Next to be obsolete: Making a living

[Andrew Reid]

Some worrying thoughts are occupying my mind at the moment so it might do me some good to let them out for a run... Here goes.

In the 1990s I grew up with the early internet, it wasn't very media rich due to the bandwidth constraints and it only worked well on a big screen with a keyboard at a desk, so it suited web pages and forums. Written stuff, basically. Come the y2k and we began to see the early social media sites like Myspace and then Facebook but you still had to use these at a desk. Which lends itself to being able to type long sentences and create art.

Come smartphones, they couldn't offer the full world wide web experience, on a pokey slow browser, but this changed with apps. So fast forward a bit to the 2010s... There has been a proliferation of apps into our lives, but it wasn't really until Youtube and Facebook Groups got some serious traction that things started to change. I used to be pretty confident in the EOSHD blogging days that if I sat down to write a review, or opinion, or do some proper journalism or get a scoop and break the camera news first it would get some attention and traction, now I am not so sure it will as it is a separate indie .com website outside of social media, and this is very bad news for the internet because we cannot let Meta and Google and a handful of other corporations OWN the entire web.

So to the making a living bit...

For creatives like photographers and filmmakers the internet was a real blessing, it allows you to setup stall with a website and get your work out there. You get noticed and then you get hired, that's how it used to work. There has to be a strong demand from industry for those positions as well, no matter how good you are it doesn't matter if the cinema industry is in a downward spiral.

Cinema and photography have to compete with other forms of content too.

Again it comes back to smartphones. Neither cinema and photography are well suited to a small screen and even smaller attention spans, they are supposed to be viewed on a large canvas and in a socially interactive way like in a gallery or theatre. Now with stuff like streaming, this works fine when everyone has a subscription to one or two of the same platforms like Netflix and are stuck at home with nothing better to do like during covid, but after a while there is a total oversupply of stuff to watch, and a total ADHD mess of an audience who is getting constantly distracted by social media content in direct competition to the long form stuff.

So we have a meltdown at the moment in the filmmaking industry, and even in the commercial videography industry where it is now so easy to shoot something, companies may as well hire an intern to do it or have some staff do it themselves, because the bar is set by social media and that as I said works best with very short authentic bursts of home made content, where production quality or even the camera doesn't really matter.

With photography, if you're an artist trying to compete for attention with all of that stuff you are going to be in trouble if you don't do double-duties as a social media influencer, which of course means making YOURSELF the story and front and centre. Not a lot of artists are all that comfortable with that. I'm not. So the business model now is that your content has to be free, and you merchandise it or earn from advertising and sponsorship due to your social media reach as an artist. And I REALLY hate that because it cheapens what it means to be a photographer or filmmaker.

At the end of the day, the photos and films should be what matter and they should be paid for.

PS

Have you noticed by the way - that the AI bubble has completely lost people's interest, the content is all so un-compelling? Why do you think this is... It's because there is so much of it... And it is disassociated with the artist's own hand... And that is exactly what all this tech has done to use filmmakers and photographers... The accessibility of tech means that there's now too much content, and not enough demand for the next piece.

A big economic correction is on the way.

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

because the bar is set by social media and that as I said works best with very short authentic bursts of home made content, where production quality or even the camera doesn't really matter

That is about the sum of it unless we are talking movies, series and advertising.

Most businesses seem prepared to have any old shit as long as it’s cheap. Or free. And plenty are happy to work for free because it’s a foot in the door innit?

And I think it’s happening increasingly in wedding video land… Social media is full of folks gushing about any old shit and actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish over anything crafted.

So I’m just counting down the next 6 years and I’m done because I can’t change the situation and am not prepared to dumb down in order to conform.

And I think I can squeeze out another 6 seasons…

And when I say ‘counting down’ and ‘squeeze out’, I don’t mean coast, or not care, but rather keep putting out the highest quality content for the duration of my career both for myself and my clients.

But yes, it’s ‘everything’…quality, prices, attention spans…dumbing down in general.

[Andrew Reid]

30 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

That is about the sum of it unless we are talking movies, series and advertising.

Exactly, but those 3 are facing extreme competition too now...

Advertising work faces competition from the influencer garbage, and the ability to fly out influencers to a launch rather than film a professional ad for the web, etc.

Series, there's just too many.

Movies, too many and too many of them just no good.

30 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

Most businesses seem prepared to have any old shit as long as it’s cheap. Or free. And plenty are happy to work for free because it’s a foot in the door innit?

Yep, fully agree.

It's got sooooo bad. When the meritocracy breaks down, this is what you get. A race to the bottom!

30 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

And I think it’s happening increasingly in wedding video land… Social media is full of folks gushing about any old shit and actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish over anything crafted.

Yeah it's because they're digesting it on phones... it's fast food content.

Anything too crafted or demanding, and they just switch off.

Or perhaps just too ADHD distracted to focus on it, even if it grabs them in the first 30 seconds?

30 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

So I’m just counting down the next 6 years and I’m done because I can’t change the situation and am not prepared to dumb down in order to conform.

And I think I can squeeze out another 6 seasons…

And when I say ‘counting down’ and ‘squeeze out’, I don’t mean coast, or not care, but rather keep putting out the highest quality content for the duration of my career both for myself and my clients.

But yes, it’s ‘everything’…quality, prices, attention spans…dumbing down in general.

I hope we can turn the ship around. The industry is going to be in deep trouble if it doesn't.

The internet has to be nursed back to health. We can't afford to have any further slide into the pockets of Meta and the like... The founding principals have to be better defended!

[Clark Nikolai]

3 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

4 hours ago, MrSMW said:

... actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish over anything crafted.

 

I agree with both of you but one thing I've noticed to add to it is that with young filmmakers/videomakers/creators/viewers I get the sense that well-made media is viewed with suspicion whereas something sloppy or of low quality is viewed as having authenticity to it.

[Ninpo33]

26 minutes ago, Clark Nikolai said:

I get the sense that well-made media is viewed with suspicion whereas something sloppy or of low quality is viewed as having authenticity to it.

Good point. Also to add, if you’re a generation that grew up with reality television always being a constant, the look and feel of unscripted stuff feels very normal.
 

I work a lot in reality television and have to really think back to when it wasn’t dominating the channels. I don’t like it and it’s trash but it pays the bills and allows me to pick up other creative narrative stuff when we’re not filming. I miss the good old days of quality cinema and seeing something like the Matrix or Fight Club or Seven and just having a paradigm shift in the way I saw the world. 
 

 

[MrSMW]

5 hours ago, Clark Nikolai said:

I agree with both of you but one thing I've noticed to add to it is that with young filmmakers/videomakers/creators/viewers I get the sense that well-made media is viewed with suspicion whereas something sloppy or of low quality is viewed as having authenticity to it.

I don’t know if it’s so much suspicion as that folks have the attention spans of gnats and swipe & scroll is how we role these days.

Guilty myself, but not if I am looking at or for something very specific.

I don’t think it is something that can be fought however.

Better tp pick small battle you can win than all out war you cannot. Sun Tzu (maybe…)

[BTM_Pix]

11 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Have you noticed by the way - that the AI bubble has completely lost people's interest, the content is all so un-compelling? Why do you think this is.

It might help if 

a) Every piece wasn't introduced with the breathless "hey look what I made with AI". It should stand up whether you did or didn't and it just comes across as being inauthentic. Which, of course, it is.

b) It wasn't being pushed by the same NFT/Crypto/Whatever this week's fad is shills.

c) It evolves beyond more or less just remixing existing content. People aren't moved by it because they get the feeling they've seen it before. Which, of course, they have.

9 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The internet has to be nursed back to health. We can't afford to have any further slide into the pockets of Meta and the like... The founding principals have to be better defended!

I remember in my 30s going back to a hip club that I frequented when I was in my teens and very early 20s and feeling completely out of place and absolutely not getting it.

Its a bit like that for the internet with the internet now. 

[ND64]

The other day I randomly observed an interaction between an instagram influencer and her follower in comments  section of one of her reels where she was bragging about an old compact Sony handycam she found on ebay and loved the image "vibe", which means the worst quality you expect from some P&S cameras. The follower said I love that camera makers increase resolution in every generation and we sill looking for crappy film look! (Btw, that wasn't film look at all, it was 30fps washed out ccd soap opera video). And the influencer replied resolution is for commercials! 

This should be a wake up call for everybody in this industry (not just Japanese, but even DJI and Apple): these people don't care anymore! All they need/want is vertical 30fps 2MP image! Then I asked myself am I even prepared to market my art/content to these consumers? We're in such a "fad economy" that "better" becomes obsolete, and "worse" sells better! Those who know what will be the next worse thing, make tons of money; and people like us have to check how much we earned today through "buy me a coffee" link lol.

[MrSMW]

3 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

I remember in my 30s going back to a hip club that I frequented when I was in my teens and very early 20s and feeling completely out of place and absolutely not getting it.

I went there in my 20’s and even then felt out of place and out of time.

The 1920’s was probably my era…

[herein2020]

I agree 100% that it is getting harder and harder to make a living in this industry. What makes it even harder and what hasn't yet been mentioned is that the price of everything is also going up, so not only do you have more and more clients who want things for free or lower cost, your own cost of living is increasing exponentially. 

I still will never forget a really badly exposed cell phone mirror photo of Kim Kardashian got over 100M views and true masterpieces from some of the top photographers in the world would be lucky to get 1,000 views. These days true talent and art are not appreciated at all, what matters to the current generation is who is in the picture or video and what they are doing, not the level of skill or years of knowledge needed to create it.

I personally have been affected by the current trends as well, I had to give up some of my service offerings because the level of effort vs what the clients were willing to pay meant I would be making less than minimum wage after expenses and my time were accounted for. Residential Real Estate Photography/Video, Weddings, and a few others I have dropped completely unless something really high end comes my way.

I will say though that for the niche I specialize in (events, promo videos/photography, etc.) social media has also opened new doors for me. I do freelance photography/video work for some of the big ad agencies in my area and even at that level their clients are obsessed with social media. They literally host events with social media in mind, and where I come in is they hire me to film them. I filmed more private VIP social media inspired events this year than ever before and to these clients money is no obstacle as long as it produces something that will generate useable social media content.

More big names than ever before are trying to reach new clients on social media and they hire people like me to create their content. They also scour social media to see what their competition is doing and send me their work and ask if I can create something like that for them; it is so odd using 8K capable cameras and thousands of dollars worth of gear to create 30-60s worth of content that will be viewed at 480P in the worst aspect ratio and orientation possible that its almost laughable.

I literally had to rethink the way that I shoot and completely focus on anything that will grab the audience's attention for 2 seconds vs trying to be artistic or create content that truly took planning and was challenging to create because that's what my clients want because that's what their audience wants.

Anyone who hasn't seen the movie Idiocracy should check it out, it feels like that future is already here in many ways.

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, herein2020 said:

These days true talent and art are not appreciated at all, what matters to the current generation is who is in the picture or video and what they are doing, not the level of skill or years of knowledge needed to create it

Actually that has always been the case and nothing new there as in the subject has always been the primary interest.

However, you would have thought folks would appreciate the highest quality versions available but it’s this part people don’t seem to give a shit about.

Or rather some do and always have done, but in ever-decreasing numbers it seems.

The bottom line for those of us in the industry is can we survive by doing nothing any different or should we play the game a bit more?

I’ve always been resistant to playing the game for the sake of it and conform at a fringe level, but even with just 6 years to go, I’m thinking about doing a little more of ‘giving the crowd what they want’ so my next and last 6 years are not a downhill slope.

Adapt or die as they say.

[fuzzynormal]

On 10/4/2024 at 12:40 PM, MrSMW said:

folks gushing about any old shit and actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish

There it is.  As it was as it shall be.  It's just fast as hell these days because of tech.

I like to lean into Robert Persig's philosophy of "metaphysics of quality" outlined in Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  If true, then there's always going to be a cultural inherent yearning for things that transcend the bullshit.

Now, I lean into it because I WANT it to be possible...  

But, as you say, (and Persig does as well) there's also always going to be people that can't appreciate it.  Who wins out in this modern world?  

Hell if I know, but I know what team I'm on.

[PannySVHS]

I hardly like to post my work anymore, due to data munching. I posted only one video this year. How many have you? We are witnessing a shock of forum culture.

[Tim Sewell]

On 10/4/2024 at 8:40 PM, MrSMW said:

That is about the sum of it unless we are talking movies, series and advertising.

Most businesses seem prepared to have any old shit as long as it’s cheap. Or free. And plenty are happy to work for free because it’s a foot in the door innit?

And I think it’s happening increasingly in wedding video land… Social media is full of folks gushing about any old shit and actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish over anything crafted.

So I’m just counting down the next 6 years and I’m done because I can’t change the situation and am not prepared to dumb down in order to conform.

And I think I can squeeze out another 6 seasons…

And when I say ‘counting down’ and ‘squeeze out’, I don’t mean coast, or not care, but rather keep putting out the highest quality content for the duration of my career both for myself and my clients.

But yes, it’s ‘everything’…quality, prices, attention spans…dumbing down in general.

All I'll say is that I was doing weddings when the first digicam wave came along, coinciding with an economic downturn and the market turned to shit. Then it picked up because it turns out a load of pissed people with digicams couldn't provide the 'once-in-a-lifetime' quality of photography couples wanted to keep - perhaps for the rest of their lives.

Smartphone camera revolution - same thing and then another quality-biased correction.

At the moment everyone across Europe is feeling broke. I think it's in part PTSD from the pandemic. I would still, if advising a young person wanting to make a living from photography, tell them to get a solid little wedding business going and build from that, because it's cyclical and it will come back.

[Happy Daze]

It's easy to assume that this current trend for media consumption and social media is going to continue ad-infinitum, but I think people will eventually tire of this and move on. This is the case for most trends which in the scheme of things are comparatively short lived. Everything goes full circle, people will get bored and move on to something else. Hopefully new opportunities will present themselves at some point in the future.

Or, it will all turn to shit. (Just covering my ass).

[MrSMW]

9 hours ago, Tim Sewell said:

At the moment everyone across Europe is feeling broke. I think it's in part PTSD from the pandemic.

I also think that Tim.

I think there was a bit of a bounce back, “yay, war is over, let’s have a party” and then the reality kicked in that nothing was the same as it was and a lot more damage had occurred than most initially realised.

But as has been mentioned, these things tend to go in circles, or at least have peaks & troughs.

Where we are at the moment I am not entirely sure but not at any peak, nor in any trough, but are we trending up or down?

I suspect down what with everything going on in the world right now…and I am no tin hat pessimist, but rather that’s my gut feeling.

I would like an adapted Delorean take me back to the 1980’s please…

[maxJ4380]

52 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

 

I would like an adapted Delorean take me back to the 1980’s please…

yer i much prefer 80's music. although the delorean will need some extra storage space as i want to take a bit more than  my toothbrush with me. 🙂

[John Matthews]

10 hours ago, Tim Sewell said:

At the moment everyone across Europe is feeling broke. I think it's in part PTSD from the pandemic. I would still, if advising a young person wanting to make a living from photography, tell them to get a solid little wedding business going and build from that, because it's cyclical and it will come back.

Austerity measures and inflation (at least in France) have made the situation worse for many. The few who are profiting are probably making money hand-over-fist. I imagine a family wanting to have a videographer and a photographer for a wedding with the later being the priority. When push comes to shove, I'd bet both don't get hired and some just say *uck it and have people share their cellphone shots. Sadly and regrettably, that's practically what I did when I got married. I only had ONE decent photo from the whole thing, a jpeg from crap phone. :(

Now, I use Topaz Photo AI to try and improve that ONE shot [insert affiliate link]! There's always a positive, you see!

[Andrew Reid]

On 10/5/2024 at 6:56 AM, BTM_Pix said:

It might help if 

a) Every piece wasn't introduced with the breathless "hey look what I made with AI". It should stand up whether you did or didn't and it just comes across as being inauthentic. Which, of course, it is.

b) It wasn't being pushed by the same NFT/Crypto/Whatever this week's fad is shills.

c) It evolves beyond more or less just remixing existing content. People aren't moved by it because they get the feeling they've seen it before. Which, of course, they have.

I remember in my 30s going back to a hip club that I frequented when I was in my teens and very early 20s and feeling completely out of place and absolutely not getting it.

Its a bit like that for the internet with the internet now. 

That's the thing, it's all become very insular. Self-congratulating technological achievement, and I don't really feel to grateful towards it, whereas an actual human artist you do feel a sense of awe and gratitude and good will when they do something brilliant, or anything that demonstrates talent.

Now the danger is that the feedback loop of inauthentic procedurally generated content feeds into the AI and it becomes split off from human input to a factor of something like 9:1, which will unmoor it even more from the hand of an artist.

What could save it is only if it concedes more control to us, not less, and becomes a proper in-depth tool, not a single button press or prompt.

I recently watched the documentary about Hayao Miyazaki, A never ending man, where he retires and instantly regrets it because he's a total obsessive. He's aging and can't be fudged with a feature, so decides to delegate to a team of CGI experts and instantly regrets that too, so he ends up literally drawing it himself on top of the CGI frames. Even though the CGI experts were absolute top notch, almost all of his style got lost in the delegation process. It didn't matter if he sat next to them and micro managed, it just wasn't conveyed. The only way he could do it was to put his hands directly on the paper.

It's the same with AI, unless your hands are directly on the paper and it stays in the background as an assist, it will never be authentic art!

[Clark Nikolai]

55 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

It's the same with AI, unless your hands are directly on the paper and it stays in the background as an assist, it will never be authentic art!

Also, the experience of making something is better when it's something tangible. I used to work at a post production house  so all day I would be looking at a screen, it was a nice break to go load the dishwasher in the coffee room sometimes just because the dishes were real and I could touch them.

I think that's a bit why there's interest in shooting film now (stills and motion) is that it's tangible. Even if it'll just get digitized and viewed the same way as digitally sourced images, the making of it is a different more satisfying process to some.

The Wallace and Gromit films are real claymation even though it could be entirely done in CG. It's just a better result and probably more fun making it.