Love what you do
Ups and Downs in the life of a Creative
I started writing this post and came up with the title one evening early March where I was having a particular tough time, so I am sticking with this as a theme for this month.
Most full time creatives, whether you make movies, music, stills, paintings etc, can probably recognise the following scenario: Some days all the wheels and every other part just come off the wagon (bicycle in my case). Everything falls apart. Maybe I had a look at my bank account, maybe I had a gig where I felt I didn’t perform as well as I expected of myself, maybe I just feel my work is crap and has no meaning, maybe I looked in the mirror and felt old, maybe I read too much world news, maybe all of that on the same day - and then it is a race to the bottom. Financial instability is part of being freelance and sometimes it just gets too stressful on top of all the creative angst. Then I have to pick up the pieces including myself and my confidence and get things running again. Remind myself I have done some pretty special things and I have been freelance for almost 2 decades so somehow things will probably work out.
This is when I really have to love what I do, it’s easy enough to love it when I am standing on some big stage with a band and Everything is Amazing. It’s on the crap days that I really have to remind myself that I really love what I do, that I am doing this 100% for my passion for music. And I used to live in an office with a fulltime big-salaried IT-job and I hated my life then. But I am also running a business so my passion has to bounce back because I need it for income, every month. Rent is due every month, no matter my creative mood.
If you are thinking about turning your passion, your hobby into a job, this is one of the more drastic changes besides the freelance income, you have to be able to perform and deliver no matter your mood, you have to be able to drive yourself and constantly get new gigs so you can pay the bills. It’s a lot.
But it’s also a lot of awesome. The freedom and that passion for music when shared, actually, it’s one of my favorite things about the music industry, most of the people I meet and work with are so incredibly nice and passionate. Because you have to be, you don’t last long in this industry if you don’t love it, your passion is your main fuel. Sometimes at gigs, I try and find a quiet corner to just sit and observe rehearsals and soak it in. It is so special to be part of, it won’t last forever and I am trying to ‘bottle’ it in my head!
Love what you do. It doesn’t matter if you make pictures or paintings or write or compose, any dream creative job will have nightmare days too and then you need that love and passion to bounce back. Fortunately, the last 2 weeks of February were actually quite awesome, so at least the universe showed again that bad days can turn around quickly. It really is a rollercoaster and I have no answers, I am just rambling and making it up day by day. That reminds me of a favorite David Tennant ‘Doctor Who’ quote. Actually, the world right now could use a time-traveling alien that could go back in time and fix this broken timeline we are living in.
Mickey: How do we do that?
The Doctor: Oh, I’ll think of something.
Mickey: You're just making this up as you go along.
The Doctor: Yep. But I do it brilliantly!
Gigs in February
I worked 9 gigs (and had 2 cancelled events so would have been 11) in February which is a lot for this slow time of the year, I am grateful for that. One of the most incredible experiences was The Danish National Vocal Ensemble performing at The Marble Church as part of Copenhagen Light Festival. It featured out of this world sound and visuals in a gorgeous church, and I had the most insane view from a small ledge up in the dome. Getting up there was fun too, walking a lot of spiral staircases, and then standing here looking down it felt like I was floating in air, breathtaking.
The Minds of 99 - Movie poster
I talked about movies as an inspiration and in February a dream came true - my picture on a big printed movie poster. The concert movie feat The Minds of 99 was released and it was so cool to see this outside one of our cinemas!
The galla premiere went really well too, you can see a few pictures on my Instagram.
Movies as inspiration - Film Grab website
A few of you have mentioned you never thought about using movies as inspiration before, you are going to love this site! Film-Grab features stills from a lot of movies to be inspired by, I particularly love the random post feature! Thanks to my buddy Michael for sending the link.
Composition - all you need to know
I am going to cheat on this months ‘tips’ section and post something I prepared earlier. During the corona lockdowns I started recording YouTube videos, just to learn a lot more about filming and editing and to have something to do while all concerts and events were shutdown. There is a bunch of my channel, but the one I feel is by far the best is my movie about composition from 2020! As the ridiculous thumbnail below states this is ‘all you need to know (almost)’ so watch and see if I deliver :)
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Thank you for reading, feel free to share this with anyone, and comment or send me suggestions and questions. See you next month!
Thanks for writing this. I would also say everything you just wrote can apply to anyone, not only creatives. I won't speak for everyone, but I feel like that sometimes (this is my reality this morning). You mentioned you used to work in IT? I'd be curious to hear your stories of when you transitioned to full time photographer (why, how did you do it, what pushed you, ...).