door. That is how it is for everybody. I just think it is a waste of youth to feel you have to have everything figured out and be married with children right away, or creating a super successful independent business a year or two after finishing school. You're still young. 23. You have time to hone your talents and craft, which potentially will lead you to a career you actually want, not one out of necessity like 99% of the population. If you already enjoy doing this (film/video), then at the very least you'll have the fun and fulfillment of pursuing it, even if you don't make it to the top of the industry pyramid of wealth and power.
Damn... all this talk has me really fired up. I think blathering on about all this has helped me in motivating my own pitiful self. So if I can find a glimmer of hope at my age, you certainly have not run out of options.
As you probably know, doing a full-time video production business takes a lot of time and energy to keep it going. I'm in that same boat, and have pretty much lost all momentum in pursuing my real dream, with is making films and writing scripts. I do wedding videos now, and some other events. Just keeping up with that and trying to compete in that market, I haven't done any corporate/commercial video work for a couple years now. It is brutal, and as others have said, the potential money you can make keeps plummeting as everybody and his brother grabs a DSLR and tries to make extra cash on the weekends doing events and wedding video.
If you really want to make films, it can be hard or nearly impossible to do that on the side while you run a small business. Running a business means you almost never clock out at the end of the day as you would with a regular 9-5 job. You take the burden home with you. It keeps you up at night. Personally, I'm kinda miserable at this point in my life due to this.
One of the best periods of my life was about a decade ago when I was 22-23 and making my first real attempt at shooting a film. At that time I worked at a coffee shop and saved as much as I could towards my film. It was a silly action/sci-fi feature shot on a crappy mini DV camera (this being right before the legendary DVX100 was unleashed). I was of course stupid and didn't get permission for locations. We had realistic looking cap guns, painted squirt guns, and pellet guns for some props. As you can guess, we had the cops called on us. I thought I was screwed. My record seemed that it was gonna be tarnished with the blurb arrested for making a movie. In the end, I never got all the scenes shot, and the actors flaked out a bit near the last days shooting. The final movie I was able to put together sucked horribly, but it was a great learning experience that I should have built on and tried to up my game and improve my technical filmmaking skills.
Instead I listened to all the practical advice from those around me, friends and family who said, "you'll make a good living shooting weddings and corporate vids, Hollywood is a pipe dream" etc. Of course, this was negatively reinforced by low confidence since high school, when I first admitted to parents and friends that I wanted to get into narrative filmmaking as a career (middle school years was when I was obsessed with special effects), and was shot down like a skinny bird caught in a hail of anti-aircraft flak. The thing is, once the 2008 economic meltdown hit, a lot of the "practical" advice that I received in school and during my early 20's was completely useless. I was pissed, and still am a bit to be honest. I feel like I wasted a good deal of my life, and now in my early 30's, I might be too old to continue pursuing screenwriting (from what I hear, the studio execs don't like you starting out past 35 at the latest). Same with directing. If you want to get your foot in the door, you have got to make it early on. The reality is that there is much less positive reception and interest towards middle-aged or older voices in the arts and entertainments industries nowadays.
So grab your dream by the reins and go for it. Sure you need some sort of job while you work towards a big break or just getting your foot in the door. That is how it is for everybody. I just think it is a waste of youth to feel you have to have everything figured out and be married with children right away, or creating a super successful independent business a year or two after finishing school. You're still young. 23. You have time to hone your talents and craft, which potentially will lead you to a career you actually want, not one out of necessity like 99% of the population. If you already enjoy doing this (film/video), then at the very least you'll have the fun and fulfillment of pursuing it, even if you don't make it to the top of the industry pyramid of wealth and power.
Damn... all this talk has me really fired up. I think blathering on about all this has helped me in motivating my own pitiful self. So if I can find a glimmer of hope at my age, you certainly have not run out of options.
