Digital Bread Crumbs

I'm supposed to be studying for another exam right now, but my head is still mushy after a nearly three hour midterm earlier this afternoon. So instead I'll ramble on about how these last few months have been a blur with me still trying to balance work, family, and grad school responsibilities.

There was a trip out to Indiana a few weeks ago where I ate a tiny octopus, lost another fancy pen, and chased high school theater kids around. Then a few days dodging weather delays and scheduling issues with a good crew and a camera package I mostly enjoyed. Out in Connecticut I ate well and closed the rings on my Apple Watch each day before 10a while working with a bunch of younger student athletes. Don't forget that other shoot with the Cherokee Nation and their rad XR studio out in NE Oklahoma before that quick trip out to Shreveport so I wouldn't miss our younger monster's birthday again. I believe there was a film festival and an U.S. military air show in there somewhere too, but I was much younger then.

I have these photos on my phone that act like a trail of bread crumbs to remind me of where I've been lately. Forget actually trying to make something interesting looking, I'm just trying to remember what happened.

What's kinda wild is that my bread crumb photos have all sorta started looking the same. I wear the same blue collared shirt when I'm traveling by plane to a job and airports for the most part all kinda have the same look and feel. Then there's the black collared shirts I'll wear on set in trying to look like an adult. Well, unless I know I'll be working mostly outside and then it's the safari outfit with the green bandana to subtly let others know I'm down for women making their own decisions. Then there's the "Where'd I park?" and "I should take a photo of this lighting setup so I can remember what we did" set of photos. Not too long ago I'd mentioned something to St. Anne the Wife about how normal it is in this line of work to be picked up from the airport by complete strangers, work with them like crazy for a few days, and then peace out at the end of the job never knowing if you'll ever see them again.

I know too I wrapped up a couple more MBA classes around the end of June, then jumped straight into two more. During the summer semester we've had each of those eight week classes essentially crammed into two, five-week periods. I keep telling myself (and the wife and kids) that this short-ish 18 month period of doing my MBA won't last forever and will be crazy helpful in the long run.

In time, things will calm down and I'm sure I'll be bored out of my mind along with thinking I'll never work again. At least during this round of crazy busy I'm not fighting off "stress induced physical pain."

Smashing Together Art Kid Assets and Math

You know what feels nearly pointless? Trying to come up with some concrete numbers on the actual return on the investment (ROI) I've made on my gear over the years. By all means, I've got access to those numbers considering the detailed records I keep, but the wheels fall off once I start digging into the minutia of the individual items in my kit, the associated costs, and what I've charged for every single job.

It's not hard tracking the the big ticket items like camera bodies, lenses, computers, etc., but good grief I've wasted nearly a full week trying to come up with the actual breakdowns of what I've spent on the additional accessories to make those big ticket items functional and how I've charged for them. There's also the revenue made from my stock footage sales – because I keep detailed records with that nonsense too. Let's not even get into how I dug through my tax returns from the last few years trying to plug in the deprecation on my larger asset purchases and how that factors into this fool's errand.

Why even attempt something like this? Well, for one thing, I had this past week off in between my MBA modules. Two, and more importantly, I'd like to know how much my assets are costing and making my business. It's not like my business is rolling in money (just ask Saint Anne the Wife), but dang... If there are better ways to spend and invest extra money, why wouldn't I try to figure that out?

Ideally, I should be able to track my gear purchases, the rates I charged clients each time I used that specific item, and come up with a specific date as to when that item paid itself off and became profitable. Ideally too if I got to the end of the useful life of the equipment and sold it off, I'd be able to plug in the amount I'd sold it for (salvage value). From that thicc spreadsheet of data, I'd be able to come up with an economically sensuous-looking graph showing the fixed cost and an upward-sloping line following the cumulative amount I'd made with that purchase.

For example, just comparing the rough costs of my RED camera packages (not including lenses, lens accessories, tripods, EasyRig, etc.) and Mavic 2 drone kit and the amount I've made via only my Filmsupply stock footage sales, I've made a 133% return on those assets.

But alas, even with all the records I've kept since starting my business nearly 15+ years ago and given my current equipment list and constraints, I'm pretty sure it'll take me more than a week to accomplish my goal of knowing which individual asset is making what. Like, I'm assuming there's a difference in the ROI percentage on a camera body that'll age out in 5-10 years vs. the type of long-term return on lenses and light stands. This is probably why firms employ accounting departments. Surely there's software out there that'd track all this and if not there should be, especially for small firms like mine. Sidenote: I'm starting a Management Information Systems class this week where I'm sure we'll dig into something like what I'm talking about. Twenty bucks says I'll end up developing my own relational database system that'll track all this nonsense.

This last MBA module had me in a Managerial Economics class where we were studying pricing models and using some geometry to calculate demand, marginal revenue & costs, profit maximization, and some other nonsense. Turns out my small business is essentially in a monopolistically competitive industry where there are many buyers and sellers, where each firm produces a differentiated product, and there's free entry into and exit from the industry. I say "essentially" because there's not really "free entry and exit" considering my upfront costs, but I'm nearly certain you're not here for a graduate-level academic lecture on the economics of a freelance cinematographer. Remember that geometry we were using to calculate profit maximization, here's what that kinda looks like.

Is it essential to know all this? Hard no. It doesn't take a graduate-level business degree to be an art kid. I will say though that having a better understanding of this hot mess should allow me to make better financial decisions related to the work I get to do as a creative.

One of the beefs I've had over the years is working on client-provided gear that actually hindered the work I was doing. As a freelancer, I'd be on set using their prosumer-ish and broken-down equipment while the staffers were nursing sunburns and hangovers after another weekend at their lake houses. As a camera operator, am I better able to nail a challenging focus pull with a higher-end cinema lens and follow focus vs. a still photo lens? Yes. Will that precise camera move look better on a higher-end tripod compared to that $150 excuse for one? Yes. Does the image quality and actual on-set working experience you get out of an Alexa, RED, or even the higher-end Canons and Sonys stomp what you get out of those lower-end camera bodies? Again, yes.

All that said, it doesn't always make financial sense to be using high-end gear. I feel like this is where the art I get to do smashes up against the actual math.

"Does it make more sense to buy or rent that particular item?" Show me the math.
"Is my $13,000+ tripod actually necessary for that locked-off interview?" Well...
"With the clients I normally get to work with and the market I'm usually in, should I get a matching pair of Alexa 35s kits when a set of Sony FX9s packages would accomplish the same goal?" Hmm...

Show me the math and let's talk about the potential long-term revenue models.

We Need More Weird Stuff

Normally I'll just delete the Short of the Week email I've been getting for goodness knows how long. But every now and then I'll ignore the black hole of responsibilities just long enough and find gems like this short film by Babak Ganjei.

What's more rad is the fact this short film was from the same people who brought us the weird AF surrealist horror comedy Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. And more rad-erer is the fact that YouTube series by Blink Industries is now a fancy pants TV show on British Channel 4 (that I can't watch here in the U.S. until I figure out how to use a VPN).

In a roundabout way, this nonsense connects me even more with a podcast I'd heard last week. The Daily podcast from The New York Times interviewed one of their own, film critic A.O. Scott, about why he's done with the movies.

"After 23 years as a film critic, Mr. Scott discusses why he is done with the movies, and what his decision reveals about the new realities of American cinema." - The New York Times

They get into major studios leaning so hard into superhero movies and crowding out other other potential film projects as well as how streaming platforms have changed the game. Seriously worth a listen.

The budding MBA brain of mine is down to argue the economics of this nonsense with the other part of me who just wants to make weird art kid stuff no one asked for. It makes me optimistic knowing that the film Everything Everywhere All at Once did so incredibly well this year at the Oscars and will hopefully further open the door to more independent and original films.

Short-Term Investments for Freelancers & Small Businesses

If there's one thing so far that's kinda rocked my world of financial thinking as an MBA student, it's the idea of short term investments as a freelancer or small business. Investing always seemed like something you do only for retirement, but as we started learning to read and analyze business financial statements, I kept seeing a line for short term investments.

I'll say this upfront and very directly: I'm not an accountant, tax professional, or financial advisor. I learned a long time ago to work with financial professionals whose responsibility is to help me with my business and personal finances. Anything I'm sharing related to money is based on my personal experience and what I'm currently learning in the course of my MBA program. If you've followed me for any length of time you should be sick of me taking about this nonsense, but alas, here we are.

If you're self-employed and anything like me, you normally pile up some cash throughout the year to pay your known and scheduled expenses (taxes, business insurance, life insurance, etc), right?

I've been doing the full-time freelance thing since 2011 and from the beginning I've been putting aside a regular percentage of my profits from each project. When we were living in New York City, I was setting aside 30% for taxes, but we're in Oklahoma now and our taxes are much lower. Currently I'm putting aside 20% for taxes and 10% for retirement. That's worked out for me over the years and is something I'll continue to do until I have a reason to do otherwise.

Another part of my income is my stock footage licensing via Filmsupply. Those payouts fluctuate, but my monthly averages normally cover my overhead costs: salary, car payment, insurance, utilities, etc. I don't have regular expenses directly associated with those licensing fees, so I'll set aside 20% for taxes and 10% for retirement off the top, then allocate the remainder to cover my monthly overhead and stash the rest if and when there's more.

My taxes are typically paid at the end of the year and I've got a couple other major business expenses I save for and pay once a year. In the meantime, that cash being set aside to cover those expenses is just parked in a basic savings account. It's not my emergency fund, but if necessary I can use that small pile as a cash buffer when work is slow or clients are taking their dear sweet time to pay invoices. When work does pick up and I've got extra cash, I make sure to refill that fund. Remember, that cash is specifically set aside to cover those short-term (less than one year) major expenses as mentioned, but surely it could be more productive before its intended purpose months down the road (i.e., short-term investments).

Basic Savings Account

Until recently, I thought I was being smart by parking that dedicated money in a savings account. Here I am, letting the bank use my cash in exchange for the interest rate they're paying me. Well, if you're paying attention, you'll realize the bank isn't really out to make you money. They're a business too and more interested in making their own money and using your cash to do so.

According to the FDIC, as of Dec. 19, 2022, the typical savings account in the U.S. earns 0.3% interest annually. Keep in mind that 0.3% annual rate gets divided over twelve months, so it's actually 0.025% each month.

MathJax example

\[{0.3\% \, annual \,rate \over 12 \,months}= .025\% \,per \,month\] \[\] \[principal * \left( {annual \,rate \over 12 \,months} \right)^{number \,of \,periods} = earned \, interest \] \[$1,000 * \left( {0.3\% \over 12} \right)^ = \$0.25 \] \[\] \[$1,000 + \$0.25 = \$1,000.25 \]

Basically, if you park $1,000 in a savings account this month at 0.3%, next month you'll have $1,000.25. Your $1,000 earned a whopping $.25 in interest. It's not nothing, but yea it is.

High-Yield Online Savings Accounts

There are those high-yield online savings accounts and I've got freelancer buddies who swear by them for their parked cash. Right now, the best interest rate I could find in a high-yield online savings account was 4.13%. Going back to that $1,000 we'd talked about earlier, let's say you put it in one of those high-yield savings accounts this month. What does it look like next month?

MathJax example

\[$1,000 * { \left( 4.13\% \over 12 \,months \right)}^ = \$3.44\] \[\] \[$1,000 + \$3.44 = $1,003.44\]

By simply moving your money into an account with a higher interest rate, your $1,000 made enough in interest that month to buy you a decent cup of coffee. You're not getting rich by any means, but the interest you'd earn is much better than what you'd get with a regular savings account.

Short-Term Bonds

A bond is a promissory note issued by a business or a governmental unit when they want to raise additional money. Basically, a bond is a loan for an agreed upon period of time that makes additional money for the lender while the borrower is using it. Then at the end of the period, the borrower pays back the full amount they borrowed.

Bonds can get crazy complicated, but I'm intentionally trying to keep things simple. Specifically for this blog post, I'm going to stick with U.S. Treasury Bills (T-Bills), which are short-term bonds and range from four to 52-weeks. Because these U.S. Treasuries are fully backed by the U.S. government, they're considered to be nearly risk free and are one of the safest investments in the world.

These T-Bills are known as zero-coupon bonds and they're sold at a discount from their par value, meaning the actual purchase price is less than the bond's face value. Your return (profit) is the difference between the face value you get back at the end of the period (maturity) and what you actually paid to get it. For simplicity, let's assume we purchase a $1,000 zero-coupon bond at a 10% annual rate that'll mature in 52 weeks:

MathJax example

\[Purchase \,Price = {Maturity \over (1+annual \,rate)^{number \,of \,periods} } \] \[Purchase \,Price = {$1,000 \over (1+10\%)^ \] \[Purchase \,Price = \$909.09 \] \[\] \[Return = Face \,Value - Purchase \,Price \] \[Return = $1,000 - \$909.09 \] \[Return = \$90.91 \]

We're in this weird spot at the moment where the rates on these short-term T-Bills are crazy high. I could nerd out with you about the time value of money and inverted yield curves, but that's not my purpose here. Just know these nearly risk-free short-term investments are available with unusually high interest rates. As I'm writing this at the end of December 2022, the eight and 13-week T-bill rates are 4.3% compared to this time in December 2021 when those same bonds were at 0.05% and 0.06% respectively.

Let's go back to that $1,000 we'd talked about earlier. So instead of putting that money into an online savings account at 4.13%, let's say we buy an eight week T-bill at 4.3%. The math gets more complicated here and it's much easier to use a spreadsheet or financial calculator. The spreadsheet formula below allows you to calculate present value, basically the current value of that $1,000 face-value bond we're talking about.

MathJax example

\[= pv (rate, nper, pmt, fv, type) \] \[= pv \left( {4.3\% \over (52/8)}, 1, 0, -1000, 0 \right) \] \[= \$993.43 \] \[\] \[Return = Face \,Value - Purchase \,Price \] \[Return = $1,000 - \$993.43 \] \[Return = $6.57 \]

Keep in mind that $1,000 is a bit harder to get to than if it was simply in a savings account, but remember it's intentionally set aside to cover planned expenses later in the year. It's basically locked up for the length of time you committed to. Also, keep in mind the T-Bill example I gave is for an eight-week period. To make it a fair comparison with the basic savings account at 0.3% annual interest and those high-yield online savings accounts at 4.13%, you'd need to compare the interest earned over two months.

MathJax example

\[ \text{Basic Savings Account: 0.3% Annual Rate (Two Months)} \] \[ \$1,000 \times \left( \frac{0.3\%}{12} \right) = \$0.50 \] \[ \$1,000 + \$0.50 = \$1,000.50 \] \[ \text{Return} = \$0.50 \] \[ \] \[ \text{High Yield Savings Account: 4.13% Annual Rate (Two Months)} \] \[ \$1,000 \times \left( \frac{4.13\%}{12} \right) = \$6.90 \] \[ \$1,000 + \$6.90 = \$1,006.90 \] \[ \text{Return} = \$6.90 \] \[ \] \[ \text{8 Week T-Bill: 4.30% Annual Rate} \] \[ = \text{pv}\left( \frac{4.3\%}{(52/8)}, 1, 0, -1000 \right) \] \[ \$1,000 - \$993.43 = \$6.57 \] \[ \text{Return} = \$6.57 \]

What I've started doing recently is purchasing these short-term T-Bills directly from the U.S. Treasury via treasurydirect.gov. You'll have to set up an account and all that nonsense, but it's free and not that hard to do. A quick Google search can get you help in walking through the process, but I'd point you towards this Forbes article on How to Invest in Treasury Bills.

Also, I've been using $1,000 as an example, but the minimum investment for these T-Bills is $100, so I've been buying them in $100 and $200 chunks every couple weeks as the money I'm setting aside has been coming in. There's whole other conversation we could have about scheduling these short-term investments to land before your planned expenses, reinvesting after the T-Bill matures, and bond laddering, but that's not my purpose here. That said, I'm down to nerd out if you are.

The Stock Market

That nonsense is a dumpster fire at the moment. Not saying to completely stay out of the stock market, but I'm assuming you like to not lose money and have short-term plans for that money you've got stashed. Stocks are much more volatile than the boring bonds and savings accounts I'm gushing over, but historically stock market returns are much better. The S&P 500 – a basic benchmark for the U.S. stock market overall – has averaged an 11.88% yearly return since its inception. That said, the S&P 500 dropped nearly 20% in 2022.

Cryptocurrency

No. Just no. Personally I think crypto is interesting and I've got a small amount in a couple different things. Still, it's the freakin' Wild West out there and you're actually going to need that money we're talking about for your planned expenses.

So What's Your Point?

I'm over here singing the praises of these short-term bonds (T-Bills), but the high-yield savings account at 4.13% example I'm using is actually giving a better return. I'd consider each one equally safe seeing as how those savings accounts I linked to are backed by the FDIC and T-Bills are backed by the U.S. government. There's even some checking account options that'll earn you better returns, but you've got to watch out for minimum balances, ATM fees, and other expenses.

My point is to do something with that stashed short-term (less than one year) money that'll earn you more interest than just letting it sit in a 0.3% savings account. For sure too there's a conversation related to the tax obligation connected to the interest earned (capital gains), but for most people it's no higher than 15%. Paying attention to what your money is doing and the interest rates available may take a bit of leg work, but personally I think it's worth it. I'm keeping an eye on these T-Bill rates considering how high they are at the moment. That said, a high-yield savings account seems pretty low maintenance, but honestly I'd rather not deal with setting up another bank account. When you buy T-Bills, the funds are pulled and deposited directly into the bank account(s) you setup with your treasurydirect.gov account.

I'm sure I'll revisit these ideas throughout the year and I'll let you know how things shake out. By all means, if you're in a similar situation with your financial nonsense and have a tip (you can back up with legit evidence), I'm all ears.

One More Week

These past 15 weeks have been brutal, but there's one more week to the first semester of my MBA. In focusing in on this goal I've had for years I've had to drastically cut back in other areas of my life. My family has had to put up with my time spent studying, I've had to turn down a few work opportunities, and I feel like my creative output has taken a huge – but temporary – hit.

Not complaining considering I knew going after my MBA would be a sizable commitment, but I didn't expect it to be this hard. I didn't realize I'd be a full-time student in addtion to being a husband, parent, and still staying on top of the work I do for a living. The most difficult and time consuming class I've taken so far has been my Financial Management course. I keep track of my study schedule and I've been clocking in more than 25 hours a week studying for that class alone. In early November it was something like 42 hours just for that class.

Still, I'm freakin' stoked about what I've been learning.

As creatives I feel like we cut ourselves off at the knees by not understanding the business end of our work, especially in finances. I'd like to see some more current numbers, but according to a 2014 report on financial literacy, the U.S. ranks 14th in the world. Some of the financial nonsense we've been covering in my classes is incredibly dense, but even the basics around time value of money and capital budgeting could be life changing to those of us who work as freelance creatives. Do I need an advanced degree in Business and/or Finance to be better at sharing stories and ideas? No. Does it help? You'd be surprised.

I'm hoping to share what I'm learning and how it applies to creatives soon enough. No hard and fast plans just yet, but I've got a decent break after this week and I'd love to start cranking out some basics ideas here on my blog.

The Opposite of a Cakewalk

Well, it's been a bit again – and that's totally fine by the way. The last few weeks have been a freakin' whirlwind.

I finished out the first module of my MBA with an A in both my Financial Accounting and Quantitative Analysis classes. Let me rephrase that: I earned those two As considering I was studying 30-40 hours a week in addition to my work and family responsibilities. The graduate work I'd done back in 2005-06 was an absolute cakewalk compared to what I went through these last eight weeks. We've already started our second module for the semester, and I'm taking classes in Financial Management and Leadership. Soon enough I'll start sharing what I'm learning in those classes, but considering how little time I have at the moment, I'll just leave you with a couple quotes I've already read for my leadership class:

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." - William James

"When you say everything is a high priority, then nothing is a high priority. It really indicates that you're unwilling or unable to make a decision, which means you won't get anything done." - John Maxwell

During the tail end of finals week I was over in Amsterdam meeting with and interviewing the incredibly kind people behind Royal Posthumus. I'd mentioned it in an earlier post, but their story plays a large roll in my rubber stamp documentary. I'd been wanting to connect with them in person for what feels like forever at this point and I'm stoked it finally happened. I'll save the storyline details for the film, but I'm actually hoping to share some of the logistical experiences I went through in making that nonsense happen and what I learned.

While I've travelled alone internationally before, I've always met up with American crews on site and had producers and directors who were the "adults in the room." I'd not had to hire out and pay foreign crew in local currencies, deal with the whole Carnet thing, plus a notebook full of other things. Beyond that, there's the whole thing of me being up way too late studying and taking one of my MBA finals in a European hotel room and having to figure out how to keep my computer charged using my rental car's USB-c port because I'd accidentally left my charger at home.

There's also those other shoots I could talk about since my last post – Life.Church and Habitat for Humanity shoots here in Oklahoma City and that last minute job out in Kansas City, MO – but you'll just have to trust me and a few iPhone photos without context to prove I've been working my tail off lately.

Curb Stomp'd (but diggin' it...for the most part)

You wanna talk about depreciation schedules or amortization? Maybe basket purchases, asset turnover ratios, and how to dispose of those assets at the end of their service life? We could also get into Student's t-distributions and linear regression models if you're interested.

Literally no clue why any of you are still here (hi mom).

The last couple months my world has basically been a tossed salad of math, spreadsheets, reading assignments, and a couple stale croutons of creative work. There's also a side of Cub Scouts with Housefire No.2, and for dessert, an upcoming trip to Amsterdam for my rubber stamp documentary.

There's also our household getting absolutely wrecked earlier this month when we had to put down Clara the Dog. St. Anne the Wife and I got her in 2010 for our first wedding anniversary and over the last 12 years that English Bulldog was no question a member of our family. We knew Clara was getting towards the sunset of life, but her last few weeks went south quickly. We're incredibly lucky to have had such a great companion all these years and I'm glad we had the time with her that we did.

Regarding my school work, I'm freakin' floored with what I'm learning. Turns out the accountants and CPAs I've worked with over the years are true heroes and I'm absolutely not cut from that same cloth. There's also those statistical super powers and their potential I'm trying to comprehend that've basically made my head explode – in addition to literal headaches. One of our in-class examples last week worked through the actual correlation between political campaign results and the relationship to campaign spending. Freakin' fascinating.

Is this intentional mental torture getting me more creative work? No, not by a long shot. Is it making me think differently about how I approach what I do from a business standpoint? Unquestionably, and that's why I'm here.

We're more than half-way through our first eight week module and I'm stoked about my grades being as high as they are. On average, I've been spending nearly 40 hours a week studying and most the time I feel like I'm barely hanging on. Seeing as how flexible my freelance schedule typically is, I can't imagine how my cohorts are dealing with this nonsense in addition to the demands of a full-time job, let alone a family or personal life. I've got a shoot this week that'll have me missing one of my classes, and then mid-Oct I'll be seven time zones away during my finals week. I guess I'll let you know how that goes.

Speaking of seven time zones away, I'm off to Amsterdam to meet with some of the people behind Royal Posthumus. They're a company I'd learned about that played a major role in rubber stamp art as well as usse stamps to fight the Nazis during World War Two. I've been wanting to head over to do these interviews for what feels like forever at this point.

There's a bit of time during the week when I'm not getting curb stomped by my own choices and responsibilities. That's when both Housefires are bed and Anne and I have time to chill out and watch the internet. Chef's Table: Pizza is basically crack to me as a filmmaker who's interested in people and food. Atlanta, well, thank goodness for something interesting and original. And for something incredibly heavy but necessary, Anne and I started watching The U.S. and the Holocaust from documentary filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein (and a ton of others). It premiered last weekend and I'm sure it'll take us awhile to make it through the six-plus hour film, but good grief this should be required viewing for all Americans.

Anne and I started watching The U.S. and the Holocaust from documentary filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein (and a ton of others). It premiered last weekend and I'm sure it'll take us awhile to make it through the six-plus hour film, but good grief this should be required viewing for all Americans.

I Blame the Leadership

Finally finished up this two week documentary shoot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Well, Broken Arrow to be exact. We were working 12 hour days, six days a week. The timecards I'd filled out had us working something near 70 hours each week. Thank goodness for direct deposit and clients actually paying in a timely manner.

We're not supposed to share project details at this point, but I'll go out of my way to mention how great an experience it was. We absolutely got worked like dogs, but from my perspective, I felt like the leadership and production teams went out of their way to try and make us feel supported and empowered to do out best work. Treating production crew well shouldn't be the exception. I can't say enough about how rare that is in my professional experience.

I've been on these types of longer, intense documentary jobs in the past and in the days leading up to this one I was overly anxious due to countless bad experiences. Making this kind of creative nonsense is incredibly resource intensive and I can't tell you how often I'm on jobs with clients and producers who seem to go out of their way to cut corners. I'd only had a few phone calls and emails with my direct supervisor and I'd never heard of the rest of the crew.

On our prep day before the shoot, I literally cried seeing the mountain of gear cases that'd come in from a well known New York rental house. The leadership actually built in the time we needed – and paid us our full-rate – to build out our camera packages and trouble shoot the inevitable hiccups that come with that amount of gear. By the end of the two week show, we had nine cameras all sending video feeds to multiple locations on set in addition to the sound and story teams. Dealing with that amount nonsense plus everything else isn't something that just happens on its own.

There were some major take aways from this project. First, it seems like everyone on set already had some solid production experience and brought that expertise with them. I blame the leadership for putting a solid crew together. Second, we all seemed to connect and work well together, like we all were all working towards a similar goal. Again, I blame the leadership. They made the hiring decisions and brought in crew from all over the country (NYC, LA, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Dallas, OKC/Tulsa, etc.). Third, there was also a strategic move – in my opinion – in bringing us in early and doing a big meal before the shoot. There were like 24-30 of us crashing a fancy Italian place in Tulsa and they spent a good deal of money on that meal, but that early time together gave us a chance to connect before we were thrown into the fire. We lost a few crew members during two week shoot due to Covid infections and other commitments, but I honestly think that initial crew meal was key in setting the tone. Some of the team already knew each other, but most of us were new and barely knew anyone. Throughout the rest of the show, we went out of our way to spend time together outside of the 12-14 hour work days.

Again, treating production crew well shouldn't be the exception. At one point we mutinied against the catering brought in for our daily production meals. There were also some communication hiccups along the way, but we all worked together to figure things out and do the thing. At the end of the show and after I'd taken off my EasyRig and walkie-talkie for the last time, I cried as I walked to my car and drove back to the hotel knowing it was the last time I'd be working with this specific team of people. Again, I point to the leadership for making this such a good experience, worts and all.

No clue when the documentary project will come out, but I'll keep you in the loop.

 

UPDATED Feb. 2024

Did want to toss out a bit of an update with this here blog post. The actual film has yet to come out, but in the course of my MBA I've now had multiple classes cover this TED Talk from Margaret Heffernan: "Why it's Time to Forget the Pecking Order at Work."

Via the video's YouTube description:

Organizations are often run according to “the superchicken model,” where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn’t what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion — built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help — that leads over time to great results. It's a radical rethink of what drives us to do our best work, and what it means to be a leader. Because as Heffernan points out: “Companies don’t have ideas. Only people do.”

Each time I've seen this video I can't help but think about this Summer 2022 documentary team and how the leadership intentionally built in time for us as crew members to connect. It's tough to accomplish that on the typically short freelance jobs I'm on where we're usually on set for only a day, maybe two or three at most. Given the chance though, it's in the leadership's best interest to adopt this kind of mindset.

Rubber Stamps, Work, and Books

Short and sweet this week. It's another busy one and I'm on the road in the Tulsa area for a bit with some wild call times. Thankfully I got a later call this morning and was able to sneak over to a coffeeshop in Broken Arrow, OK. Big fan of the dude behind West of Death and the work they've done for Rattlesnake Cafe and Lioness Coffee Roasters, plus their sister shop Chimera in Tulsa.

More to come later, but I'm like 20 mins from being strapped into an EasyRig and full-kitted out Sony FX9 for the next 12 hours. Trying to get some reading in beforehand. I'd finished Ernest Cline's Ready Player One last week (and was beyond disappointed by Steven Spielberg's dumpster fire film adaptation). I'm now into David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years and dang that dude has come out swinging.

Travel Week

It's a travel week and I'll be on road through this July 4th holiday. St. Anne the Wife is maintaining her role as family superhero while I'm hustling through airports and hoping my footage is exposed and framed well and somewhat in focus.

It's Saturday as I'm writing this and I'm on a three hour layover in Houston before my next flight. Both the airport shuttle driver and the ticket counter agent asked if I was getting paid extra to work over the holiday weekend. I'm assuming it was the stack equipment cases I'm traveling with that suggested I wasn't out for a summer vacation like the rest of the world. Two plus years is a long time to be putting off leisure travel and a lot's changed since I started flying again during the pandemic. Those nearly empty airports and flights back in August 2020 are long gone and it's certainly back to fighting for empty seats and armrests.

I'm flying from a different city on another airline and meeting my producer/director & field audio at our destination. Luckily my 7am flight out of OKC had no issues, but they're delayed and hoping to make their connecting flight. If you've been paying attention, they're not the only ones dealing with yet another Covid related dumpster fire.

Delays and cancellations have plagued air travel, and the Fourth of July weekend may be the biggest test yet for the airline industry, which has faced scrutiny from customers, regulators and investors. - Lauren Hirsch, nytimes.com

Still, as a freelancer who's certainly gone months without work – especially this year – I'm a happy clam to jump on an early flight to a paid gig.

In the meantime, the July-August edition of EdibleOKC just came out and includes a two page spread about my rubber stamp collection. I'd connected with EdibleOKC Editor and Co-Publisher Stuart Husdson via Sam DuRegger (Woodshed Tea & TMRW Coffee). The fine folks at EdibleOKC heard about my stamp hunting and are doing a series on food related collecting. Stuart and I connected for a couple different interviews for the print piece and they sent out a fantastic freelance photographer based in OKC named Charlie Neuenschwander. I'm an awkward person to begin with plus not used to being on the business end of a camera. Crazy thanks to both of them for putting up with me, let alone being interested in my project. I've yet to see an online version of the article, but I'll make sure and include a link if and when it's available. While I'm writing this too, make sure and check out the other work Charlie's website.