Filmmaking Is Changing FAST (Do This Before 2026) | Unfold EP. 38

The filmmaking landscape is shifting fast. In this episode, we break down what’s changing between now and 2026—and exactly how to position yourself so you’re not left behind. We cover why generalists are getting squeezed, how to choose a profitable niche, and the step-by-step plan to update your bio, portfolio, and offer so the right clients find you.

If you’re serious about landing better clients and bigger budgets in 2025–2026, this episode gives you the playbook to specialize, stand out, and scale.

→ Work with us - https://www.cinematicportfoliomastery.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=cpm&utm_content=podcast

→ Join the community - https://tenfoldinsider.com

→ Our One Click Keystone Lut - https://setmemory.store/collections/color/products/keystone-lut?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sm&utm_content=podcast

→ FREE 21 Day Filmmaking Course: https://thespecworkplaybook.carrd.co/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvGUKb57q6Nvx37QHvQd5Qg

Follow Jason: https://www.instagram.com/iamjasondam/
Follow Tenfold Production: https://www.instagram.com/tenfoldproduction

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:20:08
Unknown
You have to now move into a place where can I even do half the things I was telling myself I can do? Why are you choosing that type of filmmaking over this type of filmmaking? Right? Why do you prefer shooting 60s over 90s or whatever if you got hit by a car? Crazy example. There's an experience there that no one else has experienced.

00:00:20:09 - 00:00:47:04
Unknown
True. And so there might be a moment or a feeling or a discovery there about yourself that you are now going to implement into this new project. People are like, oh, I don't want to be the soccer guy forever. Well, you're not the soccer guy now. You're not that guy. Yeah, you're just not that guy yet. So, like, why are you fearing something that you haven't even reached the full potential of yet?

00:00:47:06 - 00:01:06:17
Unknown
If you're a filmmaker and you're a jack of all trades, you're not going to make it in the next 12 months. The industry is changing fast. Clients are getting savvier, budgets are getting tighter, and AI is flooding the market with average content. The generalist will get wiped out. And the specialists, those are the people that are going to get hired and have a thriving career in filmmaking forever.

00:01:06:19 - 00:01:26:13
Unknown
Now here's the problem no one even tells you how to become a specialist. They just say words like niche down. But what does that even mean when you're first starting out and you're a beginner in filmmaking? So today we're going to break down the three step system that I use to go from a broke filmmaker into a commercial director, working with brands like Toronto Raptors, Lululemon on and more.

00:01:26:17 - 00:01:43:17
Unknown
And so we're going to break this down step by step so you guys know exactly the next plans and how to get out of this broke filmmaker world and into a place where you love your career. So if you want to stand out, raise your rates and actually get paid doing the work that you love. Becoming a specialist is the only way as a filmmaker.

00:01:43:18 - 00:02:06:06
Unknown
So let's dive into it. So I'm gonna tell you a story that changed my whole life. Oh, maybe that's a little dramatic, but it did feel like it at that moment, and I didn't understand this until down the line. Okay. And so years ago, when or before tenfold. But maybe early stages where I started working with Justin, I still very much didn't know what I was doing.

00:02:06:11 - 00:02:30:08
Unknown
Yeah. And so that looked like I was doing a little bit of everything. Yeah. And so naturally, in my mind, I was trying to become a filmmaker and a director. Maybe I didn't even fully understand what that was yet, but I had like director in my bio. But then I also put in photography. Now why do you think I put in photography there.

00:02:30:10 - 00:02:50:06
Unknown
I don't know. Maybe you're just cracked photographer. Yeah, I was pretty fire. But really it was because I thought if I just put in everything there. I can make money everywhere. Oh yeah. But not sacrifice on the directing stuff because I still want to make sure people know I'm a director. Yeah. You're casting a broad net so like lots of different clients can reach out.

00:02:50:07 - 00:03:06:19
Unknown
Exactly. Of course. So you're not losing opportunity to make money. Exactly. Sounds like it makes sense. Sounds good. That's perfect way to say it, though. You're not losing out on opportunities. And I think psychologically when you first start out, that is the mindset. Yeah. You're like, I, I can do this. So I should just tell everyone I can do it.

00:03:07:01 - 00:03:30:09
Unknown
Yeah. And then someone's going to reach out to me. But that just causes like so much confusion in how people are reaching out to me. And over time, I realized too, you know, I figured this out one day when someone reached out to me saying, hey, will you do this, photo shoot for like $2,000? And I instantly had this fear or like, anxiety show up in my body.

00:03:30:15 - 00:04:03:21
Unknown
In my core. Why? And it was because I realized in that second I'm like, I don't think I want to do this for money. I enjoyed photography as something that I could do that I enjoyed, and I could go out there and shoot photography for friends and stuff like that. And it just felt like the right move at the moment, because I was getting these small gigs in between and it was kind of keeping me afloat, for example, where whereas like, you know, $500 kind of recap photo shoot for a race that was happening and I was doing a lot of running stuff back then.

00:04:03:23 - 00:04:30:03
Unknown
And I was like, great, I could just do that on Saturday. Very minimal prep. It's like a win win. It's not like the perfect thing because like you know in my mind video took so long. Photo was very fast turnaround all these things. And so I was just doing that. I kept going and kept growing. And then yeah, the most obvious thing that was happening was that I couldn't put the same amount of energy into my video world.

00:04:30:05 - 00:04:47:12
Unknown
And so I was still getting all these new gigs at $2,000. A gig came up, and I suddenly just realized this isn't something that I want to do. Mainly because I felt like I didn't have the systems for it. Like, oh shoot, they're asking for like a real photo shoot. I'm not like a real photographer. I was just trying to get money.

00:04:47:13 - 00:05:05:21
Unknown
It was kind of like you're being asked to make that next step. Yes. And put dedicate more of your energy and resources into it. Yeah. And it felt like a crossroads. Because I was like what do I really want to do here. And then is it photography. Was this that I trapped myself somehow. Like I almost like accidentally went too hard.

00:05:05:23 - 00:05:23:17
Unknown
Yeah. On photography I was just too good. Yeah. And then I realized, like, there's kind of a dead end here for what I'm trying to do. Yeah, I just wanted quick dollars. And now suddenly, I'm getting put into these positions where I'm like, I just. This is for me. And it was kind of in that moment where I realized I was accidentally specializing too hard.

00:05:23:19 - 00:05:43:21
Unknown
Oh, in the wrong, in the wrong thing. Oh. And that was photography. And but realistically, my whole business was built off of the video side of things. Like, I didn't really care to become a photographer. That was just like a quick money scheme for me. And I think like that's a lot for a lot of people. Like that's just me also as a entrepreneurial kind of business minded person first.

00:05:43:23 - 00:06:02:01
Unknown
Everywhere I'm going I'm always trying to think about like can I make money off of that kind of, you know, like you almost have that mentality. Yeah. And it's so easy to continue following into that. And then because like if it's worked one time like, hey I dabble into video. Now with video it works. There's money like dabble into the photo for a little bit and then money shows up.

00:06:02:03 - 00:06:23:20
Unknown
Yeah. And like in my mind, psychologically for most beginners as well, that makes sense. So I'm sure I just change it to something new and I can just keep, you know, leveling stuff up. But the problem was now my photography was at like a $2,000 price range, and my video was at like a 2000 $3,000 price range. And I'm like, I kind of suck at both.

00:06:23:22 - 00:06:50:21
Unknown
Yeah. And I'm like, what am I doing here. And then so I realized too the, the, the weird psychological part was because I was already working with Justin and we were almost like in early stages of tenfold. But we had, we had like another business before connect video production is crazy name. I also wasn't giving the proper service to what I promised, which was working in a partnership, trying to grow a business, doing all that stuff.

00:06:50:23 - 00:07:06:01
Unknown
So you're you're at this point in your life, you're just completely spread thin. Yeah. Everywhere. And you're not able to put in the maximum effort, for one thing. Exactly. And and now I was feeling guilty on both ends. Yeah. Because I'm like, oh, do I want to get better at photo or do I need to completely stop this?

00:07:06:01 - 00:07:25:12
Unknown
Or do I need to complete this video, which is actually the thing that I want to grow in more into. And so that's a very tricky place for a lot of people. Yeah. Because it's like you almost need to cut off a money opportunity that is already existing for you, to go towards something that might not be as stable yet.

00:07:25:17 - 00:07:43:21
Unknown
Yeah. And so this was a big kind of, decision point for me to decide. Okay. I don't know what this what I'm doing. Yeah. And it just caused a lot of rifts. And that was another burn out moment for me because I was like, I was just trying to fake my confidence through each of these things. And I'm like, really?

00:07:43:21 - 00:08:02:13
Unknown
If I know being smart. And now looking back to and like how we've gotten here, the number one and best thing that I probably did for my career was to take away the word photographer from my bio. Because whatever you put in there guys is it is the way people see you personally out into the world.

00:08:02:13 - 00:08:17:23
Unknown
It's exactly it. Right. So I know some people that you know if you want to put out. Oh because I could do drone ops. I can do coloring editing as well as like photo video. You know, it's like that bio is 45 words long, right? Yeah. And when someone comes onto your page and they're like, what is this?

00:08:18:01 - 00:08:34:18
Unknown
What do you do? Is it just the first one? But oh no, no, I'm actually really good at everything else. Yeah, I used to be good at other things too. Right. Like coloring. I like the coloring. I like doing that process wasn't the greatest edit, but I knew there was a certain point where I'm like, I'm not trying to get to that next level.

00:08:34:20 - 00:08:56:15
Unknown
And so I need to stop this because it's not providing any proper service to the bigger picture. Yeah. So I took away the bio of putting photographer. And I guess what happens. People start reaching out to me for directing work again. And no more of the photography work. Yeah. And then I start to shift more of the work towards more video focus.

00:08:56:17 - 00:09:17:00
Unknown
And I'm like, oh, of course it's the first impression, right? It's like how I present myself is how I show up to the world. It's all these little things. And then it adds and stacks and then suddenly it went from being capped at $2,000 to starting to work with more people collaborating. The project got better, and then suddenly it's like, oh, here's A5K job.

00:09:17:00 - 00:09:39:07
Unknown
Like, Holy smokes, that's crazy. And then you get you get to a K, and then that five k job doesn't feel that crazy anymore. And then ten k and 20 k and it and I feel like I'm just skipping steps. But we will go into each of these different steps for every level as well. But that was the I think the biggest like inflection point for my career was when I said, okay, I'm not a photographer anymore.

00:09:39:09 - 00:09:56:08
Unknown
Like if I wanted to go all in on photography I would remove the directing side of things. But then I knew deep down like I didn't choose video because it was the easy thing. It was actually the hard thing. But I knew it was going to have much more long term payback or dividends down the line.

00:09:56:10 - 00:10:18:19
Unknown
And so yeah that was that was really the moment. Once I started to take everything before the shoot a lot more seriously. That's when I started getting hired. That's why I created the pre-production playbook. And this is the system that I built to help you do exactly that. It shows you how to plan, pitch and prep like a DP who's ready for ten K plus work.

00:10:18:21 - 00:10:35:09
Unknown
No more winging it. No more hoping your instincts will save you. If you're tired of being overlooked, click the link in the description below. Grab the playbook and start leading like a professional director of photography and getting the work that you always dreamed of.

00:10:35:11 - 00:10:52:08
Unknown
No, that's such a that's such a relatable story to me. And I'm sure like a lot of people who are listening to this relate as well. And yeah, I think that's one of those things where it might be like, big fish, big fish, small pond mentality, especially when you grow up in like a smaller town.

00:10:52:10 - 00:11:09:09
Unknown
And like everyone around you is like, you know, it's like oh I might go into finance or accounting and then you're like that one creative person. Now all of a sudden you're like the guy who can do everything. And I was that guy to I was like, oh, I can Photoshop, I can do aftereffects, I can edit in premiere, I can shoot stuff and all that stuff.

00:11:09:09 - 00:11:32:16
Unknown
And suddenly you're like, you think you're this guy who can do it all? Yeah. And you don't want to lose that either, because you're like, I can I can do all of this stuff. I want to make money. But I also quickly learned as well that you can't do that. Yeah. You're going to spread yourself thin. But even though I knew that when me and my friends made our production company and we were working, we were still offering ourselves as, like, a top to bottom production company.

00:11:32:18 - 00:11:53:15
Unknown
Yeah, right. And it makes more sense at that point, because now you have like, a whole team around you and client will look at it and be like, oh, they can do everything. And you still have that. We can do everything thing. But even in that situation, I was still doing a lot. Yeah. And even though it's like this production company is top to bottom, can do everything.

00:11:53:16 - 00:12:08:16
Unknown
You're still one guy, still doing everything, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me, like I was in that place for so long. Like, so, so long. I was burning out, and I was like, I don't even know if I can do this anymore. I don't know if this is the right decision. I should listen to my mom, like, how did you get out of that?

00:12:08:17 - 00:12:33:08
Unknown
What was what is the secret? Yeah. Going back to the most simple place, it is figuring out exactly what you're trying to do. And I think there's this misconception out there, and a lot of people kind of fall for this is when you first starting everything is low paid. And so you make this assumption that this genre that you're in is automatically low paid low paid forever.

00:12:33:09 - 00:12:54:10
Unknown
Yeah. Right. And then as you kind of progress and we'll give you the 2020 hindsight at the back end. Every genre can make money. And so if we have that kind of baseline for everything, you can't automatically say oh don't do that. Because I heard there's no money in there man. You can make money shooting dentistry. You know you could literally make money shooting any random thing appliances.

00:12:54:15 - 00:13:12:04
Unknown
There is a good market for any space possible. Yeah. And so if we remove that as a variable that like, oh, I can't make money in that. So I have to go into commercial or I have to go into documentary or have to go into content. Right. It's like we all have to just realize there's a levels to things.

00:13:12:06 - 00:13:33:21
Unknown
And so do you want to continue switching out an in of every genre and then eventually hoping one kind of clicks off because that's also being a generalist and everything again. Right. And so I'll use our example here was when we first started I mean Justin we're only doing like storytelling stuff right. Like that's narrative commercial where we're doing interviews and, and B-roll and all these things.

00:13:33:22 - 00:13:56:01
Unknown
And it felt like we were capped at like 2530 $500 max. And we're like, there's no way this is this is it. So we just we put a blanket assumption over the whole thing saying, this is a low paying genere. Down like a few years later we did a documentary project. So same concepts interviews, B-roll, all these things.

00:13:56:03 - 00:14:14:22
Unknown
And it was a $100,000 campaign goal. And we just sat there were like oh, so maybe it wasn't a problem with like the genre. It was just a problem of where we were. And that we were just doing a little bit of too much and trying a little bit of this and let's try some product stuff over here today.

00:14:15:00 - 00:14:31:09
Unknown
Let's try this over here today. And it just confuses everyone. It confuses you because you don't ever feel like you can get good enough in one space and just lock in and really trust that. And then secondly, it confuses the audience. Or like the people that are like buying your work to be like, what do you got to do?

00:14:31:10 - 00:14:52:04
Unknown
Like what's your specialty? If I just look at you guys as a, brand or a company or whatever, what are you guys specialize in? And so the biggest thing that we're always going to talk about throughout this podcast is the ability to understand what's specializing is going to how we get there. Right. And so we were generalists in like genre as well as our approach and our style and our voice.

00:14:52:04 - 00:15:07:12
Unknown
And it just kept changing. And so of course, no one knew what we were doing. And so if you guys are in a place where you're doing a lot of that stuff and you're visibly showing that to the world, like your, your portfolio and the work, and it's just a scramble of everything, it's equally as important to understand what you need to pull away.

00:15:07:13 - 00:15:34:04
Unknown
Versus what you're showing up there. And so we need to look at ourselves and deep down and be like, okay, what are we trying to be? Are we okay with sticking into this genre that, is more specific around documentary and, you know, people storytelling focus? Or are we going to move towards commercial and obviously in the beginning you don't you haven't tried everything yet, so you don't know exactly which path you want to go into.

00:15:34:06 - 00:15:56:20
Unknown
But that is phase one. And phase one is picking your genre. Genre. So genre could be content. It could be commercial, it could be documentary. It could be a blended version of that. Okay. Or it could also be within a certain time length as well. And so we talk about like 32nd and 15 second, 62nd. These are all types of genres that you can do because you could do like a 62nd documentary which can be quite short, right?

00:15:56:20 - 00:16:15:00
Unknown
But typically documentaries can lean more into that like 90 plus second range. Yeah. Typically a little bit longer and then commercial is typically under 90s or whatever. Yeah. And then there's like blended versions in the middle. In the beginning you don't know this even exists. You're just doing whatever for the sake of doing stuff. You're doing a recap.

00:16:15:02 - 00:16:35:06
Unknown
One day you're doing a music video. Another day. And you want to, in the beginning go fast, try a bit of everything so you can quickly eliminate that from. Yeah. What you want to do. Right. So I say this to a lot of people, there's people that personally I hate music videos and doing music videos just because it's the systems I don't I'm not a big fan of.

00:16:35:11 - 00:16:55:11
Unknown
Secondly, I don't like music that much. That's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah, I you sure? I listen to a lot of music and I have very wide, vast range of like, interests in what I listen to. But I don't have a deep down, like, urge to shoot music videos or music stories because I don't resonate with music like that.

00:16:55:13 - 00:17:14:02
Unknown
It's not my unfair advantage is not the things that I naturally like gravitate towards outside of filmmaking, just like listening to music. I just like the music that people like to deliver to you. Like my playlist is crazy. Yeah, it really changes every song. But you find people like yourself who actually has an interest in music.

00:17:14:04 - 00:17:34:06
Unknown
And you're like, I care about where music comes from. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? Like I care about the history of it. I care about like this is where hobbies and your actual interest actually starts to dictate your genres a bit more. Like Justin being someone that is like ultra empathetic and like has a really good sense of people and how to pull emotions and stuff out of people as well.

00:17:34:08 - 00:17:55:20
Unknown
It's like, yeah, you would, you would naturally gravitate towards that style of filmmaking. Yeah. Right. And for yourself, if you're like really deep into football. Right. Soccer for the Americans. You are you go to the games, you live that life, you actually cheer and know, like local teams and stuff like that. Yeah, that's something that I can relate to.

00:17:55:22 - 00:18:20:01
Unknown
And so I'm not going to try to force myself into that space in the genre either. And so whereas you it's like no I'm, I'm you're like locked in trying to get into that world. Yeah. And so that's like phase one really. It's being realistic with yourself of you don't need to be ultra passionate about it. It just sometimes is easier in the beginning when you have already, a leg up in some case so you can speak to it better.

00:18:20:01 - 00:18:41:13
Unknown
You can tell better stories right off the rip. Yeah, it's not as hard to come up with ideas and think of like, the right story. Exactly. Because it's usually from lived experiences or things you've seen and inspiration, all that stuff. Yeah. But that is the biggest thing. And I think a lot of people fall into the trap of, I heard there's a lot of money in this space or, you know, you started going down one path and you get really good at it.

00:18:41:15 - 00:19:00:08
Unknown
That's fine as well, because you can start to layer that stuff up and make more money, and then you can spend your your time and money doing other things, and in your free time you're spending stuff. But in the beginning, sometimes it's like I, I heard car work had a lot of money in it. Yeah. And people were like, yo, you should do car stuff.

00:19:00:10 - 00:19:16:17
Unknown
You know how hard car stuff is to do? Yeah. And I didn't even have a car till, like, last year. Yeah. I don't even driving. Yeah, I was just I just lived the the commute life, and I'm like, I have no connection with this. And people listening to, like, how old are you? Don't worry about that. That's not what the.

00:19:16:22 - 00:19:35:19
Unknown
Yeah. How what it was about I just didn't. To me needed at that moment and things were still fine. And I was like okay, cool. So I, I can just tell stories about other things to me. And my personal version of that is, I really like sports and growing up playing sports. It just it kind of gravitate a little bit closer to me.

00:19:35:19 - 00:19:55:20
Unknown
And then being active is just something I lived growing up. So it was like, okay cool, let me find a version of that because I already have some things close to that. What I didn't realize that down the line was like, that was something that I did, but I actually spent much more of my time in my hobbies around fashion on forums.

00:19:55:22 - 00:20:17:19
Unknown
I had a whole second business or a separate business before this that was like eBay and going around. I was like OG thrifted in 2012, and it was just like, yeah, that was just my life. But it was specifically in like, suits and, higher end luxury and stuff like that. If you're a filmmaker who's technically skilled, but you're stuck doing the 1 to 2 K jobs, you're not alone.

00:20:17:21 - 00:20:46:04
Unknown
And funny enough, that was me five years ago. I had gear. I had talent, I was grinding, but my career felt like it was moving in slow motion and I wasn't really getting anywhere. I didn't need another YouTube tutorial. I needed a system that I could follow. And that's why we built Cinematic Portfolio Mastery. This is a eight week program to help filmmakers like you break out of the pricing plateau and build a spec project that finally gets you taken seriously.

00:20:46:06 - 00:21:11:15
Unknown
We give you the roadmap, the mentorship, and the community you've been missing and something I really wish I had five years ago when I started doing this. So you can stop spinning your wheels and start getting paid like a real creative professional, because that's what we all want to do. If you're tired of being stuck in a creative loop, join the CPM waitlist in the link in the description below, and let's build the project that unlocks your next level.

00:21:11:17 - 00:21:32:03
Unknown
I literally been spending like half my life just doing that stuff, and then when I got to filmmaking, I'm like recaps, baby coffee shops and that's stuff you figure on beginning. But then I needed to very quickly figure out, all right, let me stick to one thing first. Yeah. Fashion and movement. And in the beginning, it was just movement.

00:21:32:05 - 00:21:55:04
Unknown
So that's where it started. And I was like, I don't want to do, short films. I don't want to do long form anything because it takes too long. I kind of like this short form world that I'm seeing a ton of, and so for me, inspiration wise was like, let me just keep stuff shorter. Let me start to focus in on that for just a minute is probably more like documentaries and storytelling.

00:21:55:04 - 00:22:10:04
Unknown
And then keeping in that like sub three minute range. And so that's kind of how we started to split stuff up. Okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense because I feel like so many people will just do what is available to them. I know for sure, like that's what I was doing as well for a long time.

00:22:10:06 - 00:22:27:23
Unknown
It's just like who has a little bit of money and needs a video. Doesn't matter what the business is. It doesn't matter if I care about it or not. Yeah. It's like if the money is there, I'll do it. Yeah, but then all of a sudden, people are reaching out to you about things you don't really care about.

00:22:28:01 - 00:22:45:15
Unknown
Yeah. And it's just a feedback loop of burnout. This is where people get caught. Yeah. Because, like, sometimes you never get past this stage because you're like, the money's still coming, the jobs are still coming, and you get those same recurring clients every year that like, oh, you want to do this recap? Maybe you get paid a little bit more for it and you're like, sure.

00:22:45:20 - 00:23:05:03
Unknown
Yeah, I'm going to do it. And then you just you just never catch back up on the what am I here for? Right. Like deeper down I knew from the beginning I'm like oh the stuff I was watching day one was never people around me really. That was just seeing what people were doing. But it was like I want to get to that next stage already.

00:23:05:04 - 00:23:27:18
Unknown
Sure. So okay let's say that like even taking me for an example. Yeah. Let's say that I know that I really like sports. I like football. And let's say for the genre I'm leaning more towards like, mix between commercial and docu style. Yeah. Let's say like I like the docu style stuff, but I want to keep it more towards like the minute 32 minute mark.

00:23:27:18 - 00:23:50:13
Unknown
Yeah, right. So I figured that out. What is the next step beyond genre to even specialize further beyond that? Yeah. So so we've been designing a lot in our CPM groups too, of course, because this is like the most core important part. That is a transition moment. But I would even ask you deeper to why do you like the two, two and a half, three minute place and why is it documentary and commercial?

00:23:50:14 - 00:24:18:18
Unknown
Yeah, I think that I, I gravitated towards that more because I don't really like narrative. I don't like making up fake stories. I like exploring the stories of real people, but at the same time, I think you can tell everything that needs to be told in a short amount of time. Yeah. You know what I mean? And there are places for like, the 40 minutes, the 20 minutes, the hour long documentaries.

00:24:18:18 - 00:24:37:05
Unknown
And those are great too. But at the end of the day, I just want to see something really cool that makes me feel something in that moment I don't need. I don't always want to sit down for like an hour. Yeah, and watch something and invest all that time. Like I will still do that, but that's not what I want to make.

00:24:37:10 - 00:24:58:14
Unknown
When I see something that's short and makes me feel something really powerful, which is what I think you can get from documentaries. That's that's what really makes me want to make something. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so say we're sticking in that sub three minute range. And when you look at the work that's out there. Yeah.

00:24:58:16 - 00:25:22:06
Unknown
Is it based around a person typically someone else's story or do you like stories that are based around your own story that you kind of like finessing to something else? I think it is very interesting to explore people, whether those people are really known or unknown. There's this director that I really admire named Tom day, and he works in England, and he made this.

00:25:22:08 - 00:25:50:23
Unknown
It's not really a documentary, but he made this piece, this fashion piece about Manchester United and like the players are in it, but they're like watching a like an amateur scrimmage almost. And there's so much culture, heritage and personality built into that piece. But at the same time, it's kind of like fabricated. It's a fabricated, fabricated situation. But he also has this other piece about this guy named Gus in New York, and he works at a boxing gym.

00:25:51:01 - 00:26:21:01
Unknown
And it's like this really short three minute documentary, I want to say. But in those in that short moment, he's able to tell me everything about this person, like even beyond what the guy is saying, through the way his visuals look through the way he's telling the story, in the way it's structured, the parts of this interview he chose to use in this short amount of time tells me way more about this guy than in three minutes, as opposed to like, taking 40 minutes to explain all of this to me.

00:26:21:03 - 00:26:41:12
Unknown
Yeah. So this pretty much leads perfectly into our next one, which is a style. And this is moving away from figuring out your phase one stuff, which is your genre, and that's done through a bunch of testing, just seeing what kind of like space you want to be in. Phase two is where you focus a little bit more on your style and your approach.

00:26:41:14 - 00:27:04:11
Unknown
And so this is like more of like a technical spec. Right. And so a technical aspect is being something that you do for yourself. It's a speculative project. You are creating something on your own basis without the ask of permission from someone else to prove that you can even attempt this area at all. Yeah. And so if soccer is for football, it's something new for you, and you don't have that much stuff to prove that you can actually do this stuff.

00:27:04:11 - 00:27:22:21
Unknown
But, you know, deep down you love it. You have this very specific style that you want to approach 2 to 3 minutes. And then it's a mixture of like built world plus real people. Then you need to prove to yourself as well as to the world. I typically say it's actually more important for yourself at this point, because you're still discovering who you are and what you want to do.

00:27:22:23 - 00:27:42:06
Unknown
But you have to now move into a place where can I even do half the things I was telling myself I can do? Because I would say in the beginning, when we were doing new projects, and people reach out to us and we had like a whole bunch of, like, wacky stuff in our portfolio. Yeah. Like, can you tell this real?

00:27:42:06 - 00:28:00:02
Unknown
And we're like, here's five things. Yeah. Can you just look at 20s of this one? Yeah. The 15 second edit from this part in this. And then imagine that what we can actually do if we had real purpose and real ideas and you can always guess what happens there. We get ghosted because you're like this feels so unprofessional.

00:28:00:02 - 00:28:19:17
Unknown
It's not a legit brand or company. And, you know, people are always going off of first impressions. And that's maybe your second impression. And if you can't even prove to them that you the right person for it, Sayonara. They're gone. So really, at this phase, this is the transition phase, right? It's like where you need to actually figure out, hey, can I even shoot soccer stuff?

00:28:19:17 - 00:28:36:02
Unknown
How would I should soccer stuff? Because, yeah, you see a bunch of references and inspiration out there, but you need to understand and break down. What would I actually do if I had to go and shoot it now? Even without, like, going super deep into pure, pure story, you know, that stuff that's like, a next phase?

00:28:36:04 - 00:28:53:15
Unknown
Can you even just figure out how to shoot it? Because there's some things in soccer that, you know, you can shoot it from the sidelines, or you can be in there, or are you handheld? Are you you know, all these little questions that you have for yourself to even say, like, can I do this? Because I always use this as an example.

00:28:53:15 - 00:29:20:08
Unknown
But if Nike, you know, football or soccer came to you and be like, hey, we have, Messi, clearly I'm a big soccer fan, for a commercial. He's not even Nike's Adidas. Right. So it's like, can you, can you shoot this for us? You would just have so many questions leading up to it. And you know, sure, you might know your genre, but now you don't know how to execute on it and then you don't have a style and a voice of tone.

00:29:20:08 - 00:29:35:10
Unknown
Yeah. Right. Of like, how to actually put yourself into that space. And so, you know, a lot of people want to skip steps in this world, but really you got to figure out your genre first and then figure out if you can even execute in this space. And so, you know, in our case, we'll use your, you know, phase one.

00:29:35:10 - 00:29:56:04
Unknown
You figured it out. You know, it's soccer, documentary. 2 or 3 minutes. Now you have to figure out, okay, what do I like? Specialty shots. Do I like, holding my shots long? Do I like, you know, does the voice need to match exactly what's showing, or do I like much more of, like, an ethereal, kind of like feeling when I tell these stories that are, like, super strong?

00:29:56:04 - 00:30:12:09
Unknown
One liners and it's less of like a, you know, linear storyline of someone's life or whatever. This is that perfect phase where you know you have some skills already, you know how to execute. Maybe you have a team or you work with people before, and now you have to go and show and prove to yourself, you're like, this is my this is my stamp.

00:30:12:09 - 00:30:33:17
Unknown
This is who I am now. This is where I'm going to go. And so typically phase one is like 1 to 2 years in filmmaking. Yeah. And then phase two is like 2 to 4 years right off in 2 to 5. So people can take longer for this. Sometimes people never get out of this. And that's the hardest part because you just get stuck in this like cycle at the beginning.

00:30:33:19 - 00:30:52:13
Unknown
And what is the last part then. Yeah. So you've done a few technical specs now hopefully in the soccer range or place that you're trying to get into. Phase three is the hardest phase and it's always the hardest because you have to go and do so much self-reflection and self-awareness of like where are you trying to get to?

00:30:52:15 - 00:31:14:20
Unknown
But phase three is like tone of voice. So this is beyond your technical abilities? Yeah, it's very difficult. I'm going to kind of generalize here a bit, but it's difficult when you have to do and figure out your your genre, your technical skills and your story skills all at the same time. When we were building up, we just did stuff chronologically, right?

00:31:15:00 - 00:31:37:09
Unknown
Give yourself time to breathe and understand and work through projects, which is why filmmaking is not a one year blow up type situation. It's like a long game and people think it's like, oh, you showed up overnight. It's like, no, no, no. I started like years ago trying to figure out how to get to this place. And it was every project and spending a lot of money and doing all these mistakes to get to this place where we're like, oh, we kind of get it now, right?

00:31:37:09 - 00:31:55:14
Unknown
And so some people can speedrun it. If you have some guidance ahead of you and people that have already gone there and they're like, just don't do that, that that's a waste of time. But now you can get to a place where you're like, okay, I've learned this technical skills, I've done a few projects so I know how to shoot soccer, but it doesn't feel like me yet.

00:31:55:18 - 00:32:20:04
Unknown
I haven't injected like a story that, feels like something that's unique to me. And if someone was going to hire me, this is where the whole specializing place comes into play. They're hiring me for my voice. And so a lot of filmmakers and videographers and people coming up, they feel like they get hired as technicians or for hire, and then they just, like, you have a camera tool come, come through, and that's your day rate and that's all it is.

00:32:20:06 - 00:32:42:04
Unknown
But as you transition into becoming a DP or director or something, that's a little bit more specialized, you people are coming to you for your your approach and your style, right? Everything when it comes to you, what's your vision? How would you approach this? Why are you choosing that type of filmmaking over this type of filmmaking? Right? Why do you prefer shooting 62nd over 90s or whatever?

00:32:42:09 - 00:33:07:00
Unknown
Like all these things come down to understanding a little bit more of yourself and using all those past experiences to get to this place now. And so it's easier to think about this in phases, because a lot of people haven't chosen even phase one yet, which is your your genre. Yeah. But if you're trying to like skip to phase three and be like, I'm going to put my tone of voice and like, I'm gonna try every style possible under the sun, and then I'm gonna do it for this genre or this genre, this rendre.

00:33:07:06 - 00:33:26:20
Unknown
Then you just, like, confuse you just confuse everything, right? Like you're just trying too much at the same time. So it's better to realize especially when you're a beginner I just gotta land on something. What do I like. Go back and figure out, you know. Did I enjoy talking to people. Do I like just like pretty shots.

00:33:27:00 - 00:33:44:12
Unknown
Cool. That's going to give you a little bit more direction. Phase two is like okay, what did I learn here that I don't like to do these specialties? Maybe I enjoy shorter formats or I like this team format of like how we're approaching this. Maybe it's like a four man team or like a six person team, whatever it is.

00:33:44:14 - 00:34:02:11
Unknown
And then you're like, you get a little bit more confidence, and then that confidence actually snowballs into phase three, which is I want to do more now. Right? I want to do more. I want to be better. I need to figure out exactly like what is going to make this project now, this newest one that now is considered not a tactical spec, but like a real commercial spec.

00:34:02:13 - 00:34:21:03
Unknown
How do I use this to separate myself from everyone else? What am I? What are my natural inspirations? What are my unfair advantages? Things that I'm already really strong at? And then how do I put a tone of voice? And this is what you were saying earlier, but like try not to fabricate. This is actually where you do fabricate, where you take your life experiences.

00:34:21:04 - 00:34:45:20
Unknown
Yeah. And things. And, you know, if you got hit by a car, crazy example. There's an experience there that no one else has experienced. True. And so there might be a moment or a feeling or, discovery there about yourself that you are now going to implement into this new project. And maybe you're searching for the person or like the soccer players big moment when there was an inflection point for them.

00:34:45:21 - 00:35:05:01
Unknown
And like, you got hit by a car. I know what that feeling is. How do I turn this into a storyline? Now that makes sense. How do I find the right format that makes sense for the edit? How do I find the right references for color and all these things that you personally enjoy? That it's just going to make everything feel unique to you.

00:35:05:02 - 00:35:23:12
Unknown
And so that's what filmmaking is. And we've kind of come a long way in circle in this. Yeah. Is that everything you do in life? I'm sitting here right now. I was having conversations before this, us looking at references, building decks. All these things add a little bit of a difference between you and the next person beside you.

00:35:23:14 - 00:35:41:15
Unknown
And it is about leaning into that stuff, really, and being the best version of that. You go into all these dorky united games are going to give you much more clarity in terms of how you want to approach stuff, how you want to see stuff like that feeling when you're standing in front of like a bleacher in a front row to get your photos taken.

00:35:41:17 - 00:36:01:14
Unknown
Yeah, it's like losing your voice. Is there a moment in that feeling, in that essence that you're trying to capture, that you're trying to pull it into this other work? And so that's stuff that if you made me try to fake and finish that feeling, I just wouldn't have it. And so this is where we have to figure out exactly like, what am I going to lean on?

00:36:01:16 - 00:36:18:05
Unknown
What's going to make me different? And then this is how you start to separate and become a specialist, because not only have you just done that in one format, you've done that in a genre now in a certain timeline, in a style, and now you get to put your own tone of voice, and now you've just been able to create something that's unique and different from everyone else.

00:36:18:10 - 00:36:44:10
Unknown
And if you could just stay in that world, people are like, oh, I don't want to be the soccer guy forever. Well, you're not the soccer guy now. You're not that guy. Yeah, you're just not that guy yet. So, like, why are you fearing something that you haven't even reached the full potential of yet? To get to the full potential, make $20,000 per project in your pocket profit, do it for five years and then be like, yeah, I don't want to do this anymore.

00:36:44:12 - 00:37:03:08
Unknown
But if you're not even there yet, like, what are you running away from? Yeah, right. You're just going to extend and make your path way more difficult because you're going to be constantly going up and down, up and down your price forever, never landing on like a style or approach or whatever. And then you've now been doing this for ten years, never getting past 20 to like $2,000.

00:37:03:09 - 00:37:28:12
Unknown
Whereas someone and I've seen this happen before change their entire careers in one year because they just super locked in knowing exactly what genre, what voice tone, how to actually execute. And that's the approach. Do you want to spend ten years doing this, and be stuck in the same place and not see growth and potential, and then just keep wondering why you're not that person, or you just lock in for a year and change your whole life.

00:37:28:14 - 00:37:49:11
Unknown
That's all it it sounds easy, but really, that's kind of what it takes. Sometimes I always say like, you only need like 3 to 5. Good specs and you're in a completely different place. You can change your entire, perception and optics of how you're seeing in the world. And so if you can eliminate the stuff that doesn't matter.

00:37:49:13 - 00:38:05:21
Unknown
Sounds easy again, but and focus in on the things that, you know, we're going to actually push you forward. There's never a day where I'm like, oh, this new recap is the one that's going to get me there. I mean, no, it's just a money job. Yeah, it's just going to pay your bills for a bit. That's totally fine.

00:38:05:21 - 00:38:25:15
Unknown
Nothing wrong with cutting off the gold. Do not call that golden goose right. Like it? Let it pay your bills. That's totally fine. But I'm not trying to spend all my energy on that when it's not the thing that's going to push me forward. Yeah, I see just so much, guys, because literally it's our whole life. It's like, you know, I should be like, oh yeah, it's still kind of doing the same work, like from 4 or 5 years ago.

00:38:25:17 - 00:38:43:17
Unknown
I'm like, we got to this. There's not the it's not a brag, but it's like our jump from it took us like 3 or 4 years to catch like $2,500. And then we changed our system. And then we got 250 K in like a year and a half. Okay. So what was the difference? You know what I mean?

00:38:43:18 - 00:39:00:23
Unknown
Like we kind of just locked in and learned to specialize and be really good at what we want to do. And so now we have two and three different lanes of like the approach and style of work that we do. And all of them are 100 plus K campaign angles. And so this is the whole value of being able to specialize.

00:39:01:03 - 00:39:22:23
Unknown
You don't just make small incremental jumps, you make very large jumps. Because if you need and think of this as like, Manchester United, are you the you like Manchester United right. That's your team. Yeah. Unfortunately. Are they going to look for someone that does recaps? That's the easiest answer of all time to do their top level brand commercial.

00:39:23:01 - 00:39:53:02
Unknown
No. Yeah. At minimum they're going to find someone that cares about soccer at the highest level. They care about finding someone that lives the Manchester United lifestyle, but is also a great director as well. And then that's like the perfect combination of everything. You've now connected all the dots, but if they don't see you like that and you're not putting in the work and you're not showing up, then there's no reason for someone to force themselves to get you out of your pocket to be like, I need you to be better right now to execute on this.

00:39:53:04 - 00:40:12:22
Unknown
It's like, no, no, no, no. You have to prove to yourself that you're sick. And I'll be like, yeah, this guy has already proven that he has a good track record. He knows what genres he wants. And it's not just like, you know, 30s like, oh, I need a guy that does like the mini trailer movie leading up to like a launch or lease or a new player that joins the team or whatever.

00:40:13:00 - 00:40:35:08
Unknown
And it's in that two 33 minutes, they care about soccer or football. And then they've been doing this, and they have 4 or 5 projects that show all of the track record of the skill in the style they do. And if they like your style, it's done is done there. Like you go from the separation of like a hundred different filmmakers down to like, there's four guys that can do this, you know, it's that that is the game.

00:40:35:08 - 00:40:53:08
Unknown
It's like people are always just trying to be like connecting the dots. You might not realize this, but they connect the dots very quickly on whether or not you're an option or not for this project. It just connected for me in my brain. I just saw it. Yeah, because you're like, there's like 100 options, but they're going to pick like the guy who specialized in that thing.

00:40:53:10 - 00:41:13:04
Unknown
Yeah, they're going to filter down. That's the best option. So if you want to do the thing you got to become that guy. Yeah. Think of the filter method or approach right. It's like okay cares about soccer. Eliminate 50 people. You're like, oh shoot, I'm already off that list. And so they're not going to come to me, even if I have other cool stuff, they're not going to come to me.

00:41:13:06 - 00:41:33:04
Unknown
And then they look at you and they're like, okay, how many products do they have? Zero, one, two, two, five, five plus. And they're like, five plus. Technically, if you get the five, you're fine. But before that it's like, okay, you're on that, you're on the edge. They're on the maybe less. You're on the maybe less. Because like, if they if there's only like two people on the five plus, maybe now you're still in the game.

00:41:33:04 - 00:41:56:17
Unknown
Whatever. Right. But then the next one is like, okay, cool. How much is it DirecTV cable commercial or do they care about more of the storytelling? And again, that's my whole point. You the wraps all the way back to the beginning. There's money in every single genre. It does not matter. Yeah. If you show me something, I can find you a brand that has a lot of money in that space that is still looking to make money or, like, spend money in filmmaking.

00:41:56:19 - 00:42:15:02
Unknown
So you know, gets to you same thing. Idea 2 or 3 minutes. What is the only person that does it. Yeah. The specializing is for you to figure out who you are as a storyteller. Yeah. But at the same time that's also the filters that your clients are looking at to decide if you're the right person to the job.

00:42:15:03 - 00:42:38:13
Unknown
Another life changing podcast guys, this is actually a banger. This is this is crazy. Hold the source here. So, you know, if you haven't thought about this in this approach, it's just hard. I mean I know how it feels guys to be like what am I doing? Like this is this is the lifestyle of my filmmaking. But the sooner you get here, like the next four months is going to be very difficult.

00:42:38:13 - 00:43:02:01
Unknown
And be quite honest with you guys. Like as budgets start to shrink, as like people look to specialists to really wrap up on making sure like, this is the best project, that I can execute with this budget that we have, I'm only going to look for the person that I care about, right? It's like I'm wanting to look for the person that I know is the best person for this, and this has never changed, right?

00:43:02:03 - 00:43:17:16
Unknown
If you look at, you know, deep dive a little bit more into like directors and DPS and you look at the scale of work that they do and the type of work to do, if you're the food person, you're real is like 90% food, right? But you have a style, you have approach and they've picked the genre, okay, go look at a different director.

00:43:17:16 - 00:43:34:02
Unknown
It's like this person only does one minute, branded commercials that, you know, sometimes not even is all product focus or whatever. It's like, that's the product person. You need to put yourself in a place. And if you think you don't need to.

00:43:34:03 - 00:43:58:13
Unknown
You need to do some self-reflection. Yeah, into where you are right now. And it's okay to be like, I'm not happy with where I'm at because it means there's always progress to go towards. But the sooner you figure this out, and the sooner you start moving towards picking and doing the steps of phase one, phase two, phase three working through your steps, figuring out your tone of voice, all these different things, you will find that life becomes much easier.

00:43:58:15 - 00:44:18:12
Unknown
It's so good. I'm losing my voice. Well, I think we should probably wrap it up then. Yeah. So that's it, guys. If you guys watch the whole thing, put the word specialized. Specialized, hit us up in the DMs, DM us directly. If you listen to this, wherever you're listening to us. Yeah, we want to know because this is such a big one.

00:44:18:14 - 00:44:38:11
Unknown
And if you guys can internalize this sooner and start making decisions and moves quicker to the place that you actually want to be in, don't let the world tell you what makes you a lot of money and stuff like that. It's like you got to figure that stuff out a bit for yourself because you're going to be miserable if you're doing something forever that you hate, but it pays you a lot of money.

00:44:38:12 - 00:44:57:09
Unknown
It's not the worst world because at least you're still doing it. But, you know, you definitely got to find some balance of joy and money in this world to continue going. So that was today's podcast. Thanks for joining us on the full podcast. If you guys have any questions or thoughts on other ideas or things you want to learn about, let us know in the comments below.

00:44:57:11 - 00:45:01:23
Unknown
Otherwise, we'll see you in the next one! Peace.