Finding Balance as a Filmmaker

Hey fam, and welcome back to the channel. As you can see, I'm holding the microphone today, which can mean only one thing. We are going to talk about something serious. Something way more important than filmmaking, or gear, or how to film a specific shot. Today we are going to talk about balance, and balancing a freelance filmmaking career. Whether that's actually obtainable, or it's a complete lie. I want to share with you my experience, things that I've learned along the way, and hopefully you resonate with some of that and it can help you on your own journeys. Before I begin though, I do want to say that this video is going to be sponsored by my friends over at Artlist. More about them later. So first of all, I want to say what even is balance. Before when someone would ask me what do you want from your filmmaking career, I'd always say I want stability, I want balance, I want to be able to predict my upcoming projects and clients, and in a way know when my downtime is, and when it's grind time. But the truth is that if you take a look at nature, and this is why I've sat here on the porch today, balance in nature doesn't look like this. In nature you have seasons, you have summer, you have winter, you have spring, you have fall, and they repeat every year. So I don't think it's actually realistic to expect that your whole life you're going to be like at the top, you're going to have a project non-stop, and then if now you're feeling at your lowest point, it's only going to go straight from there. That's a lie. It's best that you change your perception of balance to start with. And let me give you an example. Because I used to think like you. At the beginning of this year, it was New Year's, and I was with my friends, and I was thinking, oh my god, this is going to be my year. I'm going to crush it. I already have a few retainer clients, everything's going to be fucking lit. And then it didn't happen. I actually lost a client, I lost my grandma, she passed away very unexpectedly, and my mental health, it was just going down. It went down to such a state that I wanted to sleep the whole time, I was so depressed. I think you get it, I don't need to draw you a picture, but it was very bad. It got better when I accepted it. When I accepted that I have to go through this season of life, and this season wasn't about creating, it wasn't about putting things into the world. It was about just grounding myself, working on my inner world, and seeing how I can survive this period, what I can learn from it, and then create something into the world for others, that you can resonate and draw something out of it. On my 26th birthday, this 21st of July, I got a very exciting project, I talked about it in one of the previous videos, the Corona project for the Paris Olympics, and after that I got another project, and another project, I flew to the States, in the past 30 days I've had like 10 flights, and I'm feeling at my peak, I feel like I'm so successful, whatever you throw at me, I can handle it, and I mean, that's great for now, but as you can see, we're going from a very low low to a very high high, and I'm learning to accept that I have to be humble, and I know that this is only a season, so I'm trying to make most of it, of course, every project that comes to me, I work on it as it's my last, and I advise you to do the same thing, because you never know when your next project is going to come, it will come, and you get booked, you get to work on your dream projects with your dream clients, with your dream team, but the truth is that this is going to happen, and then you're going to learn another lesson, then you're going to be successful again, I mean, it's not about that when you're at your lowest point you're not successful or something like that, it's just season, and we are creative people, so sometimes we need to focus our energy outward, putting things out, meeting new people, being in that new environment all the time, and that keeps us going, it keeps us creative, but then we exhaust that battery, and we have to come back where we started and work inwards, see what we have learned, journal about it, I'm going to talk about that in a bit, and this is the cycle basically, it's how it works every time, and it doesn't matter with whom I talk to from our industry, it's the same for everyone, so please don't fall into the trap, also plain, please don't fall into the trap where you're seeing a lot of Instagram stories and you're thinking someone is posting their highlights, even me in the past two months I'm only posting the amazing stuff that happened to me, but don't think that this is the only layer of a person or a creative, they all have their own stuff going on in their lives, as you and me, and I think the point where you just accept that it's seasonal, our work, then it gets a bit easier. I do want to talk about today's sponsor, because something that has helped me during my downtime, when I'm not actively going out and working on client projects, is creating things with my friends, and I had a catch-up call with a friend of mine, Julia, and we were talking about how we want to do something together, and we started bouncing ideas of each other, and we came up with this passion project, and I was like, ok, let's do it, so actually it was a couple of weeks ago now, that we went to Spain, and we did it, I mean, we filmed our own passion project, and what has Artist to do with it? Well, Artist is a platform that has everything, it has music, it has footage that you can license, sound effects, and also now a voiceover feature, which I think is the coolest thing ever, I mean, there is another platform that does that out there, and I think it's a resource that you can tap in, like, you don't need to travel, you don't need to go anywhere, you can just be in your home, and, you know, practice, if you want to be an editor, you can download a bunch of footage from there, you know, you have all of the tools, you have graphics, I mean, everything, honestly, and you can just create like a sample reel, or projects similar to what you actually want to film and create one day. So anyways, what I'm trying to say is that in the time where you don't have client projects, yes, you can, you know, stop for a moment and, like, breathe, but if you have this urge to create, to express yourself, there are resources out there like Artlist that could help you, you know, put some new work while you don't actually have, you know, work, official, like, work to do. So go check it out, use my affiliate link in the description, it really helps me out, this is how I can, you know, continue making videos for you, so thank you. And then something else that I want to say about the inner work is that you have to consume other people's work, and by that I don't only mean, you know, social media, or movies, although, you know, this could be great as well, but I mean books. I love reading when I have the time, and normally I'll read something, you know, which is business related, that can help me, you know, be more efficient, more productive, etc, etc, but sometimes I like reading stories, cause then I want to create filmmaking work that is actually meaningful, and what is more meaningful than a story that can resonate with the audience, where everyone can see a different part of themselves in this video, and get inspired. So let me show you what I'm currently reading. So this is my Kindle actually, I do have a business read on here, but I got this novel, it's called The Little Life, it's not such a little novel, and I saw a few quotes online, and a couple of people, like, recommended it to me, and I mean, honestly, even from the cover, I was like, hooked. It's about a group of people living in New York, picture something like France, but a lot more dramatic, and a lot more real, in a way. So yeah, I just wanna consume that, and be able to even express the stories that happen to me better, like, find better words to use in order to encapsulate everything that's happening inside of me. And then I also have this journal, which seems pretty scary, yeah, this is Peter McKinnon's sticker, and yeah, it's almost completely full, I don't know if you can see, but anyways, I don't journal every day, I journal only from time to time, because I've noticed that when you start writing, you have a lot of thoughts that aren't exactly on the surface, that you don't hear, that you don't think about while you're talking, but once you start writing them, you go to a deeper level, and you're able to take all of this and put it out on paper without even realizing it, and I feel this is a way to do deep work on yourself. And last but not least, hopefully this video isn't too long by now, but it's to have fun. I know it sounds cliche, but just know that our job, being a filmmaker, director, producer, editor, whatever it is in the creative niche, it's a fun job to have. You don't exactly have a boss, you have your own time, you're free in a sense, and I know that there are a bunch of other constraints and you worry about bills and projects coming on your door, it's stressful, I didn't say it's not, but it could also be the best that's ever happened to you. Don't forget that while client work is amazing and it helps you grow professionally, keep doing projects, no matter how you grow, for yourself. Connect with some friends, and go and just shoot something. It doesn't even have to be a full blown out story, it can just be testing a lens, or anything, just documenting a picnic out. And you see when you don't have a constraint from a client, like I told you in the start, me and Julia went to Spain to work on this passion project together, and honestly, it's been a while that I felt that purpose, that I need to put this out there, that I'm creating something where no one can tell me, oh you have to do this and not that. I'm telling you, this is why, this is the initial spark that ignited you, you know, to start being a filmmaker. So if you want to keep that, and if you actually want to create meaningful work, this is how you do it. You just don't stop. But yeah, to wrap this up, as you can see, balance is different for everyone, but in the same way it's kind of the same. It's like the seasons of life, picture seasons in nature, and know that if you're currently at a very low low, something better is waiting for you. But you have to go through that, learn the lessons that are meant for you right now, and then it's going to be your time to shine. And then afterwards, there is going to be another lesson and another lesson. But it's just the way that you accept to go through all of those seasons with your head held high, not giving up. And I think this is how you actually become successful. And by successful, I mean a human being that actually feels, that actually cares. And it's not just passing through life, it's actually living life. So this is what I want to leave you with. And remember that the balance is already within you. See you in the next one. Peace.