Not much progress on the whole "TV Show" thing.
Not surprised.
Ego's have gotten in the way of logic and all I can do is marshal whatever energy I have left and carry on with great resolve, and other military cliches. Rally the troops, March On... yadda yadda
I was surprised at how quickly people jump ship once confronted with other options. the whole "grass is greener on the other side" nonsense.
Well folks, the grass isn't greener, it's just painted dirt.
And that dirt comes with a price.
I can't nor will go into specifics, but if certain parties want out, they will have to pay.
Will they? who knows, but a contract is a contract is a contract.
When any of you EVER considers getting into the creative field, you must wear two hats.
One, the pretty shiny creative hat. That one says "boy look at him go, he sure is a creative fellow".
That hat will be sequenced and sparkly, maybe covered in really cool flourishes or grunge effects, coupled with some solid graphic treatments and neat designs. A really spectacular awesome hat.
People will recognize you for that hat and want to work with you to have an even better hat!
The other hat is more demure. It's a grey fedora in standard pattern and look. This is the business hat.
Unfortunately for you creative types, this is also the most important hat you could ever wear.
I want you to think about this quote by Edison "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration"
What he means is, no matter how cool or wonderful an idea or how creative you are, without the actual hard work behind it, it is all for naught. And I'm not talking about the hours you put into the idea. That's a drop in the bucket compared to everything else you have to do.
That business hat will ultimately protect you and your creative investment for the future.
The effort you put in to making your project, into the creative arc, into the detail and research and all the tasty things that make what you created so spectacular, can be lost in the blink of an eye.
History is rife with situations where a simple contract, a little piece of paper could have protected that individual form being stonewalled and destroyed.
I can spend hours just typing out examples of this but won't bore you with a long list.
Part of having a creative idea is protecting it, and thus spending an inordinate amount of time wearing a business hat.
This includes employing a lawyer, negotiation, keeping track of cash, managing your time and budget.
All of this is actually vastly more important than your singular idea.
Think of Mona Lisa. A medium sized painting, not that beautiful in the context of it's simplicity, but look at the infrastructure surrounding that painting, all in the auspice of protecting that investment! It's priceless because there is no tally of the value of it's protection.
I spent maybe, 150 hours coming up with the concept, creating a trailer, shooting, editing designing etc etc. I spent weeks and weeks if not months doing the leg work, the legal stuff and trying to manage and sell this project.
Not to mention the business partners, friends, relatives, spouses and everything else that needed my attention.
So, the hard work put into creative, was far less than 1 percent of the total work done on this project.
Imagine for a second, that I didn't have a contract protecting me and my business?
Good Grief, I would have put a bullet in my head.
Mind you, some times I think it would be the easy way out. Yesh.
That two pages of legal bliss (however un-sexy legalities are) has saved my butt from total destruction.
At first I was scared of it. To understand the legalities is a daunting task. I was scared. Honest to Betsy, I would look over contracts and other legalities and cringe at how much detail is in it, not to mention the language used. It became gibberish. Alas, one must suck it up and get ones hands dirty. So I did, and you know what, it isn't so bad.
When you are a creative person, do not fear the legal, the financial, the money and forms. Embrace it. It will protect your investment, whether it is ever seen by glaring eyes or not, your ass is covered.
This gets back to one of my first points about the hats.
Many creative types I know are frightened off, scared even of dealing with the business side. I won't go into the need to be a salesman, that will be another post.
Part of business is managing expectation and ensuring the value you put in has a return on that investment.
Go pay for a lawyer to set up your corporate name (I can not stress how important this is and will be covered in detail in another post)
Talk to an accountant but above all, get a contract between you and your client, and protect what you have created.
You can never own an idea, but you can own the intellectual property and work put into that idea to ensure no one can come along and replicate it.
It only takes a few steps. Something as simple as mailing it back to yourself and not opening it, to registering it with the Directors Guild of Canada. Get a lawyer to stamp it.
If anyone wants help or to be pointed in the right direction, just ask. I would be more than happy to lend a hand.
Don't forget, you are your own worst enemy or very best friend. Take the steps to educate yourself about the way business is managed and the ways and means of how to be successful in your endeavors.
The creative industry is easy pickings for unscrupulous people, so a good defense, and smart offense will go a long way to making sure your dreams come true.
It all starts with a contract.
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