Wise words for filmmakers from James Altucher right there, or any creative human being in fact (which is in fact all of us)!
The ups and downs / feast or famine rollercoaster of running a production company is a cycle you start by battling with, and slowly reside to embracing. Ok, that may be generous, let’s settle with accepting.
The advertising and film industry are both facing adversity with the cost of living crisis impacting advertising budgets, and strike action and budgets cuts across TV and film leaving many freelance crew without work. These quiet spells can lead you to contemplate whether you have a viable business or career, the quality of your work, or are you actually just horrible to work with?! Sometimes the pull to join the Aldi army of employees with their not to be sniffed at hourly wage, scheduled working hours and, what is this? Holiday entitlement and sick pay! - seems like a desirable choice at times.
image: an old fashioned office set up. Not a great hive for creativity, but I know our production team would love this level of organisation!
But it is in these moments of still, that you discover the real passion and determination that made you start this bonkers journey of filmmaking in the first place. When push comes to shove, of course you don’t want a normal job (sorry Mum)! And invariably, after a low moment of mentally mapping out your new future working 9-5 until you die and squashing your creative flare until it fizzles out to just embers - you get an enquiry email from a wonderful client you’ve worked with for years and they are looking to make a cool new film. All of a sudden you can’t imagine WHY you felt so disheartened in the first place. You crack on, like you always do with that spring back in your step. Rinse and repeat.
This process can be exhausting however, not to mention unproductive and mentally draining. The team at SubMotion have certainly been through this cycle many times. However, we also now know we are in too deep to back out, and really, we’d rather go broke following this wild, unpredictable and adventurous journey of filmmaking than forfeit this vocation. Yes, there is compromise. You will work insane hours when a project is in full swing, likely forget to eat anything that’s not fast fuel, drink just coffee and state loudly how exhausted you are, whilst in a self-inflicted creative spiral (and secretly loving it)! But it takes a certain person to withstand this lifestyle and career, where the line between work/career and life is so blurred we all know it doesn’t really exist. By acknowledging this, we ensure we make steps moving forward in those quiet times, even small steps, rather than sit and wait for the inevitable next email, because it will come, it always does.
image: writer / director Richard Prendergast writing outside in the summer months, making the most of the peace night brings.
For SubMotion, quiet time is development time. Our commercial arm, creating adverts and branded content for our wonderful clients, feeds the film arm of the business, which is a long and much slower process. When a client project wraps up, we will spend any spare moments before the next project, writing and developing our slate of feature films. By using quiet spells in this way, it feeds our creative hunger, keeps us learning and hustling within our industry and ensures we are on track and striving for that next film goal. Not to mention the benefits it has on our client projects as our creativity is on fire and our passion only grows!
This mentality is what got our first two short films, Sylvia and Maximus into production and is already the driving force behind our first feature 2030, which we are developing now!
In the wise words of James Altucher
“Out of silence comes the greatest creativity. Not when we are rushing and panicking.”
images: below are moments from our short film making moments, fuelled by grit, determination, passion and a large pinch of creative joy!
Made possible only through making the most of the peace.
