What if you want to break into the industry but don't have the necessary financial/familial support to get by with an unpaid full-time job?

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Mon 16 Apr 2012, 23:48, 1 reply)

Then you have to work in your spare time.
That's what I did. I pretty much worked 7 days a week for about a year, between studying, working weekends and evenings and doing as much "freelance" work as I could in my spare time. I still do that now in fact. My hours are a little bit more forgiving these days, but I still work my fucking arse off to try and get to where I want to be. I currently work weekends doing technical support, three days/nights a week teaching, and on my days off I do any freelance jobs I might have on, which is usually about 40 hours of work a month.

If I'm totally honest with you, it's had a pretty adverse effect on my health, social life and home life. I make time for people when I can, but that's not as often as I like. I'm pretty ruled by my work at the moment, but I'm hoping I'm going to be in the position I want to be in within the next year. I'm a hell of a lot better off than where I was 12 months ago, so I'm hoping that pattern will continue. It's tough, but I simply refuse to do a job where I have to put a tie on and turn up to work and sell fucking insurance or something.

The other thing is, I fucking love the work I do. I make music videos and short films and write scripts and teach, and get paid for it all. My time is worth something now because I'm actually very good at what I do. And that's because I spent a long time gaining experience and practising the skills I need to make a living.

I also just found out tonight that a short film I did visual effects on has been accepted into Cannes. These are the sorts of things that keep me doing what I do.
( PMGT -Bacon., Tue 17 Apr 2012, 2:54, closed)