Are you telling yourself you're a poor filmmaker? EP #135 - Shorty

Hey, guys. Dan, Lenny here on Tuesday 24th November, for this week's Shorty.

I was watching a film this morning about the FS6 from Sony, or the FX6, should I say? And it was really cool. BTS from a company in Australia who have made a film for Sony Australia.

But something struck me when I was watching it that I thought was really interesting. And that was some interview that they had with the crew behind the scenes. Now, this is something I'm very familiar with because we've done, I think, eight projects for something like this, but I want to share this with you.

So I think it might have been the camera assistant or the first assistant director who turned around and said, you know.

We don't get into filmmaking for the money, we don't get into video production for the money, and it's all about expressing art. And. And at that point I was like, that's really interesting because why shouldn't you also make money being a filmmaker? There seems to be this default position.

That I hear a lot of filmmakers talking about, which is, you know, there's some sort of.

Extra kudos that comes from being a poor artist, and I want to challenge that. And if you listen to this podcast, I'm guessing you probably don't subscribe to that view in that mindset. But, like, why shouldn't you still make, you know, why shouldn't you make money as well as being a filmmaker, as well as being creative? I can tell you that I've never made a loss on any commercial project. I've done some really fascinating projects that have been very creatively stimulating. But as a producer, my first goal is always the bottom line. You know, is this something that's going to make us a profit? Because if it's not, it's a passion project, and that is okay. You can, you can work on passion projects. But. But I think it's really fascinating that it's so widely sort of accepted that, oh, you know, being a filmmaker means you don't make money, when in actual fact, I think the opposite is true. There's no reason why you can't make a very healthy living as a filmmaker, but you have to have the right mindset. And I think that this, this comment today really was interesting. And I'm not here to judge the person and his comment, you know, like, whatever, but I got the impression that, you know, whatever budget was given to these guys, they just spent every last cent of it on screen to create something beautiful. And, and like, that's okay if you're into that. But, you know, that's not how you run a business. As a professional filmmaker, your job is to make stuff look beautiful, even if it's boring, even if it's not very interesting. But that's where the professional part comes in. It's like make something out of nothing. You know, when I worked in news for all of those years, it was about, you know, no matter what happens, you had to come back with something. You couldn't just go, oh, well, I wasn't feeling very inspired, so I didn't shoot anything. Being a professional means that you turn up and you do the job no matter what film. And, you know, I've, I've, I've come across other, other filmmakers, you know, who are kind of fairly well known, who will get approached by a manufacturer to produce some content and will get a budget and will literally spend every single cent they're given on the film. I think that's absolutely crazy because, you know, you've got overheads, you've got, you know, maybe you've got team to pay, you've got a premises to pay for. It doesn't make any sense to spend every sing cent on production because then there's nothing left for you. And then essentially you're working for less than free. And, you know, I don't encourage anyone to ever do stuff for free unless there's a very, very strong possibility it's going to benefit you in another way. For example, when I shot Robbie WILLIAMS Back in 2013, I did those couple of days, I didn't get paid. They didn't have any budget, but I had access to the footage and I was able to, to talk about it. And I made my money on the back end by talking about that gig and traveling all over Asia, sharing the story, how he shot this big concert on the FS100. So there are occasions when I will perhaps ease off on the fees if it's a megastar. But when we did Cristiano Ronaldo, I mean, we did him twice, that was full rate Duran Duran, full rate. So I want you to encourage you to, you know, to kind of think about that. You know, are there any areas in your business where you're doing stuff for free or for cheap in the hope that it will kind of impress someone? Because, because it rarely does. And, and I say it just, it just kind of triggered me this morning. I was really fascinated when I heard this guy say, you know, well, of course we don't get into filmmaking to make money. Like it's a kind of blanket Prerequisite that if you're a filmmaker, you're not allowed to make money, there's no reason why you shouldn't. And what I advocate is good business practice, good business acumen and the right sort of support to ensure you can make those good decisions. In fact, on our coaching call this morning, we had a great discussion with one of our members about he's at a scaling phase, he needs to grow. He's got so much work he can't do it on his own. And so he's looking to scale his team and bring in production managers and editors. And he's already got some part time team that work with him. But that's the kind of thing we discuss in our coaching calls. You know, how to scale, what is the next step, what is the thing you should be doing next? And you know, it's the kind of thing that, you know, I just, I'm fascinated by the polarity.

It's almost like, you know, 70% or more of filmmakers are happy being poor filmmakers and they accept that. It's kind of like that's this, that's the status quo. It's like in order to be a creative, you've got to be poor. And it's really not true. I had a, an interesting conversation on one of my ads recently where someone made a comment along the lines of, you know, oh, you know, not everyone, not everyone wants to be a business owner. Not everyone wants to, you know, not every artist wants to make money. You know, if I wanted to make money, I don't open a chicken shop. And you know, how dare you basically come in here and, you know, splot off about, you know, making money. And I thought it was really interesting. But often what happens is in those situations, if someone is being triggered by something you've said or done, it's actually got nothing to do with you. It's triggering something in them. And so, you know, I just went, well, look, you know, we're probably not what you're looking for and good luck with your chicken shop. You know, it doesn't make any difference to me what anyone does with their life, but if you're interested in growing your video business, then, then I'm someone you should listen to because we're, we're doing a pretty good job at helping businesses grow and scale consistently and we've had some phenomenal results recently despite, you know, the world making you believe that, you know, it's just chaos out there and, and yes, there are some challenges, but I've also seen enormous amounts of Growth this year with clients and, and it's all to do with mindset and attitude. So if you want to be someone who does make money from filmmaking and from video production, then that is cool because you can make an enormous amount of money from it. You can, you can earn a really healthy living doing something you enjoy. Is every project going to be worthy of your show? Real? Absolutely not. But, you know, I think filmmakers, we need to get over that and kind of get over that sort of notion that every project's got to be something as a passion project that we enjoy. You know, sometimes you go to work and you've got, you've got to knock a job off and it's, it's not that much fun. But you know what? You could be working in a chicken shop.

As opposed to my clients who actually shoot for KFC and, and are really busy with a massive project for them just now. So it's all a choice, guys. You've got to choose where you want to sit. Do you want to be someone who apologizes for being a filmmaker, apologize for making money, or do you want to be someone who is proud to be a filmmaker, who delivers an amazing service to your clients, charges accordingly, makes a healthy profit, doesn't have to work every weekend, can take off at a time to go on holiday and look after the family, because the choice is 100% yours. And you just need to decide, is this something you really want? Is this something you're willing to commit to and are you serious about it? Because if you are, then the steps are pretty straightforward. There's just a bit of work to do. And we've seen a lot of case studies this year with filmmakers I work with going from, you know, 10 grand a month to 20 to 30 to 40 grand a month in a matter of eight or nine months. And it takes an enormous amount of work. I won't lie to you. There's no, there's no secret recipe, but there is a system. There is a process. And I'm pleased to say, you know, I'm surrounded by, by filmmakers who do like to make money and who do like to make a difference and help people out. You know, money flows when you provide value and people exchange that value for, for cash. And then with that cash, you can do whatever you like. And, and I can tell you from experience that, you know, having nothing is a lot harder than when you've got cash in the bank. And I'm sure we can all relate to that. But the decision you need to make today is do. Are you happy with what you're making just now? Are you happy with where you're at or would you like to change it? Because if you want to change it, then, you know, you can just reach out. We can have a chat. I can see if you are a good fit for the video business accelerator. We can share some ideas.

And if you're not, think about, you know, why are you here listening to this, you know, what are you looking to achieve? And you know, if you're not ready to grow your business, then you gotta ask yourself the question, what's stopping you? What's holding you back? Anyway, guys, that's it for me today. I'll speak to you again on Thursday.

You've been listening to the how to Scale a Video Business podcast with me, your host, Dan Lenny. If you're a video business owner who's hit a ceiling and we benefit from mentorship, support and coaching, then check out how you can work with me over@denlenny.com. don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes. And we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review. And don't forget to share if you feel you've gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers, you know, then please do me a massive favorite. Share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. See you next week.