A Freelancers Fumbling First Steps

"Being surrounded by people who are creative makes you want to be creative" – Michel Gondry

Having been beaten up and ground down by the experiences of making short films, largely by myself but with the help of a few friends, I found myself at a loss about what to do next. I tried my hand at writing a short script which I stuck at for a few months, just to see if I could do it, and that was fun but I still had this thing that I sorta couldn’t shake off, just an urge to film something. I kept getting ideas for things that I just wanted to do, jump behind a camera and filmfilmfilm!

As anyone even remotely in the know about the film industry will say, its always who you know not what you know. So I get a message off a guy I know through a friend of a friend, he’s in a local band and he wants a video making to promote their latest song, SOLD!

….kind of, due to my inexperience technically, creatively and also in a business way, I offered to do it for free which in hindsight I shouldn’t have done, considering the amount of time, work and effort that goes into trying to make anything worthwhile. I should have at least covered my costs; tapes, travel expenses etc.

Then again, the members of the band have all become good friends of mine, I have something different to add to my showreel, the shoot itself was a great experience; it’s an amazing feeling when those who you’re collaborating with come to you with excellent ideas and you think “damn, why didn’t I think of that first”, but at least I get the credit for it, and having that sense that your all there for the same reason is inspiring, you all care about what the finished product will look like and you’re all committed to the same goal.

The YouTube channel I’ve had for several months with all my shorts on has had a total of 130 views, the trailer for the documentary I produced for the same band had a total of 300 views in 3 weeks (YouTube and Vimeo combined). Which made me think of record companies being another form of distribution for filmmakers, as most contemporary music videos are becoming more and more short film-esque in terms of narrative, character, length etc just look at the work of Spike Jonze and Romain Gavras, fans of the band will want to see them in action and your work will get out there and get seen.

There generally is no set way of making your way into the film industry, as the famous saying goes “nobody knows anything”, so try every route possible and remain flexible in your approach always keeping your eye on the goal. I’ve left this experience having learnt some valuable lessons and gotten myself known to the local music scene, just waiting for the offers to come flooding in now….

Fate Fell Short - Stand & Fight from Liam Treacy on Vimeo.

A48 & The Wolf EP Trailer from Liam Treacy on Vimeo.