So 3 months in, I thought I’d share with you a few lessons gleaned so far from my little adventure.
1. Everything’s better together.
I’ve determined that greater collaboration and teamwork is the way forward.
In my first month at work I did a few projects on my own. I’d call them DIY projects. Where I would produce, direct, research, write, shoot, do sound, edit, liaise, all by myself.
While it may save you having to pay anyone, and you can make the turn around time pretty fast, collaboration is just way better.
In later projects, I made sure to involve or hire more people in the work.
Teaming it up is better because…
a. It keeps you from tiring yourself out.
b. It avails you to concentrate on other things other than production (e.g. frontline work like sales, connecting with relevant people, or vital back-room functions like business & product development.)
c. It means you can cover the whole process with joint expertise, and for you and the client that’s a more satisfying experience.
d. As iron sharpens iron, it usually produces a better product in the end.
Steve Jobs famously said that his model for business was The Beatles. They were a team of talented guys who kept each other’s destructive tendencies in check. The whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
As a big Beatles fan myself, I have to agree. They did good and occasionally great solo-work but none of it was consistently as good as what they produced as a band. The solo-work of John Lennon and McCartney, sometimes sounds like weak echoes of the Beatles work. And I’m sure most people wish would’ve wish they’d stayed together for longer ala The Rolling Stones.
The spellbinding music of the Beatles probably came about from that great to and fro of ideas, clashing perspectives, and riffing on each others creativity, and of course that mind-blowing synergy of a band filled with more than a pair of prolific musical geniuses. Yes, there’s bound to be conflict in there, but well, that’s relationships, and those are worth sticking at. ‘Love, love, love’ is what you need. It’s like the Beatles once declared, we ‘get by with a little help from our friends’ so let’s ‘Come together, right now over me’. 🙂
The Beatles – With a little Help From my Friends
I’m glad that Coldplay stuck it out through a rough patch, as they’re still making great music together. And as one of their recent music video indicates, for them ‘paradise’ is found in uniting to create great music together.
You may say it’s pretty quick, but I think freelancing or running this independent partnership shall only be a short street on the long path to something greater.
Going forward, I’ll be looking for more ways to team up and collaborate with you and others, to build or join a team that kicks-ass regularly. I’d encourage any meeting of minds, hearts, souls.
Reflecting on the work I’m most proud of down the years…I realize most of it was achieved through collaboration – blood, sweat, laughs, arguments, teamwork etc.
Chong Yew Meng’s Showreel from Chong Yew Meng on Vimeo.
(P.S. Still, I doubt I’ll return quickly to being an employee, for I’m learning far too much out here, teaches you a different form of tenacity away from fixed lunch breaks etc.)
2. If you can, make stuff that people will love.
You may have heard it said that in life, you should find something you really love to do, and then do it passionately. That way, you’ll enjoy what you’re doing and work won’t seem like ‘work’ anymore.
There is truth in that, but it’s also true that we can’t always do the things we like.
So here’s a thought to throw into the mix.
If you’re going to spend all this time working on something, work on creating stuff that people will really love.
To that end, videos are still magic. There’s something amazing about watching stories unfurl on screen, that great illusion of light and sound, artificial time and space connecting with truth, character, emotion.
I’d like to compare the difference between video work for TV and work for businesses and organizations.
If you do a great job at TV or film people say “it’s a good show’. It had good content in it. It entertained them, informed them, moved them. Themes, character, story, stir their imaginations.
Audience may even fall in love with the product, the characters, the story, the world etc, (e.g. Star Wars), and even form a community around it. They adopt the story into their lives, it becomes part of them.
For a video about an organization or community, made for that organization that tells their story, it must move them in a different way.
It goes in reverse. For a start they already feel for the characters (themselves) and the story (their story).
They connect with the on-screen characters immediately, because they are people they interact with daily.
If they’ve been working hard at creating something at that organisation, I suspect it stirs something in them to see their labour of love presented on screen
Capturing the essence of a community and presenting it back to them connects with hearts and minds in a special way.
I have an experience, that sort of illustrates my point.
A few weeks ago, one of my rather kindhearted and grateful clients invited me to the first live screening of a video I produced for ACS Oldham Hall, a boarding school.
And so I sat behind about a hundred or so boarders and staff as it played in the hostel canteen, and here’s what I saw.
Watching all that, it felt a bit like being at a short film premiere and it also reminded me of a seemingly bygone era where they’d have roving film projectors play movies in villages.
There is still a special value to videos and films being enjoyed as a community. It’s like a story told around a campfire.
I mean with TV you don’t really get to see how people react to your stuff, except some ratings, or a few well-meaning pats on the back from whoever’s seen it.
(By the way, I believe there’s space for social media to plug a gap, to enhance or recreate shared experiences in our rather segmented media in this era.)
Anyway, compare making stuff that people love, with just making stuff for people to meet some kind of KPI or their boss’s boss’s boss’s deadline… (And I’ve done a bit of that.) Inspire me man!
Storytelling just feels more meaningful when you consider the human connection.
I want to make stuff people really love and connect with, and video might very well be part of it.
I want to create great experiences that will come to mean a lot to people.
Those are the kind of products and services we should pursue creating.
Down that vein of thought, I really like this iPad ad.
I won’t comment much. But they really nailed it, such awesome marketing.
3. Stay Hopeful.
It’s important to have hope.
There have been ups and downs the last 3 months. Must be a mistake or two (or three or more) here and there. I’ve done a couple of things I sorta regret. Missed opportunities etc.
You’ve got shrug it off quickly, learn from it and press on with hope in your heart, knowing that in the end things will be okay. That’s hope!
While hopelessness makes you yield in the face of obstacles and mope around in the pool of what might have been, hope opens your eyes to opportunities and solutions.
Hope isn’t only grounded in positive thinking. It’s the rational, emotional response to knowing that a sovereign loving God has you in the palm of his hand, will look after you and has good plans for you.
“In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” – Proverbs 16:9
It also fuels perseverance, it gives you a sense that life is worth the while and good awaits us around the next corner.
A lack of hope makes you want to give up, but being hopeful makes you want to make exciting plans for tomorrow, even if you don’t have the full picture just yet.
In conclusion.
So that’s where I am, making plans to excite, looking to team up and collaborate as much as possible, wanting to make mind-blowing stuff people will love, and staying hopeful!
“Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.” – Psalm 37:5
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P.S. Hope you find these musings amusing! haha. 🙂 Do drop me a note or comment and we can stay in touch la.