These are the notes i have taken from dan berry’s lectures, with the subject he was going on about i began taking notes as i believe they were able to help me, later on when it comes to using the advice he gave us.
Creative Futures 2 – Lecture 3 4/2/19
Be Visible:
If no-one knows what you do or sees your work, then it may as well not exist
Opportunity:
Things that are good but you may not necessarily like or enjoy them, but they are good for you and your career
Opportunities come easier if you work for them
First:
What are your ambitions and aspirations?
What do you hope to be able to achieve?
Get paid, make a comfortable living
You need to be more specific
How would you do that?
basically you get your work commissioned to do work similar to what you are already doing
Audience
You need to find ways to get your work out to a wider audience
You may have come into this with a very clear idea of what you want to achieve as an image-maker
Lets call this your ambitions
The things you want to achieve
You may have enquiries from all sorts of places:
Animation projectsÂ
Computer games
Film work
Branding/advertising
Interactive projects
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take (Wayne Gretzky)
Who is your audience?
Depends on what you are doing
You may be tempted to think of your audience as just normal people
The people that you should want to see your work are the people who pay for images
Art directors, graphic designer
Who are the audience for your work?
People who can help your career
Social media
There are possibilities for a career as a social media superstar
Youtube, instagram, twitter etc
If this is a primary career option, work out where your money comes from
That job is to be a content producer but you need to know if it is going to be a solid career
You have to strike a balance between spending time actually doing the work itself and publicity
It often feels that you have to remind people that you exist and that you do things
Apparently Thursday is the best day to send your work somewhere as it apparently is the best day and its mid week and just before the weekend
Trying to build a reputation as someone fast, dependable, knowledgeable and good to work with
Visibility alone isn’t enough
Be visibly good
What can you offer?
Is your work:Â
Funny, profound, cute, scary, silly, clever, relatable, beautiful, niche?
These are the kind of classifications people will put your work into
How do you want people to describe your work?
How do you want people to describe you?
What are the characteristics of the kind of people that you want to work with?
Social media:Â
Interesting insights, no moaning, constructive (cool)
No insights, moaning, destructive cynicism (moody)
Who would you prefer to work with?
Your work isn’t judged only on its quality
People take notice
Bad reputations are difficult to get rid of
Be well behaved
How do you find out about stuff?
Websites:
A current and up to date view on the artists work
Really nice pictures
But
Low resolution so that are harder to steal, 600px wide
WebsiteÂ
A current and up to date view on the artists work
How-to blog posts present the artist as an expert
Really nice small pictures so they want to return
A simple way of getting in touchÂ
But
You probably don’t want your unsecured email address just on the web
Put it behind a secure contact form that uses a capture thing to stop bots
Website:
Work on multiple devices and doesn’t need extra weird plugins to function
Not covered in banner ads, no popupsÂ
SimpleÂ
3 clicks
If a visitor to your site has to click more than 3 times to find what they want they leaveÂ
Or if you look for more than 15 seconds and don’t find what they want they leave
15 seconds feels like a long time to be on the web
If a visitor to your site is confused they leave
Don’t put weird categories as it confuses people and they leave
And thats if they get to your site in the first place
If you build it they will come
Give people a reason to go to your website
Don’t be fooled into thinking that everything happens online
Events:
Go to them!
Talk to people, ask questions, be interested, make friends, find out who does what.
Get excited about other people’s successes.
ExposureÂ
You may get asked to work for free as it would be ‘great exposure’
Exposure Is the same kind of thing as visibility
Don’t work for free!
Unless you believe in the cause
Unless you owe someone
A free magazine with a circulation of 100k wants to put your work on the cover
It’ll be great exposure
Who do you want your work to be exposed to?
100k pensioners?
100k art designers?
100k cyclists?
100k medical professionals?
Exposure by itself isn’t inherently good or bad
If you are going to work for free you may as well do self-initiated projects to help you stay visible
Finding clients
How do you get the people who would pay for your work to see it?
Fishing method:
- Bait your hook (nice photos/films)
- Cast your line (let a lot of people see it)
- Sit back and wait
Hopefully someone will bite
Opportunities come easier if you make them happen yourself
You have to be more motivated
Writers and artists year book 2019 (Joanne Lewis)
Check the websites of the companies you want to work with – do they have submission details?
If they do have submission points, read the small print
Submissions
You need a pitch!
Are you an artist?
Are you a writer?
Unfortunately we cannot respond to every enquiry we receiveÂ
Find an agent
They will take a cut of any money that you get from work they get you but will actively try to get you work
Google film/photography agency
Different agents have different specialisms and interests. Do your research and find one that is a good fit for the work you want to be able to do.
Include a call to action:
Something that tells someone what to do next
Decide what your call to action isÂ
Hire me! Remember me!
Pay me to show my work!
Use your notes to identify what you don’t know about the industry you want to go into
Try and find answers to your questionsÂ
Bring your questions with you to the next lecture