I’m recording this from a rental car in Iceland, which is relevant.
I want to talk about something that matters a lot to me as a freelance filmmaker, and which I did not do when I started out, and it nearly killed me. Embrace the freedom you have as a freelancer.
The freedom to buy a plane ticket and just go to a foreign country. The freedom to not wait for vacation days, not wait for a holiday, not ask a boss for permission. I really only have to answer to God, my clients and my wife. Keep those three happy and I can do what I want, which is extraordinary when you say it out loud.
The Nine To Midnight Grind
It’s no secret that I’m a workaholic. I love working, I love making videos. Wedding films, commercials, these videos for you. It’s fun and it’s genuinely fulfilling.
But here’s what actually happened: I traded the nine to five in a cubicle for freelance work, and freelance work turned out to be a nine to midnight. I work constantly, and I’m pushing myself to make something new every single time.
Which is hard, because every wedding has prep, and a ceremony, and a reception. Finding a way to make that feel new is difficult, and it is very easy to slide into a rut where you think, I’ll just cut this the way I cut the last one, cookie cutter, done, great, finished.
Avoiding that is my main goal. And what I’ve found is that to avoid the creative rut, I have to take time off and I have to make things I want to make.
Projects Nobody Asked For
Personal creative projects that are only valuable to me, and maybe to a few people who like my videos. They’re a cathartic release. No script, no client, nobody paying me, nobody demanding changes. I can make something exactly the way I want to make it, and that is incredibly liberating.
This is about getting back to what you loved in the first place. You didn’t pick up a camera thinking, I want to make videos and make money. You picked up a camera, realised it was cool, made fun stuff with it, and eventually somebody offered to pay you. So you said yes, and now you have paying clients and things are going well.
And somewhere in there, most of us lose the spark we had at the start. The plain joy of creating. Of taking a camera and filming something for nobody but yourself.
So I’m asking you, as a fellow creative: take that time back. Go and be creative on your own terms, the way you originally dreamed of.
Practically, Where To Start
You do not have to fly to Iceland to relax. Honestly, start much smaller.
One day off a week. That’s where I’d begin. Mine usually involves a date with my wife, working on vlogs like this one, and playing an unreasonable amount of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, because it’s an amazing game. Yours will look different. But one day a week, minimum.
Then a weekend. If you don’t have much time, take a fun weekend trip somewhere you actually want to go. A short vacation still counts.
Then, when the cheap plane tickets show up, like they did for me, go to a strange country, eat their fermented shark, and film the landscape.
Don’t Trade One Grind For Another
You got into this for the freedom. I don’t want to see you swap an eight to five for an eight to midnight and collect none of the benefits, because this job is genuinely amazing. Getting paid to be creative is amazing.
Take the time off. Do the personal projects. I fully expect to go home from this trip and think about my clients’ videos in a different way, and that makes me happy. But that isn’t the point. The point is finding the refreshment and the joy in filmmaking by doing what makes you happy.
The Films In This Video
The travel footage cut into this one comes from: