What do we do when we aren't making (or trying to) make a movie

S

scenedirector

Well-known member
We are living in a GREAT age to be making movies. With where technology is and where it is in the near future (can't even imagine in the far) we can have our stories seen, but...

Even though the technology has gotten extremely affordable in terms of the industry, it is still some expensive stuff!
I spent $4k on my 94 Toyota Corolla and whined that I spent too much on it, but I won't second guess buying an HVX200 with at least 1 P2 card and a downloadable hardrive, plus other things such as tripods, lighting gear, computer and software stuff. This adds up to thousands upon thousands of dollars.

How do you guys afford it?

I am working 2 jobs right now 60 hours a week. I'll just say one is retail, so there's an idea what my income is.
I don't have a college degree and I don't work in the industry, and when I mean industry, not even at a local TV station, I don't know anybody, and the film community is small and sparse where I am located.

The only thing I can come up with to justify the expenses (not for myself, but for myself in this thing called "the real world") is do event videography as a side business like weddings and so forth.
I'm thinking that I have to become a businessman before I can be an artist. Use this sweet gear on other people's events or projects, and if I can squeeze in the time, make my movies with these toys....err I mean these tools.

Am I viewing this all wrong or do you guys have other paths of least resistance.

NOTE: I know there is no rule or formula on how to approach you OWN career in filmmaking, but I would like to hear what's going on in your lives to get a better picture.
 
Quick run down:
Work 40 hrs a week at the job but have three (YES I SAID 3) kids all under 5yrs old so my "after work" hrs translates into full throttle overtime. When I walk into the house it's non-stop choas until I club them over the head with their PJ's when bed time arrives.
When they are in bed, I'm ready for bed. I'm young but feel old. Work and kids oh and a wife does that to ya! lol
Anyway, I'm in NJ and only 15 minutes outside of NYC so resources are deep. I have a ton of music artists that I can tap into to stay busy filming and I'm trying to network as much as I can with other film makers to learn more about film making and their approaches.

If you can, move to LA or NY for a year so you can "get out" of town and into a more active film community.
 
There is definitely a cash outlay for getting your gear and equipment, and while my baby isnt as fully accessorized as some people's, my trick is to stay out of debt. I dont owe a credit card, I dont owe a car payment, and I am debt free. I also keep my other expenses to a minimum, like I traded full cable for broadband internet and did away with my landline at home.

I would also say to tap whatever local resources you have. If you have the time avail, volunteer with a local theater group and make some contacts there. Community theater folks are very resourceful and could be a good contact for set pieces or costumes and talent for your future projects. Or check out whether your city has a Film Commission and see what local businesses are hooked up through that.

Where there's a will, there's a way, right?
 
I don't exactly live in Film Central, so I'm really the only game in town (that I know of). That can be a good thing. Use it to your advantage. I know all kinds of people who are willing to lend a hand if I need them to.
 
Dang Coffee, that sounds like my story (except I only have two kids). I'm 25 years old, have the back of an 80 year old man, my knee went out on my last weekend, and I've never been more tired in my life. Still, they're cute kids. :)

My full-time job is doing corporate video work for a national insurance company. They don't let me use gear, but I at least get to work on shooting and editing skills while I'm at work (and read DVXUser.com--we call it "research" here :)).

I have afforded all of my gear by having a loving wife who supports my dream of being a full-time filmmaker. Putting a little money aside here and there until it equals the next thing on my list.
 
krestofre,
Do you want three more? I'll trade for your camera! LOL :laugh:

I feel your pain my man, I go through it daily but overall it has been the most beautiful experience in my life!
 
Well guys, I'll fill you in a little more...
I'm 25 too and I have a 1 year old little girl. I'm not with her mother, but I AM A FATHER. I never had a father growing up, but I definitely make sure my daughter has one.

But with my circumstances, I guess I have to juggle these 4 things together: the child, a full time job (to bring in steady income and benefits like vacations and insurance, a small video production business as my new 2nd job to pay for the stuff, and when those are all met above satisfaction...the filmmaking.
Am I right?

It's kind of ironic. You get the gear to make movies, but to pay for the gear you have to do everything else...and if, and ONLY if there is time left over, you can make a film.
I guess that's better than just working two dead end jobs and passing on with your music still inside.
 
scenedirector said:
I have to juggle these 4 things together: the child, a full time job (to bring in steady income and benefits like vacations and insurance, a small video production business as my new 2nd job to pay for the stuff, and when those are all met above satisfaction...the filmmaking.
Am I right?

I guess that's better than just working two dead end jobs and passing on with your music still inside.
Click to expand...

Definitely avoid the "passing on-music still inside" thing when at all possible. Maybe the second job will eventually not be quite as mandatory as it is right now, and you can trade it for time. I'm trading sleep at the moment for time to write. Seems I can only write well in the wee small hours of the morning, but I was already getting up at 4:15a for work.
 
Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm definitely not going to have my music still inside.

I guess I'll just focus on bringing money in so that I can keep and continue to use and work at least in this vocation. And as money increases, free time and increase too.

Are you guys taking a similar approach?
Without getting too personal into your lives, what do you do to bring money in the door to support this EXPENSIVE hobby?
 
Thanks for the offer Coffee, but I'll have to pass for now. :laugh:

scenedirector, You can make it all work. You have the extra difficulty of being a single parent, but your priorities sound like they're in the right place. That little girl is infinitely more important than any film you could make and it sounds like you're focused on being there for her, which is a good thing. Just be sure to raise her with plenty of knowledge on scene lighting and sound design, then when she's a little older you can work on films together. :thumbsup:

Amidst all other things in my life, I'm currently in the middle of principle photography of a feature film. How do I do it? Thursday nights. Yep, we shoot Thursday nights when I get off work until we all drop. I gathered a cast and crew who understands that until the big payoff comes, we have to be flexible as a team. Sure we'd all like to take two weeks off from work and families to shoot the movie and move on, but we can't do that, so the compromise that everyone has made is just to be really tired on Friday.

On the home front, the other nights of the week are stricktly reserved for family to make up for the Thursday night film shoot.

I've been able to get to this point over the course of about three years. From start of the screenplay, to aquisition of everything needed to shoot a reasonable looking film, to pre production, and now production. I've tried to get extra video work in the form of weddings or corporate stuff to help offset the cost of gear, but despite many many attempts, absolutely none of them have amounted to anything. So I comfort myself by saying that the next film will be so much easier to get from script to screen because I've already done the grunt work, so to speak.

Money is always tricky. Just do what you can and don't do more. Credit is bad and will ultimatly slow you down instead of helping you out. I don't make a ton of cash at my job, and my wife is a homemaker, which should pay more, but doesn't. So we've managed to survive, and I've managed to build a small arsenal of filmmaking equipments (including a DVX, a full light kit, a sound rig, an Avid editing station, etc.). I don't list that to be boasting, but rather to show that it is possible, even on a less-than-average salary, and supporting a family. Cut corners like Thartley mentioned. The money is there if you really have your goal in mind.

As you said in your inital post, there's no one formula, but maybe this will spark and idea, or at least give a bit of inspiration. Just never let go of the dream. Like Thartley said (boy, she's offered a lot of wisdom in this thread, hasn't she?), where there's a will....

I hope some of that helps....

Chris
 
I was enjoying reading the posts, so thought I'd chime in.

I went down to the bank and took out a loan. Bought a used camera, tripod, mattbox, and filters. Already had FCP at home studio. Afford it? Well, nooot really. I can afford the payments foor the short term. Did it on faith. As it would turn out, I received a phone call a week after I got the camera, and landed a number of video projects that will more than pay for the gear. More work lining up. Whew! Was it the reasonable thing to do? Probably not, but my mid-life crisis part 2 seems to be working out very well (so is part 1- my Bowers Fly Baby!!!).

Me? I'm 43 and I work full time as a videographer and audio engineer at a corporation in Duluth, GA. I train in the Martial arts, have an experimental airplane, and a hyper active 3 year old son, 3 cats, a dog, and a wife :laugh:
Bad back? Oh yeah- try doing handheld with a 30 lb betacam for 4 hours or more, then get thrown repeatedly in Ju Jitsu class. Sure don't bounce like I used to.

I'm definately not rich, but I have a great life, and to me that matters more.
Thanks,
Jeff Patnaude
 
Bad back? Oh yeah- try doing handheld with a 30 lb betacam for 4 hours or more
Click to expand...

The pain in my back multiplied just thinking about it. :cry:

Scenedirector, I just noticed you're in Grandview MO. I'm in Springfield MO. Not sure where Grandview is, but it can't be that far, right. :) Let me know if there's anything I can do to help beyond posting on a website.

Chris
 
Thanks a lot. You don't make me feel so alone in my choices.
I know it really is up to me and how I evaluate the situation, but from what you have said about YOUR situation, event videography isn't really paying for it?

Alright, I'm going to just say it: I work at Wal-mart overnite (yes, while most of the world is sleeping, I make sure that affordable merchandise is on the shelf when it wakes up in the morning) and my other job is working in a FedEx hub where I take boxes out of trailers and put them on the the belts to be sorted into the factory.

Both jobs aren't even CLOSE to helping me in my skills, experience, and networking with the right people to move my aspirations along.
Both jobs combined bring me home over 30K a year and I was able to be a homeowner this year because of it, but I still have that empty part inside to do this stuff.

That's why I'm wondering if I drop the FedEx job(part time) and do event videography as my second job, because I'll have the job to do it, so that I can at least be somewhat in my field.


I feel SO FAR away from even step one in a filmmaking career, yet I haven't wanted to do this since I was 11 years old!

In a given day, I think about filmmaking just as much as you know (keep in mind, I am a guy) HONESTLY. That's saying A LOT.
Maybe I got TOO personal there, but it is the truth. :)
 
More nuts and bolts is when you dont see a way to bring in more money, then you have to look for ways to cut the amount that you have going out. If there isnt room to cut anything, then look for other ways...like does your company allow you to cash in your vacation days instead of taking the time off work?

I dont know really what you are specifically trying to do...save money up for a particular addition to your arsenal? Fund a project that you want to realize? If its equipment and you have something particular you need to shoot, then I suggest you network the hell out of whatever local community you have and swap your skills and time. You may have something they need equally as bad. :)
 
35, single, and I like DVXuser and long walks on the beach with Jessica Alba. ...Three years ago I sold everything I owned (or everything that OWNED ME) and moved to Thailand. Which means, when I move back to the US, I'll be staying at your place.

I teach 10 hrs/week at a local college. I get paid for one month the same amount I use to make in one day, back in the USA. BUT it's still enough to pay rent and to buy a few MQ tapes here and there. I also have a daily radio and weekly tv show, which has the lowest viewership in the history of media. My schedule provides me with enough free-time for side projects and to learn more about filmmaking, writing, design, editing, and getting to know all of you better. DVXuser is the best thing that's happened to me since moving here. It's my home away from home and I appreciate each and every one of you.

My goals are to start a non-profit organization or a business that has NO profits [cue laugh track], make a full length feature, and to buy a sailboat and travel around the world. Dreams are fun! :) ....Until they don't come true. :(

pk
 
Krestofre, Chris is it?
Cool. You are relatively close.
I have to update my stats. I moved to Louisburg KS recently. Yeah, I have cows right across the street. But these towns are all within 30-35 miles from Kansas City.
I would like to get in contact with you. You have been very helpful. Maybe I can even be your "Padawan." :)

SIDE NOTE: One cool perk working in a hot, noisy, dark shipping facility is that I get to see all kinds of cool gear come through. Don't worry, just the boxes, I don't open them! I want to keep this job for a little while :)
 
Wow PK.
That's pretty wild.
But I do have to say....
(quoting)
Dreams are fun! :) ....Until they don't come true. :(



Its more like dreams do come true, it's hope and perserverence that are lost.
Never, never stop dreaming. Never give up.

Jeff Patnaude
 
Yeah, it's Chris. Feel free to PM me anytime. I check DVXUser more frequently than my e-mail. :)

Also, just to clarify, there's a lot of money to be made in event videography. I've just had bad luck in it. If I added the pay from all of the jobs I've been offered that were later yanked out from under me ... well, I'd have more money. As far as quitting a job with a regular pay check to try and make money at event videography, that's a risk that you'll have to weight in your own life.

KS, huh? Well, I guess you're not as close, but you're not that far either. :)
 
Thartley, I just want to say first off, you have been very helpful.

I plan on opening doors in the first quarter of next year. Yes, I'm waiting for the HVX200s to ship.

There are two routes I can go: drop $45K on a one camera set up designed for just making films, but I can't quit FedEx, or go out on a limb a little witha $60K budget that includes a second camera for the ability to do live event jobs for a video production business.
One will make me a broke artist, the other will start out business-oriented and, depending on my performance, give me time to be an artist too with the perk of more money, BUT that's only if the business performs.

By the way, I am loving the stories of your personal lives that you are sharing. It really does help to know that there are real people with real problems that they are trying or are overcoming to get to the same dream that I share. :)
 
I'm reading all the comments about paying the bills and supporting the "celluloid addiction" and I'm reminded by a book where the authored commented: "filmmaking is the most expensive artform second only to national monuments..."

I work professionally as a producer in this business I have learned it really takes a special person to really "make it big time" in this business. And by big time I'm talking about directors like Marcus Nispel, Jake Scott, David Fincher, Errol Morris, Noam Murro (this list could continue awhile...guys who in my business can command $300,000+/day on a shoot). These people have a gift of understanding the business side of film as well as the artform. And contrary to the popular belief that Hollywood directors are uncompromsing, viscious assholes, this just really isn't the case. Most these guys have excellent social skills, high emotional intelligence and are firmly planted in reality.

I have known many super talented artist that didn't have a clue about professionalism, business or any kind of presentation other than mounting their art on a wall. Conversely, I have known a select view producer/directors who have nearly zero talent but are unbelievable at getting stuff off the ground.

Sadly, so many filmmaker hopefuls in this world will be stopped by a lack of gumption/talent in one of these areas. It takes the whole package. Become good at both and you'll do alright.

And about me?... I'm a young, know-it-all punk, live in Chicago and I produce commercials for a major beer company a large computer manufacturer. I am currently developing a modest-budget feature that costs loss than some of my 30 second spots. What a business.
 
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