Lights, Camera, Action! Artist as Entrepreneur
The Toronto Film Festival is in full gear and with the glitz and glam being brought north from Hollywood, it is hard to not want a piece of the lights, camera, and action! The movie industry has a reputation for being quite fun and exciting, well with all the parties, craft service and swag bags, but creating a stable career out of jobs that are often project-based and highly competitive can be much harder than you think. According to the CCA's publication, Useful Statistics (March 13, 2012), the percentage of artists with a bachelor’s degree or higher (39%) is nearly double the rate in the overall labour force (21%). Interestingly, the same report states that a "typical" artist in Canada earns less than half the typical earnings of all Canadian workers, regardless of having this educational background.
Many say being an artist is a calling rather than a career because it takes passion, motivation and determination to push against society's stereotype of the starving artist. Entrepreneur is not normally a word that is associated with the arts, but many in the industry are just that. They work around the clock, network, and create opportunities for themselves, just like any other individual running a business would. Except they are their business. They are selling themselves and their skills. They are marketing their talents. The individual is the brand.
Forbes published this great article on the top skills of successful entrepreneurs: resiliency, focus, invest for the long term, find and manage people, sell, learn, self-reflection and self-reliance.
If you're interested in looking beyond TIFF and seeing what other film festivals there are out there to submit your work to or to attend, check out this great database, FilmFreeway.
Finally, if you want to learn about how to get started in a film or television career, read this article or sign out one of these great books from the library:
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