We’re 9 stops in, 3 weeks behind us, and as we move from city to city we become more and more inspired by the people we meet. I personally never expected how touching this experience would be. It’s amazing to look in the face of someone who’s just realized something that will make them happier and more connected with what they do. But more on that in a later blog post perhaps. :)
Similarly to last monday, today we answer one of the top questions we’ve been asked over the last week:
Q: What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out?
A: We wish we knew that there was something to wish we knew.
What does that mean exactly? Well, let’s start off by saying that we’ve always had a blast doing what we do. We’ve always approached imaging in a way that made us happy. We thought to ourselves, “how would we want things done if we were on the other side of the camera?”, and that has always guided us well…
But for the first few years, there’s something we didn’t do. We didn’t think into the future and consider how we might look back at that time and view it differently. Hindsight is 20/20, and if you can at least imagine hindsight before it’s available, you’re gonna have a leg up.
In true hindsight, we realize that what we then wished we knew, like how to use a tilt-shift, or how to properly balance a Steadicam, were things we’d automatically learn over time. As long as we put the effort in of course. what we NOW wish we’d realized was how important it would be to have a plan. A direction. A solid understanding of the kinds of stories we wanted to tell, the types of people we’d love working with, and that knowing these would be the guiding force in achieving the things that would ultimately make us happy.
It took us 5 years to put together a business plan! Now, this isn’t something we’re proud of. But now that we have one, we have a solid understanding of stillmotion’s direction. We’re proud of that. We have a wall to bounce ideas off of to see what sticks, if you will. As new projects come in, or decisions need to be made, the first place to turn to is our business plan. We ask ourselves, is this in line with the direction we want stillmotion to go? If yes, we know we can run with the idea and it’s ultimately going to push us further on our journey. If no, we look to modify the project in a way that works for our plan, or we simply pass on it and focus our attention on what is going to get us where we want to be.
We sort of learned this the hard way. We reinvented the wheel. And we were perhaps too stubborn to seek the advice of people more experienced than us. But we’re happy to say that by learning this, it’s made us absolutely infatuated with what we do.
But this blog post has got me thinking…
In 5 years, what will we wish we knew now?
-Amina
Amina! It was great to learn from you and Justin in Houston this past weekend! You guys are amazing!! Really inspired and taught me to think totally outside the box when it comes to filmmaking. Hope to have the honor someday to work alongside you guys!! Stan
Great tutorials. Simple
and straightforward. I’ve been looking for something like this for a while.
Many thanks!
Patrick, Amina, Ray, Joyce and Evan: thank you for stopping by Vancouver a couple weeks ago. It was a valuable learning experience for me,
I finally sat down and wrote a short review about my experience at KNOW.
Here it is here:
http://pictureandcolor.com/2012/09/29/stillmotion-know/
Also, I never got SMAPP. How do I go about getting that?
Sam
Thanks for the awesome review Sam! For SMAPP, just visit the iTunes store. You’ll find it there for free!
Thanks for an awesome workshop in Boston yesterday. Great teamwork, presentation and all round kudos and wows and inspiration sharing of KNOWledge! Well done Stillmotion. Best wishes for more – Robert
Amina, if Stillmotion were Billionaires, how would that change how you go about telling stories, finding stories, connecting with projects, embracing different tools to tell stories?
I had to step back to think about this one for a moment. To be honest, not much would change. Realistically, we’re the types of people to follow the story no matter what, even if it means going beyond what’s being paid for. Our storytelling is driven by story, not by budget.
We’re happy and very fortunate to be able to say that we wholeheartedly connect with all the stories we tell. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about our ideal couple / client, and we’ve become really good at finding them and embracing their uniqueness. That won’t change no matter how much we have in our pockets.
We’ve also realized that the tools we use most often happen to be the ones that cost the least. And, it’s the most expensive ones that we use least often! But when we use them, their impact really hits home. So it really isn’t about budget there either.
In many ways, we’ve really struck it rich. But money is a very small factor in that.
In those early years did you turn down jobs that you knew would be empty in terms of job satisfaction, or take them in order to balance the books? I have turned down two jobs on gut feeling and I’m now questioning if I should have. Times are hard.
i feel that prevention is always the better road. we do everything we can to attract the right client or couple. it’s really important to us that we work with people who are the “right fit” (which calls for another blog post actually), which ensures that we’re always connected with the stories we’re telling. that said, we have made recommendations to people in the past that we may not be the right fit for them given what they’ve told us they’re looking for in the experience. i feel honesty yields the best outcome for everyone in such a scenario.
Now I really want to read you business plan!
I wish I would’ve have known the importance on continually working and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. I have been introduced to that in the recent year and love the new challenges and opportunities I face everyday. That is what I wish I would’ve known starting out.
i think this comment is really valuable. hope you don’t mind if we tweet that you said this!