I can clearly see the filmmaking entrepreneurship outcome at the end of all my research, studying, practice and endurance. Additionally, the fact that this blog post is still a bit rough-and-ready does not matter (this is the result of my daily mindfulness talking), I am restarting my entrepreneurial filmmaking endeavour by breaking cinema...
In this (mostly) stream-of-consciousness blog post (I apologise if its a bit rough around the edges) I go about reconfiguring my cluttered state of mind back into to a focused and goal-orientated healthy headspace.
Therefore, I discuss:
- I start by detailing my recent case of burnout as caused by my cluttered transdisciplinary focus in regards to everything I have been studying and working towards.
- I detail my engagement with daily mindfulness meditation, my holistic reasons for undertaking it and my experience with undertaking it.
- I transition into my reasoning behind dropping the Creative Technologies and Enterprise masters degree I had been accepted on by exploring my fascination with the human brain as whole, my engagement with the discipline of neuroscience and my aspirations to develop this academically further in regards to my film and media research focuses.
- However, this line of thought brings me back to my original primary focus of entrepreneurial filmmaking and, as a result, I conclude that I must drop my engagement with neuroscience, at least until I have my entrepreneurial filmmaking practice breaking its own ground.
- Then, using my own case, I consider and reply to the query of another young student filmmaker in regards to the merits of a Mass Communication degree he is considering undertaking and his own aspirations to go on to become a professional filmmaker.
- In conclusion, utilising everything that has been set forth, I set down my reconfigured mindset in regards as to what I regard as my current primary focuses and how this will naturally lead towards my entrepreneurial filmmaking outcome.
Let's start...
State of a Cluttered Transdisciplinary Mind
"Evolution designed the human brain not to accurately understand itself but to help us survive. We observe ourselves and the world and make sense of things to get along. Some of us, interested in knowing ourselves more deeply - perhaps to make better decisions, perhaps to live a richer life, perhaps out of curiosity - seek to get past our intuitive ideas of us. We can. We can use our conscious minds to study, to identify, and to pierce our cognitive illusions. By broadening our perspective to take into account how our minds operate, we can achieve a more enlightened view of who we are. But even as we grow to better understand ourselves, we should maintain our appreciation of the fact that, if our mind's natural view of the world is skewed, it is skewed for a reason."
- Leonard Mlodinow, Subliminal: The New Unconscious and What it Teaches Us, 2014:194.
For some time now, I have been finding it increasing difficult to coherently organise in mind, or even to explain out loud, all of the focuses, projects and interests I am currently enrolled within.
Why is this so?
Because there are too many different focuses occupying my time and energy!
To name just a few of my current focuses...
- Constructing my personal website
- Bringing my podcast project, Breaking Cinema, together for launch
- Reconfiguring my financial plan and mindset
- Writing a self-help study guide
- Sifting through and reconfiguring a crowdfunding project I filmed last summer
- Studying Funding for Entrepreneurs
- Completing the assignments for The First Step in Entrepreneurship
- Studying The Body Matters
- Studying Neurobiology: The Everyday Neuroscience of the Brain
- Reconfiguring my diet, as indicated by The All-Day Energy Diet
- Practising and developing my daily meditation aptitude
- Reading well over 10 books
- Working a part-time job (with plenty of full-time overtime) to take care of the bills while accumulating a bit of wealth on the side.
These are only the 'primary' focuses, they do not include updating this blog or 365 FRAMES 2015: my video a day project which always takes up a sizeable amount of time. There are also plenty of additional secondary and tertiary focuses.
The problem is my transdisciplinary inclination - I have always found it incredibly difficult and pointless to study one subject in isolation. I do not see the world like that, I see it as one mass-interconnect-thing. It's all connected. Every effect has its cause and everything effect stimulates further effects.
Therefore, it is only logical that I would reconfigure my financial plan and mindset while studying Funding for Entrepreneurs and it is equally logical that I would reconfigure my diet while also practising (and refining) daily meditation; in addition to studying the workings of body in The Body Matters.
Holistic and trasndisciplinary - that is how the world works for me.
However, the result of this multi-faceted focus is that it is now completely zapping all of my energy and causing me to be increasingly bogged down, which is exactly why I have been gradually descending into full-blown burnout over the last three weeks.
Burnout is detrimental not only because it makes you stone dead miserable, but because it causes you to completely lose your edge.
And I do like my edge.
Burning out my Headspace
 |
| The last three weeks, as chronicled in my 365 FRAMES 2015 project. |
And I do like my edge.
Burning out my Headspace
"Burnout is a psychological term that refers to long-term exhaustion and diminished interest in work. Burnout has been assumed to result from chronic occupational stress (e.g., work overload). However, there is growing evidence that its etiology is multifactorial in nature, with dispositional factors playing an important role."
- Burnout (psychology), Wikipedia
On the upside, though, this onslaught of burnout is something that I have been expecting and actively engineering myself towards... so that I can actively avoid it in future.
Burnout is not something new to me, as I experienced it many times during my time at university and each time I did encounter it, I learned from the experience and enacted lifestyle changes that would insure each new bout of burnout would be less severe than the last.
This is precisely why after three weeks of going downhill, I am still managing to get by, but it I do not enact further changes soon, things will only get worse.
I am completely committed to working for myself and creating my own opportunities, but I know the only way I am going to successfully sustain this in the long-run is to positively manage stress and my workload.
In the same way that I have been gradually revamping my diet since 2011, I have also been readjusting my mindset and natural responses towards stress and exhaustion.
And the same is true of my current burnout.
However, there is one key difference this time.
Previously when I had burnout it was always because I had overworked myself by focusing on too many focuses at the same time. While this is certainly true of my current burnout, there is an additional factor that I have been aware of for some time now.
Information overload.
I am experiencing Information overload as the result of having my head plugged into so many different focus streams of information.
I am experiencing Information overload as the result of having my head plugged into so many different focus streams of information.
“Think of the brain as a giant board with lights. Each light represents a concept. When a concept is brought to your attention, that area lights up. With so much information reaching you, many areas are lit up at once. To handle this, your brain uses a controller that focuses attention on the most important area. It also keeps scanning other areas in case they become important. With so much brain activity, keeping your attention focused becomes very difficult. The result is wandering attention, inability to stick to one task and frustration at the constant interruptions from new areas being lit up. At night, while you’re asleep, the controller is still sorting out information, often waking you with ideas buzzing in your head.”
- Dr. Larry D. Rosen, Professor of Psychology at California State University
I have been forcing my brain to turn over too much information, that is precisely why I find it impossible to recall everything I am currently working on - there is too much information knocking around my head on a daily basis.
Ultimately, in today's internet-centric world and my unquenchable appetite for knowledge who can blame me?
But is something is not working, I adjust my approach.
Enter My Headspace
Enter My Headspace
"Mindfulness is the willingness to the rest in that natural state of awareness, resisting the temptation to judge whatever emotion comes up, and therefore neither opposing or getting carried away with a feeling. Meditation is simply the exercise that is going to give you the best conditions to practise being mindful of these emotions. And headspace is the result of applying this approach. Headspace does not mean being free from emotions, but rather existing in a place where you are at ease with whatever emotion is present"
- Andy Puddicombe, Get Some Headspace, 2011:65
Mindfulness is something that I started to dabble with during my time at university, but it was never something that I made stick on a daily basis, until now.
The neuroscience behind meditation.
Having read about the many empirically proven benefits of practising mindfulness, implementing it into my life on a daily basis has been on my agenda ever since first dabbling with it.
Suspecting that 2015 was going to be an especially busy year, I decided that it was now or never, so I have been using the Headspace Meditation app introduction course as well as the companion book Get Some Headspace as guidance. Already, even with my current burnout, I have experienced various calming and positive benefits.
"sitting quietly and meditating is a much more effective way of calming yourself down than attempting to let off steam through another aggressive act. Countless studies have shown the benefits of meditation on stress and anxiety as well as on reducing the risk of heart disease"
- Elkman, The All-Day Energy Diet, 2014: 178.
The most primary being that I now look at each new problem without an irrational and immediate response of fear, problems are just puzzles now - fascinating puzzles!
Acquiring daily headspace has the resulting experience of a calm walk in the park, but in practice it is anything but a walk in the park. Like physical exercise or adapting to a new diet, practising daily mindfulness requires a great deal of willpower - it is about developing a whole new aptitude in regards to taking charge of the various streams of information flowing and coalescing throughout your mind.
Acquiring daily headspace has the resulting experience of a calm walk in the park, but in practice it is anything but a walk in the park. Like physical exercise or adapting to a new diet, practising daily mindfulness requires a great deal of willpower - it is about developing a whole new aptitude in regards to taking charge of the various streams of information flowing and coalescing throughout your mind.
Basically, it involves sitting still while focusing on the present moment and it's great deal harder than it sounds.
Could you sit still for 10 minutes a day?
So, yeah, I do it on a daily basis and already missed a considerable number of days, but that's okay because you will only ever identify your weak points (for improvement) by failing in the first place.
But is it enough to counter my current burnout?
No, it's not.
But is it enough to counter my current burnout?
No, it's not.
Hence, why I still feel burnout.
Just practising mindful meditation each day is not enough, If I am still overworking my body (and the mind is the brain which is a energy sapping component of the body), then I am still overworking my body and experiencing all of the negatives that come with that overtaxed state of being.
In the video below (you don't have to watch it) it takes me fifteen minutes with the help of a written list to outline all my current focuses!
State of a Cluttered Life - 365 FRAMES 2015: Day 068 - 09/03/2015
Therefore, I have come to a decision, a decision that my information hungry mind finds very painful and difficult to make, but I am making it regardless.
I have decided to cut back on my focuses.
And I will continue to cut back until I reach a state of information simplification.
This is to say that I can transition all of my focuses into a state of harmony where I can succinctly recall them all in my head at the same time without the aid of a written list.
When I can perform that simple act and keep performing this simple act, burnout will have a hard time finding its way back into my life.
It's about being disciplined
I have decided to cut back on my focuses.
And I will continue to cut back until I reach a state of information simplification.
This is to say that I can transition all of my focuses into a state of harmony where I can succinctly recall them all in my head at the same time without the aid of a written list.
When I can perform that simple act and keep performing this simple act, burnout will have a hard time finding its way back into my life.
It's about being disciplined
As with my transitioning diet and adoption of mindfulness it is going to take great deal of experiential time to get intuitively accustomed to, but I have no doubt that this simplification technique will pay off in the long.
But for the time being, the removal of one quite considerable focus is obvious.
This focus is an obvious candidate because it is a focus that I really should not be worrying about at the moment.
This focus is my fascination with neuroscience.
Mastering Neuroscience and Entrepreneurship
This focus is my fascination with neuroscience.
Mastering Neuroscience and Entrepreneurship
In a recent blog post I commented on my decision to drop my admission to the MSc in Creative Technologies and Enterprise I had been accepted on. The primarily reason behind this decision being that I have covered the majority of the master's curriculum in my own independent research and studies, I studied somewhere in the region of close to fifty online courses, as chronicled on this blog.
In particular, my current specialisation in entrepreneurship has proven to be a shockingly formidable alternative to the master's route and I also suspect that its teaching has been more engaging and up-to-date than the master's course of studies would have been.
In particular, my current specialisation in entrepreneurship has proven to be a shockingly formidable alternative to the master's route and I also suspect that its teaching has been more engaging and up-to-date than the master's course of studies would have been.
However, there was an additional reason for dropping this masters option, which I did not discuss in my previous blog post - my fascination with the potential of neuroscience.
"The science of the mind has been remade by one new technology in particular. Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, emerged in the 1990s. It is related to the ordinary MRI that you doctor employs, except fMRI maps the activity of the brain's different structures by detecting blood flow that waxes and wanes, just slightly, as the activity varies. In this way fMRI offers three-dimensional pictures of the working brain, inside and out, mapping to a resolution of about a millimetre, the level of activity throughout the organ... This revolution has a name, or at least the new field it spawned has one. It is called... neuroscience."
- Leonard Mlodinow, Subliminal: The New Unconscious and What it Teaches Us
Aside from always being hugely fascinated by the mind and the tantalising possibility of uncovering its true workings in order to better all of our lives, the study of the human neurological system holds huge implications for the field of film and media studies and the practice of future filmmaking.
This area of interest also happens to be one of my main areas of research; as I detailed in Ways of Being: The Spectator and the Spectacle, my award-winning theoretical dissertation:
"the human body as a complex organic whole comprises a major variable that has been missing from all film theories’ understandings of the spectator and spectacle relationship... Perhaps the reason previous film theories have been unable to adequately factor actual audience members into their paradigms is precisely because they have deprived their ideal spectators of a physical presence and a body that can influence the filmic experience! Cognitive theory only incorporates the body as far as being an experience simulator driven by perceptual data sourced via the eyes and ears. However, what if the body was actively influencing the filmic experience as a perceptual membrane on a basis equivalent to the eyes and ears?"
- Ways of Being, 2013:55The issue of the human body as a larger neurobiological stimiulator and influencer in the creation of an individual's filmic experience was one of the primary focuses of my dissertation and it is a focus I carried over into the creation of this blog's exploration of my larger transdisciplinary research focus - transdisciplinary because when dealing with human cognition in relation to film and media many different topics and focuses need to be touched upon.
"The fundamental focus of the project is the idea of an interfacing process - the introspective and expressive capacity inherent to us all - that we have always interwoven throughout our day-to-day existences and that we continue to do so at a formidably greater capacity in our contemporary digital realities. By examining the habits and manifestations of our cognitive, corporeal, cultural and connected ways to interface, 'Ways 2 Interface' will aim to build a unified understanding of this interfacing process - the brand at the heart of all our stories."
- Welcome #2Interface
Hence why I have been studying so many different online courses, I have been acquiring all of the necessary ammunition I need to tackle this bold new subject of empirical film research that very naturally extends into other areas of human existence.
How neuroscience, a.k.a. neurocinematics, is changing the way we view film.
The Creative Technologies and Enterprise MSc did comprise a research project component which I could have utilised in regards to exploring something within the are of film and neuroscience; while also studying the entrepreneurship components of the course alongside it.
But why?
Now that I have become well-and-truly acquainted with entrepreneurship, why waste additional time covering the same ground in a costly masters degree, when I could just undertake an alternative masters degree centred around neuroscience and experience a much more cost effective return on all the time and money I would be investing in it?
Therefore, gradually, I have been making the transition away from undertaking my original degree in Creative Technologies and Enterprise and have been looking more towards all the neuroscience degrees out there.
At the conclusion of my undergraduate degree in Creative Writing with Film and Screen Studies, my progression onto a masters or even a PhD was strongly encouraged; particularly based on the ideas of what I had explored in my award-winning theoretical dissertation.
I was flattered, but only half keen to continue down the academic route, as I commented to my course leader, based on my desire to make films and my inclination for entrepreneurship, I wanted to get my hands dirty, I did not want to waste away in some quiet corner of a university.
This is why the Creative Technologies and Enterprise MSc degree was offered up by my university, because it is a heavily practical course, the enterprise aspect would have satisfied my entrepreneurial inclination and the research component would have allowed me to empirically continue the research I had started in my theoretical dissertation.
Even so, though, it still did not feel like the best option for me to undertake; hence, why I have put off undertaking for over a year-and-a-half.
I am SO pleased I did, because that year-and-a-half has given me time to explore and expand my focus further; more-and-more so I have found myself being brought back to the unknowns and potentials of neuroscience.
However, it is not just a case of applying to any masters degree, because, as I did not study a science/empirical research degree at undergraduate level there's quite a bit of foundational knowledge I need to acquire before any university would take my application seriously
The fast growing field of neuroscience might be crying out for practitioners from all the other areas of study and industry, but if you can not get your head around the basics of empirical variable research practice, then neuroscience is not for you.
This is why, when you look at the list of online courses/MOOCs I have undertaken over the last year-and-a-half there are a number that deal with acquiring the necessary pre-requisites for undertaking neuroscience as a masters proper, such as:
- Good Brain, Bad Brain: Basics (Neurobiology)
- How to read a mind (cognitive poetics)
- Understanding Research Methods
- Developing Your Research Project
And the latest one...
Understanding the Brain: The Neuroscience of Everyday Life is a 10 week course and I can already see that it is a minutely accessible course for someone who does not understand neuroscience but wishes to gain a foundational knowledge.
It is also a course I have been thoroughly enjoying undertaking, but I started this course three weeks ago right when my burnout really started to kick in.
Therefore, I have now discontinued undertaking this course.
I did not want to, but I did.
Here's why:
1. A number of filmmaking projects occupied a huge part of my final year of my undergraduate degree and many people were surprised that I did not continue my filmmaking after I graduated.
2. The decision not to enrol in any further filmmaking was very intentional because - like my begrudging decisions to cut back on my focuses now - I decided to stay away from film in order to accustom myself with the practice of entrepreneurship. I did not want to do it - it absolutely perplexed and terrified me - but it was necessary for my ongoing growth, so I grit my teeth and got on with it.
3. I focused on entrepreneurship because the ability to create your own opportunities and generate income streams from those ventures is the only ongoing career security you can guarantee yourself in today's digitised and increasingly outsourcing world. Additionally, a growing means through which to produce your own filmmaking output is by combining your practice with an entrepreneurial mindest in order to manipulated the mass-interconnected world of Video on Demand and consumer generated content - this is where the filmmakers (should we even still call them that?) of the future can be found.
4. While undertaking my studies in entrepreneurship, I have not only discovered that I fit the profile of an entrepreneur (I am certainly slightly delusional), but the actual practice of entrepreneurship is something I can see I would enjoy undertaking, as it shares many parallels with film-making practice and distribution.
Before this year is out, I will hold a specialisation (a mini-degree) in entrepreneurship.
5. The realisation that if the entire process of filmmaking and entrepreneurship are so similar and if I have a natural inclination in both fields, then I would be an idiot not to combine them.
Therefore, the logical conclusion at the end of these points is that my current primary focuses should be:
- engaging further filmmaking
- while putting my entrepreneurial mindset into action, in co-operation with my further filmmaking.
Simple.
I need to focus purely on these two without any other substantial focus (distraction) , such as neuroscience, sapping me of my energy and attention towards the first primary two, I just do not have the headspace for it.
There is great potential for neuroscience as a discipline and I believe there is a great deal I could bring to the film and media fields. My education has instilled inclinations in both film practice, that I am now continuing in my further filmmaking, and in film theory, that a degree in neuroscience would greatly allow me to expand.
It is safe to say that, in order to be taken seriously and if I am serious about pursuing neuroscience, then neuroscience is one field in which I would absolutely need to possess a masters degree. However, this academic route is just going to have to wait and who knows, if I ever do get round to undertaking it, neurocinematics may even be a masters degree in its own right.
But for the time being, it is all about my entrepreneurial filmmaking practice, how ever long the realisation of this may take.
This is the inclination that felt right when I graduated from my undergraduate degree and I am not going to undertake anything else until I have become an entrepreneurial filmmaker.
No excuses and no distractions.
"My attitude is that now that I have done my degree, I am going to keep working towards what I was working towards - I am going to carry that on..."
- Me, 17/08/2013, one month after graduating.
It's that simple.
Focusing on Film(making) and its Inherent Entrepreneurial Practice
While I have been experiencing my burnout and toying with the idea of writing this post, but dreading it because I was so burnt out, I received this query from Anurag Singh Bohra, a young filmmaker in his own right...
Dear Peter,
This year I am planning to do a course on mass communication as apart from writing stories I have a passion for article writing as well. Moreover I see as an alternate option to earn a living as film making is a risky profession. I am also thinking of starting my film by 2016 as soon as I am done with my course. Since you are an experienced film maker I need your advice whether a course in mass communication is enough to get started as a film director. Do producers find it suitable to sign a person with mass communication degree as a film director?
When I read Anurag's query, I knew that I had to write this post, because his dilemma shared so many parallels with my own situation and it was only through presenting my situation that I would be able to adequately answer his reply.
"everyone's got potential - everyone should be allowed to achieve their potential. That is what I am doing myself and it is only fair I help other people to do it as well."
- Me, 17/08/2013, one month after graduating.
Therefore, Anurag, in reply and in addition to what I have already said, the simplest answer I can provide you with is...
... no.
No, you do not have to have a degree in Mass Communication in order to be a filmmaker or even be recruited as a filmmaker.
If I wanted to become a neuroscientist then I would absolutely have to possess a degree, because a science discipline always requires previous academic weight. However, with the arts and humanities, which a Mass Communication degree would fall under, possessing a degree, especially where film and media is concerned, is rarely ever a required pre-requisite.
In fact, while a degree can be used as a sign of your interest in the field, more often than not, it can be seen as a detriment to your case. Just because you possess a degree in Mass Communication does not mean you actually know how to make a film or understanding the larger logistics of filmmaking practice.
Possessing a degree means you understand theory and are hopefully a critical thinker - that's the established preconception.
It is a truly irritating preconception and especially if you do also possess a portfolio of work that does demonstrate you do know how to get your hands dirty as a filmmaker.
And this is the key to becoming a filmmaker or being recruited as one - practice.
If your Mass Communications degree does offer up the education of the practical elements of filmmaking and provides opportunities within its program of study then you may be on to something.
However, as I discovered with my degree, be very wary of degree courses that claim to teach filmmaking, because more often than not, they will just teach you the basics - basics you can easily teach yourself with all the materials that are now available on the web.
And quite frankly, if you want to understand the craft of filmmaking, get together with some other like-minded individuals and teach yourself.
Two books I would highly recommend as introduction/overviews are:
Other free resources to teach yourself filmmaking:
There are so many useful resources out there for teaching the art and business of filmmaking.
Maybe your degree can give access to resources that will assist with this, but at any rate teach yourself and get used to undertaking consistent filmmaking.
Two books I would highly recommend as introduction/overviews are:
- The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies and What They Did to Us
by David Thomson
- Digital Film-making
by Mike Figgis
Other free resources to teach yourself filmmaking:
- Explore Filmmaking: From Script to Screen - a free online course
- Vimeo Video School
- No Film School
- Filmmaker IQ
- Desktop Documentaries
- YouTube Creator Academy
- Film Courage
There are so many useful resources out there for teaching the art and business of filmmaking.
Maybe your degree can give access to resources that will assist with this, but at any rate teach yourself and get used to undertaking consistent filmmaking.
You could even do this alongside the degree in various filmmaking projects, how ever big or small your time will allow. The technology is not a problem, everyone has a smart phone, start small and work your way up.
Do not underestimate the potential or influence of micro-filmmaking. Micro-filmmaking is very easy way to build up a large portfolio of work and outreach.
Just start assembling a portfolio of work.
I can not tell you the amount of people, and in particular students, I have talked to who say, "Yeah, I would love to make a film..."
... and that's it, that's all it will ever be, the dream of an idea that will one day evaporate into just another piece of forgotten potential.
Unless they take action, action that becomes consistent action...
I have been there, I struggled and I still struggle.
A portfolio is what other people are going to want to see when they are considering working with you, they are much more likely to work with someone who has already actively done something, than someone who has just done a lot of passive studying.
So this is certainly worth considering in regards to whether you undertake this Mass Communications degree.
However, if are considering a hybrid career, as I am undertaking and which is fast becoming the standard and healthiest career option, then a degree in Mass Communication might just add additional weight to your filmmaking practice.
You mentioned writing as another passion and alternative income stream.
Certainly, a degree would assist you in this respect and the fact that it is a degree based around Mass Communications, opposed to something more specific, such as Film Studies, means that you would possess a wider-ranging knowledge more able to dissect and comment on the mass-connected-media-centric world we now occupy.
I have said it before, the problem with Film Studies is that it is an isolated discipline concerned with a medium that is no longer isolated, like every other form of media, film is now inter-connected with everything else.
Basically, a Mass Communications degree would be more to the world today if you really wanted to apply some theory.
What I am getting at here is if you wished to progress further down the academic route, then a discipline in Mass Communications would provide you with a firm and relevant footing from which to progress.
In terms of writing: fiction, non-fiction, essay, article, review, a degree would help slightly, but it is by no means essential.
As with filmmaking, different writing aptitudes are something you can teach yourself. Starting a blog is a really great way of doing this.
Do not underestimate the potential or influence of blogging (of vlogging). By the way, the Cameo app is a free and easy way to produce micro-films. If you can tell a story in under two minutes with an engaging style and pace, you're already on your way to being an effective long-form filmmaker.
It pains me to admit this, but I spent four years studying Creative Writing with Film and Screen Studies and the majority of my writing style and aptitudes I developed on my own - by reading and writing. I read some really great written material and then wrote some pretty terrible originals.
I do not know how much this degree would cost in terms of time and money, but is it worth the cost?
My original masters was not worth the cost.
Why?
It just did not feel right.
"The truth is that our unconscious minds are active, purposeful, and independent. Hidden they may be, but their effects are anything but, for they play a critical role in shaping the way our conscious minds experience and respond to the world."
- Leonard Mlodinov, Subliminal, 2014:29.
Neuroscience is telling us that the unconscious mind is a very formidable piece of software and, more than likely, your unconscious mind has already figured out what you want to do... or maybe it has not yet, but in either case - do what feels right.
If it feels right to go for the degree, go for it.
If you are still not sure, then do what I did and put it off, until you are sure what it is you want to do.
But, if you want to be a proper professional filmmaker in the future then absolutely start filmmaking now, regardless of whether you undertake your degree.
Knowing lots about film and media is great, but it means nothing if you do nothing with it.
Knowing lots about film and media is great, but it means nothing if you do nothing with it.
Start filmmaking now. No excuses.
365 FRAMES 2015 - the video a day project I am currently undertaking - is a perfect excuse for me to exercise my filmmaking skills every single day for a whole year.
One of my better 365 videos, it only took 48 days.
Not every video is brilliant, but that's okay, not every workout session I have produces the best results, but each session, good or bad, does produce results - even if those results are failures that are indicators on how to improve my technique for the next time.
I knew that I was going to do some more filmmaking in 2015 and I wanted to get back in shape AND improve upon my previous filmmaking experience. Making a short video each and everyday, some more ambitious than others, is a perfect way to do this.
Filmmaking is hard - even making a video a day is hard - it is something that really will test your resolve. It is an aptitude that does not jump out of thin air fully formed, it requires an ongoing commitment and engagement. Like my mindfulness exercises, I do them everyday because I know eventually that daily practice will become second nature and, as neuroscience has already generated, this practice will greatly benefit my mind and body.
Likewise, making a video every day will greatly benefit my filmmaking aptitude.
Filmmaking requires a great deal of hard work and many more mistakes besides before you will be at a level where your filmmaking work is off a 'pristine' quality that you will be happy showing to people. But even if it is not that great at first, you can still show it to people, because it's testament of your ongoing commitment to the medium.
And through the process of all this hard filmmaking you will acquire the single most important skill to have as a filmmaker, a skill that no degree course on the planet can teach you - perseverance.
Filmmaking is fraught with obstacles and if you can not persevere through all of these obstacles, forget it.
The secret?
Just make something. And then make something else. And keep making stuff, keep developing your craft, building a portfolio, spreading your name, networking, collaborating, succeeding, failing, burning out, persevering, filmmaking.
Just keep focusing your headspace on becoming a smarter filmmaker and, by smarter, I mean thinking outside of the traditional filmmaking box. The entire medium of film and the business surrounding it is changing, change and grow with it.
Embrace the inherent entrepreneurship of filmmaking and being a successful filmmaker involves coming to terms with the financing, distribution and marketing aspects of the craft. However, the ability to find/build/inspire your audience is the key component that will ensure success in the whole venture. You might have the best crafted film ever made, but without an audience there is nothing you can do with it or get in return for it.
Anurag, the reason why I have include your query in this blog post is to convey you to you that fact that filmmaking, especially today, is hard work, it can be incredibly draining and it is a holistic practice that is inherently transdisciplinary.
Today, successful filmmaking requires more that just a technical and theoretical understanding of the pre-production, production and postproduction of filmmaking.
Your degree may offer you a technical and theoretical understanding, but I doubt that it will provide much more besides - the financing, distribution, marketing, networking and endurance skills that are essential to being a successful filmmaker.
Although, I could be wrong, because I have not seen the course syllabus or the professional criterias of the practitioners who teach the degree. It could turn out to be quite a radically new type of degree.
However, one thing I am certain off is that filmmaking is a very risky profession and so is any form of interestingly fulfilling life.
Embrace the inherent entrepreneurship of filmmaking and being a successful filmmaker involves coming to terms with the financing, distribution and marketing aspects of the craft. However, the ability to find/build/inspire your audience is the key component that will ensure success in the whole venture. You might have the best crafted film ever made, but without an audience there is nothing you can do with it or get in return for it.
Anurag, the reason why I have include your query in this blog post is to convey you to you that fact that filmmaking, especially today, is hard work, it can be incredibly draining and it is a holistic practice that is inherently transdisciplinary.
Today, successful filmmaking requires more that just a technical and theoretical understanding of the pre-production, production and postproduction of filmmaking.
Your degree may offer you a technical and theoretical understanding, but I doubt that it will provide much more besides - the financing, distribution, marketing, networking and endurance skills that are essential to being a successful filmmaker.
Although, I could be wrong, because I have not seen the course syllabus or the professional criterias of the practitioners who teach the degree. It could turn out to be quite a radically new type of degree.
However, one thing I am certain off is that filmmaking is a very risky profession and so is any form of interestingly fulfilling life.
Filmmaking is an odyssey into the unknown and If what I have said does not feel right, do not be a filmmaker.
Ultimately, at the end of all this, the questions you should be asking yourself are:
- what do you want your focus to be?
- how multifaceted do you want it to be?
- how much headspace are you willing to devote to your focus(es)?
Focusing my Healthy Headspace on Breaking Cinema with Entrepreneurship
I writing this post last week, but gave up after only partially writing it, because I was still exhausted from my burnout and my brain just did not want to have to confront it, so instead I focused on working some overtime and doing quite a bit of read.
However, now that I have a bit of time away from it and a week without any overtime, I came back to this post and what you have read in this is very stream-of-conciousness record of how my unconscious mind - a formidable piece of software when given a bit of time - has quite naturally sorted out and simplified my focus over the last week.
At the beginning of this post I noted that my current focuses were:
- constructing my personal website.
- bringing my podcast project, Breaking Cinema, together for launch.
- reconfiguring my financial plan and mindset.
- writing a self-help study guide.
- sifting through and reconfiguring a crowdfunding project I filmed last summer.
- studying Funding for Entrepreneurs.
- completing the assignments for The First Step in Entrepreneurship.
- studying The Body Matters.
- studying Neurobiology: The Everyday Neuroscience of the Brain.
- reconfiguring my diet, as indicated by The All-Day Energy Diet.
- practising and developing my daily meditation aptitude.
- reading 14 books:
- The All-Day Energy Diet (now completed)
- Odd John
- Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly
- The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies and What They Did to Us
- APE: How to Publish a Book
- Technologies of Seeing: Photography, Cinematography and Television
- The Rules of Wealth: A Personal Code for Prosperity
- The Opportunity Analysis Canvas
- The Business Book
- The Queen's English and How to Use it
- The Suitcase Entepreneur
- Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era
- Economics: The User's Guide
- On the Origins of Stories: Evolution, Cognition and Fiction
- working a part-time job (with plenty of full-time overtime) to take care of the bills. while accumulating a bit of wealth on the side.
In addition to:
- networking online.
- studying The Language of Hollywood (now completed)
- studying Documentary: New Trends, New Formats
- studying Scandinavian Film and Television (already discontinued)
- studying and reviewing Explore Filmmaking: From Script to Screen (already discontinued)
- studying My Copyblogger copywriting course
- updating my daily 365 FRAMES 2015 project.
- updating this blog, Ways 2 Interface
- updating Something to do with Film
- keeping on top of the story construction for my web series project.
- Researching an additional documentary idea I have had in pipeline.
ENOUGH!
This is too much, way to much. No more burnout, I like my headspace focused and, with the invaluable help of writing this blog post, this is how I have now reconfigured my current focuses:
- Wellbeing
- Entrepreneurship
- Filmmaking.
- Study Guide.
- Relaxation.
- Temporary Inconvenience.
And more specifically...
- Wellbeing - the foundation on which everything else is built - without optimum wellbeing you might as well be burnout all of the time - I intend to live a long, healthy and prosperous life.
- daily mindfulness for optimum headspace
- weekly physical exercise, as ever
- continue to adjust my diet one day and item at a time.
- study and complete The Body Matters in relation to the above.
- Entrepreneurship - essential for future properity
- complete my specialisation in entrepreneurship
- continue to network and gaining an understanding of building an audience.
- continue to brainstorm entrepreneurial ideas
- read and complete The Suitcase Entrepreneur
- continue to reconfigure financial mindset with the assistance of The Rules of Wealth, but this will naturally happen as my knowledge of business finance increases.
- update Ways 2 Interface where necessary.
- Filmmaking - essential for a fulfilling life
- continue my daily video a day with 365 FRAMES 2015 and occasional other micro films to keep building my portfolio.
- complete development and launch of my podcast Breaking Cinema - the completion of this one in the next couple of weeks is essential as this will assist with audience building. When this is launched move on to finishing and launching your personal website.
- read and complete The Big Screen.
- occasionally update Something to do with Film where necessary.
- study and reference Documentary: New Trends, New Formats.
- continue to brainstorm ideas for the crowdfunding documentary project and it's second round of filming later this year (365 FRAMES 2015 is preparation and practice for this).
- read and complete Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era
- Study guide - essential in order to help other achieve their potential, but this one receives barely an hour of daily time, until I can devote more time to it. For the time being, this one could be considered the hobby in relation to my other focuses listed here, aside from relaxation.
- continue to write self-help study guide one small piece at a time
- read and reference APE: How to Publish a Book
- Relaxation - essential for the unconscious mind
- read Odd John
- read Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly
- do not read more than two forms of light reading, one fiction and one non-fiction is a good balance.
- watch films - MUBI and YouTube, sorted.
- find ways to make socialising (with friends and family) interesting in order for it to actually be consistently bearable, the podcast will help with this.
- Temporary inconvenience a.k.a. part-time job
- keep doing it until you are able to kill this idiotic way of earning an income.
- only do as much overtime as is necessary.
- devote as little of your attention towards it as possible, your mind has better things to be thinking about.
That's it. I have tested what I can handle over the last two weeks and this is it (remember the questions I left for Anurag at the end of his section):
- this is what I want my current focuses to be.
- this how multi-faceted I want them to be - you will note that ultimately it does not extend too far outside of entrepreneurial filmmaking.
- this is as much headspace that I am willing to devote to my focuses.
My human brain is too skewed to handle anything else.
Therefore, everything else - including my beloved neuroscience - is put on the shelf for the time being!
Naturally, this list will change as some focuses are completed and new one's take priority.
As ever, life is a work in progress, but for now the above items are my priorities, these are essential for my future success.
If I am serious about becoming an entrepreneur, then this is what I have to do.
The best part?
In the time it has taken me to write this blog post, I have already put this ordered reconfiguration into practice and, low-and-behold, my burnout is gone.
Now that I find myself organised in my burnout free healthy headspace, I can clearly see the filmmaking entrepreneurship outcome at the end of all my research, studying, practice and endurance.
Additionally, the fact that this blog post is still a bit rough-and-ready does not matter (this is the result of my daily mindfulness talking), I am restarting my entrepreneurial filmmaking endeavour by breaking cinema...
