“Don’t quit your day job…”

It seems that some of the most consistent advice I received when starting down this professional path was often twofold:

/////KEEP A LOW OVERHEAD////// 

In other words, you just don’t know how far above or below your baseline you’ll end up when you work for yourself, especially in a creative field. There is an ebb and flow to income, to success, to the work itself. You just have to do your part to minimize the impact the swings make on you, your family, and your ability to keep doing this work. It’s easier to do when you’re 22. Low overhead tends to be the standard, even among those heading down a more stable path. It’s a little harder when you’re 30 and all of your friends begin to make six figures working for oil and gas companies. Houses and cars and nice stuff ad nauseum can make you think that surely you should own more crap. 

//////DON’T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB//////

The need for making an income is just a damn reality. If I could work autonomously making the things that I love, that have value, that are inspiring AND could magically make a living for me and my family, you know I would. In fact, I don’t have overarching career goals beyond that very thing. I want the divide between getting paid and making things that are worthwhile to close completely. But the reality is that it just isn’t always the case. It’s a confluence of factors. The largest of which is time. You don’t close that divide between substance and income without some blood, sweat, and tears. I’m talking years of it. So for now, we all have clients. We all have goals to meet that someone else set for us. I know we don’t like to talk about it, because we feel like if we have a “day job” then we haven’t really arrived or something. But it’s something I wish people talked about more often, because it’s a productive discussion to talk about how a day job could help narrow that gap. How a day job could help you log Gladwell’s 10,000 hours, could help keep you in the game, could help you accomplish what you’re setting out to accomplish. For some of you that literally will mean a day job. Insurance salesman type day job. So be it. For some of you that means shooting weddings. Some of you might work 20 hours a week at a coffee shop for health insurance. I don’t really care what it is, cause I’ll tell you what. I’m inspired by the people who have to go out there and make it happen, rather than the guy who lets his wife work a “real job” so he can fart around on the internet in a coffee shop all day. Or the guy who’s parents won’t cut him off and keep financing his “hobby.” Nah, if you’re working, and I don’t care where, I’m your biggest fan.

My SerialBox crew and I have been shooting for MTV recently and I can’t tell you how many times we’ve ended up chatting with other crew guys or people we meet in LA who ask us “why do you live in Houston?” And I always start with the question: what did you guys do this week? Most of the time the answer is “well, I did one freelance PA gig and then I updated my reel, and…” My answer? I had 5 shoots, edited three 3-5 min docs, shot w/ 4 different camera types, and had to gaff a really tricky scene for a larger project. And, I got paid to do it. Week in and week out. Why do I live here? Because I’m working all the time. And I know that it doesn’t sound cool to live here, but in the end, I know, but know, that experience is going to be a huge factor in quickly reaching the goals that I have. Maybe New York or LA is in the future for me, but right now, because I’m relatively new to filmmaking, working is the priority. 

For me? I’m still self-employed, but I produce a ton of content for large churches and non-profits. The churches in Houston have huge production budgets, great gear, and are often supportive of trying some new things. In short, it’s a day job environment that lets me shoot with a variety of equipment, telling a variety of stories, for a variety of mediums. Broadcast, web, live, RED, Alexa, F3, grip trucks, narrative, documentary, promotional, commercials. Beyond that, some of the most talented guys I know are working for them in some capacity for these very reasons. 

So, for me, while I fully explore this filmmaking path, that’s the decision I’ve made. I’ve found a “day job” of sorts, for now, that allows me to practice, to develop consistency, efficiency, a repertoire of problem solving experience, and yet allows enough flexibility to take on those projects that narrow the gap.  

Now, I’m in the process of a full rebrand…new site, new cards, new reel. It’s always been tough for me to think about cutting a reel because I’ve felt conflicted over how much footage to show from my “day job.” The question has been, if I show things I got paid to do for clients, am I really showing the kind of work I WANT to get paid to do, or just the stuff that I’ve already been paid to do. It can be subtle, but there is a big difference. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized that the biggest hurdle for me is not finding the footage that really clearly shows who I am as a filmmaker, it’s being ok with the fact that I have a day job, even if it is just a particular kind of client work. But I shouldn’t be hesitant to say any of that. 

And you shouldn’t either.

So, I’ll make you a promise. From now on, I’ll post some work that previously, I may not have. It isn’t that I am not proud of it, it’s just that social media can become about projecting the idea of yourself that you’d like to be, not the you that currently exists. 

So, in that spirit, here are a few screen grabs of one of 18 videos I made during December with my good friend and SerialBox cohort, Daniel Karr. It was a promotional piece detailing the process of restoring a 60 year old bike from a hunk of abandoned metal, to fully restored, multi-thousand dollar bicycle. It played on Christmas Eve, at a church here in Houston, on an 80x25ft screen to just over 35,000 people. No pressure.

Now, let’s all get to work, the new year is upon us.