hulk smash or not welcome back everyone it's Robert Macfarlane here and today we're going
to be taking a look at how you can diversify your income as a filmmaker
i think for a lot of us myself included i'd spent many years in film in the
gig economy doing freelance work and doing jobs when they came up when clients needed a video
we were there for them we would create that content however 2020 taught us one thing that
this isn't something that is always going to be around and in the case of having a global pandemic
really seems to put the clamps on doing that video work there was definitely less work on the ground
than in 2019 and i think it highlighted to me that there is a danger of relying on freelance work now
when i started in the film industry just after university the 2008 recession had just hit and
it was pretty tough then as well and almost immediately i had to put my thinking cap on and
start to diversify my income streams if one day god forbid you got ill would your business still
continue to make money or would everything halt would the paychecks stop and that's the difference
between a service where you are exchanging time for money and a business where you are exchanging
money for a product and this product can be so many different things and we as
filmmakers as content creators have all of the tools and skills to be making brilliant content
for ourselves and for others and there are so many ways that we can do that where it can
keep paying us long into the future from just the creation of one product so without further ado
i'm going to share with you some different ideas on how you can diversify your income stream
today many of you have probably heard of this dabbled with it taken a look at it done a
little bit of research but how many of you have really considered stock footage
i know many of you are groaning right now but please please hear me out hear me out
stock footage is one of those really interesting topics that i think it doesn't really get enough
publicity just like any income stream it's a lot of upfront work so whenever someone says this
is the key to a passive income stream there is no such thing as passive pretty much
all passive income streams are just front loaded with the work and then you benefit from the income
over time coming back to you with very little or no work to sustain that income stream whereas the
normal freelance economy is generally work and with a larger sum of money up front but then no
continuing money after that so when it comes to stock footage or stock photography or stock sound
how can we earn money in this day and age now i think lots of you probably have looked at
stock and found that it's actually really quite saturated with a lot of filmmakers doing it and to
be honest yes there are a lot of filmmakers doing it but what i would say is there is still lots of
room for unique stock content to go out onto the market and what i mean by that is taking one of
your skills a skill that you have built up and starting to create content stock content around
that skill if you are really good at filming macro objects maybe finding something that's relevant to
today's world and filming it in a macro way could be particularly interesting to some
producers and editors and directors out there who are looking to get more unique and dynamic
content for their videos because ultimately stock content is out there to save money
for the content providers the content creators out there making their content now i'm going to dispel
any thoughts of grandeur and millions of dollars flooding into your account with the first 10
clips that you put up on to your chosen stock footage site it takes time
and it takes perseverance just like anything doing a youtube channel doing a blog putting a product
out there into the world it all takes time so for you to be successful as a stock footage content
creator you really need to take the time upfront to consider the content that you're creating
first then be consistent in how often you create content because just like youtube just like
twitter and instagram and all of those social media sites stock content websites also work
on an algorithm and that algorithm will actually put more recent content in front of more people
more often so if you are uploading content to your chosen platform once a week you are reminding the
algorithm on that website that you are there and you are active and they really really like
active users even if you're only putting up 10 clips at a time it can be as little as that
you will find that you will get more traffic and eyes on your content more often now i can't say
for certain you're always going to sell because ultimately it's down to one the quality of the
content you're creating and the relevance of the content that you're creating to the people's needs
but what i would say is that most of these sites now give really really helpful guides on what
content they are looking for what are they seeing being searched for on their website on a regular
basis now there are a few different stock websites out there that i have used and i think are really
really good i thoroughly recommend Black Box as well as Pond5 and Shutterstock pro tip if you are
an exclusive content provider for a platform they will generally put your content in front of people
more often again because ultimately they want to promote you because your content is uniquely there
on that website and can not be found anywhere else so similar to stock footage but i think is
that maybe a slightly less known area is creating pre-set animations now i know some of you probably
don't even want to take a look at after effects or resolve fusion but if you are willing to give
it a go then you can actually make a lot of money from this area you can do it i personally would
have missed many deadlines if i had actually gone out and tried to create a bespoke animation for a
lot of my projects instead just like stock footage it is a money and time saving product and also you
need to remember that less people are creating animations so it is a less saturated market
in a similar way to the stock footage be regular and also choose your animations carefully
look for what people are already looking for and see what you can do better than the others this
one this one's a biggie this one takes quite a bit of effort and also requires you to get in front of
a webcam and that is running live courses now some of you might be
saying well isn't that kind of a gig well no what you need to do is you then need to record the live
course and then offer that course on a type of educational platform such as Udemy or if you want
to create your own course platform on Thinkific or Teachable it can be an incredibly powerful way of
making money now for example a very well known film based youtuber has a course up on Udemy
and has had over 3,100 students and even if the course was only sold at 10 dollars a pop well i mean we
can all do the math on that which probably would take you in the region of one month to create so
do do the research before you create your course i have also fallen victim to this thinking that
i would create a course that many people would like but i didn't actually look for what was being
searched for was there really a market for what i was creating and who was going to buy it so by
doing that you ensure that your time is well spent in creating something specifically for
a group of people who are already looking for it now many of you probably have a short film
or two hidden under your bed on a hard drive or a dvd please don't have it on dvds huh yeah get
it on a hard drive as soon as possible and they're probably not earning you any money now depending
on the contracts that you have with your cast and crew you may not be able to do this however i do
think it's incredibly valuable to start selling your content start earning money from your films
some people may want to actually put their films straight up on youtube to watch
for free this is especially useful if you have a monetized youtube channel and some
of you may want to put it up on platforms such as vimeo
and put a paywall up to your film for as little as 50 cents and you are up
to five dollars to watch your cinematic showpiece this can be incredibly useful in getting you some
extra money in the door as well as even building an audience for your content because ultimately
your film you need an audience to want to see your content now unfortunately it's very difficult to
find figures online for how much money people make with short films on vimeo and youtube however it's
safe to say that some money is better than no money and your films actually can build
an audience especially if you promote your film online regularly you will see a consistent stream
of people going to your films so in summary guys i really think that diversifying your income is just
imperative in today's age we cannot rely upon the and feast freelance industries anymore
instead we actually have to take control of our income and make sure that our skills
expertise and equipment are making money for us while we sleep don't forget don't try to do
all of these at the same time otherwise to be honest you'll fail you'll just pick
one that makes sense for you right now get it complete make sure you promote it right do your
research you'll be able to be more resilient to times such as 2020 in the future thank you
so much for joining me today i really hope you found some of this information useful
and don't forget to check out the links below to up your game on your next film