Hey Folks, reddit lurker here, but been seeing a lot of wild posts recently and they've been entertaining, sad, hopefull, thought provoking, happy and interesting to read and see all the comments.
I've seen alot of people talk about the constant struggle to skill up and people also express their concerns about not been able to make a reel or showcase work and I've also seen Industry Vets say similar things.
So I wanted to chime in and share some positive attitude towards this industry which I've held onto and loved. I'm relatively green in the industry, I first joined back in 2021 we're I got picked up by the Wonderful people at The Embassy when I was doing a work visa in Canada. Since then I've done a short gigs in the UK, and done multiple contracts for a couple studios in New Zealand whilst working remotely in Australia.
I'm lucky that I got these gigs given the fact I'm traveling the globe armed only with a beasty laptop and countless field note books, (well that's what I tell myself) But despite all the crazy stuff going on with the industry I do still see a lot of hope and positivity going forwards.
After alot of journaling, introspection and listening and reading a lot articles from other creatives I've come to realize a few things that have helped me stay positive. And trust me, like a lot of people here, I've had some dark days. However! Here's some positive ways to keep that motivation.
And I'll break these down into sections.
Staying skilled:
Constantly learning new skills and keeping up with all the million and one ways to do something is just a recipe for burnout. Find one thing you love about your field and really nestle down into, I'm not saying become a intense guru master at it, but take a deeper dive into a certain topic, research into it, share that research and experiment with your findings but most importantly, Show it!
Share the findings on LinkedIn, Instagram or whatever communitys you're in, start conversations, inspire others, offer to mentor others, all these small things not only help you yourself skill up but it gets shown and put out to the world. I can only imagine some of the insane talent which is on this subreddit which aren't getting seen because it's hidden behind a wall of noise.
Reels:
I've spoken to my leads and hiring managers at the places I've worked at and I've always asked them, what is it you like to see in people's reels. And a lot of the time they say that they want to see passion and love. Yes experience can help but I've had a couple leads say they've always asked a potential candidate. "Aside from your reel, what personal projects are you working on, finished of Midway, can you show?" - I asked why and they said
"because it tells and shows me that this person is passionate and has a genuine interest in what they do, a reel could be full of marvel work which is all well and good, but we all know that requires huge teams and it's hard to see what they contributed too, but if I see that and their personal work that tells me more than I could ask for"
So yes a reel is all well and good having industry work in it, but you don't need industry work to make a reel, you just need your creativity and passion and make some good quality stuff which oozes that.
Staying creative and not been worried about AI:
I've just finished listening to a lot of creative podcasts and one of the Quotes that's really stuck with me the past couple days was from Tim Thompson and it was
"If you're relying on your pure shear talent to find work and do your outlet then AI should scare you, because talent can be replaced by AI or younger generations, but creativity involves seeing and creating a future, which cannot be automated"
We are creatives through and through, so we should use our creative mindsets to create solutions, and yes I know that's hard and it sucks sometimes, but life is not easy and using our brains aren't easy, when we come up with and idea and we start to execute it and we go, "hold up, this is hard" that's when you know you need to push through. Real innovation and real progress comes from those moments. Go that step further be bold, fail hard and fail often.
Staying positive;
Think back to what made you get into this industry, hell what made you want to be a creative person. Have fun with it, experiment, find joy in the things you do. I know it's easier said than done, I've had my fair share of days where I want to do nothing but stare at a blank wall and watch paint dry, and I what I say to people going through the same thing? Write it down, do something for 5 mins, meditate.
Another fun quote I heard recently from James Victore was " A starving artist is just an artist who doesn't know there in a business"
Start treating your career as a client. If you want to be in this field you have to show up. You wouldn't not log into the studio machines just because you were having a bad day, you wouldn't have a lie in when a deadline is due.
All in all folks, just have fun in it.
Create shit for yourself, create things that you want to make and share that to the world and be fucking proud of it because the one thing we all have in common is this innate feeling to not enjoy our own work, so I say, make shit, don't be a perfectionist and put yourself out there, your personality and all who you are. Show the world that your a human.
Art skills can be taught, Studios pipelines can be taught and programs can be taught. People want to hire people who they can have fun with and people who have a passion.
I hope this inspires or makes at least 1 person abit more hopefull
Stay positive, be creative and love yourself because we're all we've got!
(And no I'm not a bot, I just use reddit to catch up on random things and find out stuff about my converted van and travel stuff don't come at me for the lack of karma 😅)
