Freelancing is more than making things

Full Stack Creator - 020

Welcome to the twentieth edition of Full Stack Creator! I have been at this for nearly a year and have yet to miss an edition. I have even delivered every letter on time, with a few hours of buffer here and there. It’s the little wins!

Today, we are going to talk about freelancing, and how it is more than just making things.

Most of us get into freelancing because it seems like a logical move. We fall in love with doing something – writing, drawing, filmmaking, etc. We spend all our extra time, between the chaotic moments of our lives, perfecting our craft. We think that the next logical move is to do what you love full time. This is not always the case. When it is, you only see the thing you set out to make, and you tend not to see all the other parts of the process. Yes, the making, the concept to completion, is a wonderful journey. But when you are doing it as your full time gig or more often as your side hustle, there are a lot of moving parts. There is more than just the art, which is a learning experience of its own. You might have to consider the client – that can be someone else or even yourself, the project goal/intention, budget restrictions, time, and a myriad of other aspects. Today, I am going to use my latest experience as an example, to hopefully shine some light on the areas of freelancing that are hard to push through, even with experience. 

I first pitched the idea of my upcoming documentary series, The Gray Area of Remote Work, to Adobe in 2019. The original conception was a full year project, with the deliverable of 12 mini docs. This has changed to a 1-2 month project with a deliverable of 4 mini docs. Not only did I change the amount of films produced, but I also pivoted to a remote only interview process. 

This leads to the first lesson – the project/creation can and will likely evolve to something beyond the original idea. Freelancing usually means there are guidelines and constraints to account for. When you make for your own pleasure, you tend to make things solely as you want to. You should try to accept the evolution or constraints of the project, as it will allow for a less biased/romanticized piece, a piece that actually gets finished.

A few years ago, when I was doing more client work, I was making a promotional video for a client. The filming took nearly 6 months. It was to promote her business, so she wanted day in the life like footage to show her process and the emotions of her clients in real time. The shooting was straight forward, but the final piece was not. Editing to final product took nearly a year. There were countless versions, with endless feedback. The piece that was perfect to her, was very different from what I envisioned. 

The second lesson, feedback is part of the process, accept it in strides – as positively as possible and move on. Feedback can be given to you by clients, friends, partners, yourself, or other stake holders. Most of the time feedback stings a bit at first. This is ok! It is ok to roll with the feedback. It is also ok to push back. With any project, creative or otherwise, know the goal of it. If you receive feedback that negates the project goal – push back! But going back to the first point, if the project has evolved and the feedback points this out – reassess, set new goals, and see if that feedback is now valid. 

Client feedback can sometimes be endless, you enter a cycle of revisions. I know this process way too well. I have had numerous clients, including myself (the worst client of all), that have allowed a project to be changed, adjusted, colored differently, and music changed at ad nauseam. This has led to project deadlines missed and some never even finished. 

This takes us to our final lesson, done is better than perfect. Starting a project is always invigorating, figuring out the narrative, picking themes, colors, sets, location, etc. Production is when the project starts coming to life, pixels hit the canvas, film is captured, words pour out. But then it comes to wrapping it up, delivering that final version, pushing publish or send. The urge to adjust the color, smooth out that motion, or check for edits one more time is tempting. If the project is never complete or stretched too long, the point of it might get missed. Most artists and makers want their work to be their best work. Yes, we should strive for this, but there is a point where you need to stop allowing edits, stop rereading, stop massaging the color wheel for that perfect tone. Check with your goal and see if the project succeeds at that, then press publish/send/done. 

These lessons all come on the heels of production starting for my doc series. The first interview kicks off the 12th of February. Production, albeit not traditional video production, will last until the 5th of March. This series is not what I first envisioned, it is not fully in my control, and it may never be perfect, but it will tell the narrative that the project set out to do. It will tell the story of remote workers – the gray area that people don’t think about. If all goes well, maybe I’ll sprinkle in a bit of perfection.