Successful filmmakers perfect the art of the side hustle. Frustrated wannabes think of their filmmaking ambitions as their side hustle. They keep plodding until something financially secure comes along.
Deciding to become a filmmaker or screenwriter is one of those death-defying moments akin to jumping off a cliff. It’s great you’ve finally decided to follow your dream with all your pent up passion. But what of the rocks below.
What about the monthly commitments of food and lodgings? This is where one needs to make the choice between working full time on you dream, or viewing your creative industry startup as a side hustle.
The Gig Economy vs Side Hustle
The phrase ‘gig economy’ refers to free lance work without any guarantee of a minimum number of monthly hours.
A side hustle, on the other hand, is something one does to make extra cash, or to develop a startup. A filmmaker is always in start-up mode with each new project.
Every millennial I know has a side hustle or two,” said Avalon, who does freelance design work, editing work and writing. “I don’t know anybody who has one job and makes a living at it.
—Bill Vogrin, The New York Times, 26 Mar. 2017
The Basic Requirements of a Side Hustle
Chris Guillibeau is the creator of the Side Hustle School and author of Side Hustle – from idea to income in 27 days. Chris believes there are seven basic requirements to make a side hustle succeed. And I don’t think it matters what your side hustle is, as long as you can commit to these seven things:
- Do you gave the right frame of mind?
- Can you sacrifice 25% of your social time?
- Can you come up with lots of ideas?
- Are you an action person?
- Can you tell others about your project?
- Can you handle rejection?
- Is your project something you totally 100% believe in?
How Filmmakers Perfect The Art of the Side Hustle
Most people who start a side hustle (for money) already have a job. But filmmakers want to make films full time. Earning extra income is the side hustle.
1.Collaborate
What if you already have a job? Both Anjali Alford and Jennie Griffiths have in fact: engaging, taxing and highly pressurised jobs in fact. Having co-written the novel Consequences together, Jennie realised her daily commute was time wasted. So she and Anjali went from co-writers to co-founders of an exciting creative writers startup: Collabwriters.com. You can follow their new and fresh venture on Twitter.
They currently have a crowdfunding campaign going to pay for some startup costs focused around publishing their novel. This they hope will open the floodgates to other writers allowing them to monetise their site and quit their day jobs.
2. Crowdfunding
Sometimes you just need money. Filmmakers often crowdfund part or all of the budget for their film or writing projects. Of course, the success of one’s crowdfunding projects is directly proportional to the size of your crowd ie: social media. Here is here the real art of the hustle kinks in. It really is hustling, or marketing, that makes a crowdfunding campaign work.
Research:
Read the Crowdfunding Bible
read: Avoid these FIVE Crowdfunding Mistakes
3. Write a micro-budget film and get it made and then get it sold
This is the route many take. They raise a bit of cash, slave for free for a series of months and get the finished film into film festivals. Of course, the trick is to monetise the film. This is the sort of head-mangling puzzle many of our Postgraduate Film Degree students undertake.The question of course is, how do you live while you are doing this?
This is exactly what Gareth Edwards did with his debut micro budget film Monsters. And of course, Gareth has gone on to make mega-budget movies.
4. How filmmakers feed themselves without selling their soul.
I once was taking a cab to Pearson International Airport in Toronto. It was really early in the morning. I was leaving our Toronto hub and returning to London. The cabbie was chattie. He asked me what I did, and I told him I was a filmmaker. I then asked him what he did and he said he designed airplanes. I then found our that he had been driving an airport limo for over ten years. Cab driving was his side hustle to finance his airplane design ambitions.
For some, earning money in a film related way simply doesn’t work. Others view working with a camera (or pen) is better than stacking shelves at the local supermarket.
Here’s some ways that filmmakers can make money without selling their soul:
- Corporate videos
- Web series
- Commercials
- Music videos
Ways that screenwriters can buy their daily bread:
- Write commercially: handbooks, corporate brochures and the like
- Researchers
- Poetry
- Advertising copywriting
- Write and direct a micro budget feature as above
Read: Five Ways Screenwriters Make Money
5. Raise money
This is probably the most ambitious route. Get a paying job for 6 – 9 months allowing yourself the time to create a good solid business plan. Raise money through friends and family, or from an angel. Once you have raised enough money to cover your living and filmmaking business – quit the day job and become a filmmaker full time.
Fade Out
I started Raindance as a side hustle way back in 1992 in the heart of the last great British recession. Interest rates were at 24% and property prices plunged by half. The UK Pound was trading par with the dollar. At the time I was paying the rent by working for a debt collection agency. I hated every single minute of my day job. But I could eat and they had a great photocopier I could use in the evening when everyone else had left. From this humble beginning Raindance grew.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is this. If you really want to become a filmmaker full time, you will. And everyone’s route is different.
Did You Know?
- Raindance Film Festival is considered one of the top fifteen film festivals in the world?
- Raindance Film School London offers HND, BA and MA in Filmmaking and Screenwriting?
- Raindance members support indie film, and enjoy a range of benefits
- Let Raindance guide you on your filmmaking pathway. call +44 (0) 207 930 3412 or email filmschool@raindance.ac.uk
Photo Credit: Bertie Watson
I founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993 because the British film industry was closed, polite, and congratulating itself while shutting new filmmakers out.
I co-founded the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 because British indie film deserved more than a shrug, a pat on the head, and a Tuesday night screening.
Raindance didn’t start as a brand. It started as a rebellion: film training without gatekeepers, a festival without permission, and a community built by filmmakers who weren’t waiting to be invited in.
Later, we took it global: Toronto, Vancouver, New York, LA, Berlin, and Brussels, because independent film doesn’t belong to one city, one class, or one accent.
I’ve produced 700+ short films and seven features, including Deadly Virtues (2014) and ALICE, which won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize (2019) not because someone “discovered” us, but because the work earned its place.
I’ve written three books used by filmmakers worldwide because too many courses taught compliance instead of survival.
In 2009, I was awarded a PhD for services to film education, ironic, given that most of my career has been about tearing down the rules that education insisted you follow.
I don’t believe in waiting for permission.I believe in making work, building systems, and forcing the industry to catch up.
Specialties: Independent Film (the real kind) · Producing · Writing · Film Education · Festivals · Breaking Broken Systems
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