Tips for making personal projects fun again

QuickHitRecord

QuickHitRecord

Veteran
Do you ever feel like:

  • You paid so much money for a camera/rig that you can't justify shooting with anything more compact (and consequently find that you don't shoot for pleasure as often anymore)?
  • You are past the point in your career when you could get away with shooting anything, even if it's just an exercise, without lighting and professional audio?
  • That there is no point shooting anything just for fun if it is not advancing your career in some way?
  • That you are overwhelmed with the amount of gear that you have, and the number of options that you have to consider for even the simplest of shoots?
  • That there is so much pressure to deliver polished, professional-looking footage, even in your personal work, that it exhausts you before you even begin?

What are some of the ways that you've found to deal with it?
 
I separate my professional and amateur video: Just take a small point and shoot (ixus 220HS) on holidays, post footage on separate YouTube channel, must admit I do feel I have to add titles, credits and do some cc. And I still find paid shoots can be fun.
 
RE1: Part of "spending much money" is growiming into pro/expert category. With that comes realization that there are times where you need large rigs and there are times you don't.

RE2: What's the exercise? - some exercises don't need lights, some do - your expertise dictates it.

RE3: Advancing my career is FUN! Time to change your perspective on what defines your life.

RE4: See answer to point 1

RE5: I think you need to steep back as in your artistic development something went missing. I understand the "no pleasure in work" part but you keep on bringing it into the realms of "too much this, too much that" while in reality there is not enough perspective. One of the reasons why you probably don't find pleasure in your work is because consciously or not you have grown beyond trivial experiments. Testing out yet another 3-point lighting set-up doesn't spark the interest - as it definitely doesn't in me. Thus you have to come up with a larger, much larger, project so it will not be about just trivial test but accomplishing something significant.
 
I guess I might come off as a commercial whore for saying this, but I find getting a check at the end of each project makes things that much better.
 
I like to experiment, trying ideas I am thinking or things I've seen in other's work, or just ideas I have about light. I am experimenting with creating and using soft top light, lately because of the lighting in house of cards. Stuff like that. It's been a long cold winter here in NY. It warmed up, so I went outside and did a time lapse yesterday. I wanted to see if I could get through many stops including an ND switch. Here it is... https://vimeo.com/87428414 Needs work ... anyway. Once I scout for a shoot I'll try various setups that we've imagined for it.

I know a producer who says that I'm easy because she knows that I'm going to be lighting and shooting no matter what. It's true.

Oh, I don't ever think I have too much equipment! Ask my wife. She has a heart attack everytime the UPS truck goes by ;) Lately, the wisdom of renting and hiring is also seeping in. But I like to be able to try stuff so I like having a lot of gear. It's not all the best (see magnetic ballasts) but it lets me work and test and be prepared for the work I get and I make a few bucks with it where it's right.
 
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QuickHit,

Yes to your questions. But like Patryk said, I think it can be solved with a subtle paradigm shift.

Instead of feeling like your gear has encumbered you and your professional career has killed your spontaneous desire to create, realize instead that your improved technological capacity and increased knowledge has opened up an entirely new world of potential for you to create on another level.

In other words, "ignorance is bliss." Before you started down this path, you could have shot this on your cell-phone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHxi-HSgNPc
and really believed that it could change your life, like the 16-year-olds in the movie did.

The first step towards mastery, in my opinion, is to realize how far we are from achieving it. If you cultivate humility, you won't be so hard on yourself when your expectations don't pay off, and the planning process won't be so frustrating each time you encounter a new obstacle.
Sometimes I even think its a fun game to spend a long time planning in advance in order to simplify my shoots, both commercial and non-commercial.

But, sage advice aside, I feel like I understand where you're coming from. Another way I "deal with it" is to stick with short documentaries where I can often use natural light, shoot solo or with one soundperson, and let my subject matter dictate and generate a large portion of the narrative.
 
Thanks for the insight, everyone. Allow me to clarify that I still find joy in practicing and learning our craft, as well as advancing my career. I am just trying to work through some (probably self-imposed) hurdles in my creative willpower lately. Maybe it's just the fact that it has been a long, cold winter on the East Coast and it's just sapping my energy and giving me too much time to invent obstacles for myself.
 
QHR, I started typing some long-winded response last night about how my 2 & 5 year old have zapped all the free time from my life. (Parenthood: where creativity goes to die...j/k) Compound that with the fact that yes, it has been a very long cold winter here in CT.

The upside to my situation is having *a few* paying clients that let me take creative liberties and have some fun with my work. I would echo what Patryk said about advancing the career. Right now, I wouldn't entertain the thought of shooting anything 'for pleasure'....like David says, let there be a paycheck at the end of the process. I get a charge from the latest corporate video I'm shooting or whatever....I'm not exactly Mr. Excitement. : )

Definitely would not rig up a camera for fun, but I keep a DSLR ready in case the kids do something 'precious'.

OP: out of curiosity, what kind of projects would you like to be doing in your free time? Short films? Music videos? It's hard to figure out what your goals are. We all come from many different directions on these boards.

PS: Hugh, I loved your timelapse of the TappanZee bridge. But seriously....let winter be over! back to work......
 
I know how you feel. I've reached the point where the bar I set for myself is high enough that I now need a budget for any project. This adds an entire other layer of stress to everything I want to do because now it's a business and not merely artistic expression. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days where I would just pick up the camera, grab a few friends, and go out and make something, but I know those days are gone. The only advice I can give is to make sure you are actually passionate about a personal project before you jump in. At the end of the day, your desire to see this made and put out in the world is the only thing that will get you through the muck of financing, producing, and distributing.
 
Try taking a break from moving pictures and shooting some photos. It's a much simpler process, no sound, no blocking, and you can do it with just yourself, your camera, and a model on a nice afternoon at golden hour. You can get a couple of actors and take photos for a story board of a project you'd like to do. Don't worry about lights, props, etc., just shoot for the story board. Or try limiting your gear and crew on a video project. You get a camera, two lights, and one other person as crew, nothing else. There's only so many places you can put those two lights and then you're ready to shoot.
 
Gillvane said:
Try taking a break from moving pictures and shooting some photos. It's a much simpler process, no sound, no blocking, and you can do it with just yourself, your camera, and a model on a nice afternoon at golden hour. You can get a couple of actors and take photos for a story board of a project you'd like to do. Don't worry about lights, props, etc., just shoot for the story board. Or try limiting your gear and crew on a video project. You get a camera, two lights, and one other person as crew, nothing else. There's only so many places you can put those two lights and then you're ready to shoot.
Click to expand...

This. Limits spur creativity.
 
I started enjoying video more again when I was able stop doing video projects I found boring...

Read the 4 hour workweek. How much of your job can you outsource? Can you pay for rough cutting? Basically, take a pay hit until you can get back to doing only what you love. Then watch that grow. Continue outsourcing what you don't love to people who do enjoy that aspect.
 
Lots of good points. Thanks again. And for those wondering about my background, I am an in-house video producer for a big corporation. It can be pretty dry material, but I can't complain about the steady paychecks. I just need to go elsewhere for my creative kicks.

Perhaps photography is the answer. I once worked with a twenty-year DP on a project that had us out in Arkansas, shortly after some major flooding. After we were done with our assignment for the day, it was still light out so we grabbed a Varicam and headed out to the flooded areas to see what we could see: flooded fields, submerged cars, and tragically, a lot of houses and farms that were not saved by the sandbag walls. It was sad, but in the setting sun it was also oddly serene. Beautiful, even. I was surprised when the DP never even reached for the Varicam. I ended up shooting with it, while he ran around happily snapping handheld photos with his new Android phone. I probably should have done the same, because I had a considerably less-awesome time lugging around an ENG camera on sticks. I may have gotten a shot that that made it into my reel, but at the end of the day, my creative batteries were drained while his seemed to be recharged.
 
filmguy123 said:
I started enjoying video more again when I was able stop doing video projects I found boring...

Read the 4 hour workweek. How much of your job can you outsource? Can you pay for rough cutting? Basically, take a pay hit until you can get back to doing only what you love. Then watch that grow. Continue outsourcing what you don't love to people who do enjoy that aspect.
Click to expand...

This is the third time in about a month that I've seen this book come up. It seems to be highly recommended. My team has been downsized quite a bit (working for an in-house creative group), and so have our budgets. I find myself operating as a one-man-band more and more often. Would the ideas in this book still apply?
 
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