- Jun
- 14
- 2009
blog post: selling out vs. sustainability
12:37PM by Brandon McCormick | Cetagories: Blogs and Thoughts
At the halfway point of the year, there have been some new thoughts that have been rolling around in my mind.
This year for Whitestone is the year of sustainability, in the most simple of words, the year we learn to make money.
As an independent filmmaker, just the thought of making art for money is enough to make my skin crawl. This idea has become a taboo path in the indie world, associated with the selling of your soul. However the other picture in my mind does nothing for me either. The struggling artist who can’t take care of himself or a family because he is ‘misunderstood’ by the world and can’t find a way to monetize his art. As one of my creative mentors said to me, this route ends with the artist high in the mountains, alone and with a bullet between his eyes.
I want nothing to do with either picture.
My first step is to create a distinction between what I want to do, and what I don’t want. Here is what I’ve come up with so far.
Selling out is doing something you don’t want to or believe in for money. It’s also another way prostitutes are described.
Sustainability is doing something you love and believe in, but getting someone to pay you to do it.
It’s a subtle difference on paper, but of profound difference in real life.
I can write this post because I’ve done a healthy amount of both. I’ve done countless business videos, conference openers and yes, even weddings, that I did just for the money.
On the other hand, I’ve been able to do a lot of what I love to do, getting visionaries (much smarter than I am) to buy into the bigger picture with me.
The key part is believing and living for a bigger picture.
If what you’re about and what you want to create isn’t for something bigger than yourself, you’ve not much of a chance in getting anyone to buy into you. Your vision cannot rise and fall on only you. You must think beyond yourself, think beyond the status quo and selfish instincts to find a place where what you do matters to the world at large.
Another element of sustainability is timing.
We’re in a sort of digital renaissance. A magical but frightening place where the old business models no longer work. As art continues to become digitized, it magically becomes shareable world wide. The downside is that once something becomes easy to obtain, it’s perceived value drops almost immediately to zero.
This is both good news and bad news to the independent artist.
This means on the one hand, I can push a button, and BLAMO, my work has worldwide distribution.
On the other hand, I’m competing with millions of others pressing the BLAMO button at the same time. The basics of supply and demand say that my work has just become lost in a sea of ‘competition’ eventually driving the price to zero.
Why pay .99 cents for a short film when I can pop over to Vimeo and watch hundreds, if not thousands of excellent short films.
Art has the same basic binding principals in the market as any other commodity. One of those basic principles is in the form of a question
Does it add value to someone’s life?
The question I’ve been asking myself lately is do our films, our ideals and what we stand for, add value to anyones life. If not, how then could I ask them to trade money for what we have to offer, be it films, ideas or inspiration.
So now I’m left with this question. I have many ideas, many of which you’ll see later this year, some may work, others may not. I leave the question out there and unanswered. Until we have cracked the code, we won’t be the ones answering the question with a definitive answer, but we hope to be one of the few asking it in a new way in a new time.
And as Socrates might say, sometimes asking the right question is more important than having the right answer.
semper ad melora
10 Responses to “blog post: selling out vs. sustainability”
June 14th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
“Don’t muzzle the ox that plows the field” comes to mind.
As one that has always benefitted and been blessed by your company’s work, I highly support the hard work and dedication you and team put into our enrichment and even enjoyment. I fully support and think it time that you get paid for your work. No selling out if you are blessed with a product people want to pay for and you go home at night knowing you have given your heart and mind for His purpose.
Thanks!
June 15th, 2009 at 8:52 am
At some point or another, I think we all face this decision. Unfortunately there’s a fine line to walk when you have the responsibility of taking care of a family. No one gets fed on your moral high ground. On the other hand, they don’t enjoy you to the fullest when you’re doing crap busy work just to get a paycheck.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Agreed. However, I wonder how the distinction was ever made between the two. When did the rift happen between what we loved do to and what makes money?
If what you love to do is of worth, people will pay you to do it.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Brandon - This is a very compelling and thought-provoking post that applies extremely well to you and other creative artists, but also to the general public. We all have to make choices as to where we expend our limited time and energy knowing that a large portion has to be devoted to pursuits which sustain us and our families. I pray that I can somehow get into the “Hooray” section of the diagram used in your post. I’ve been there at times, but not long enough.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
“Your gifts WILL make room for you and bring you before great men” When we are uniquely who we were created to be, doing what we have been blessed to be passionate about, then are we the most greatly rewarded. And since the laborer IS worth his hire, we should be paid to do what we have studied and labored to do well. I guess I no longer see a line. Our work is done to affect change, to bring hope, or understanding, or beauty, to proclaim our beliefs, or to entertain, or to document. Whatever our idealistic goal is, there is a market for it.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:17 am
“Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.”
Excellent post. I wish more artists would share their views.
June 20th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Nice words of wisdom here. I think independent filmmakers sometimes feel guilty for making money for doing what they love. You see people all over, doing jobs they hate, feeling like they’re not being paid adequately, and yet you love your job and would do it for free. If you can be paid to make films and people enjoy your films, you have it good and you deserve to be happy about it.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Great thoughts, Brandon! You echo my sentiments perfectly.
June 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
What’s the phrase? Make money to make movies instead of making movies to make money. I think that is/was a Disney motto for a while… Too bad we have to eat and support families, eh?