If you believe that your narrative film work is a good business development tool to attract commercial clients, then you’re going to want to listen to the newest episode of Crossing the Axis with my guest Nate Barr.
Perhaps I am biased, because I believe client-work and personal-work use different skill sets, and they aren’t always compatible. When you’re running a client-driven business, you need to be obsessed with your client’s goals at all times. This requires a specific kind of muscle-building, like expert listening and business-case analysis, that can be undermined by the pursuit of making your personal films. Nate sums this up well in the podcast:
“Most great [narrative] directors are focused on their vision, that’s what makes them great directors. That’s the opposite of creative services work.”
There are exceptions to this point of view, with production companies like Caviar and Pulse Films seemingly riding the client/narrative line with extraordinary success. But the reality is these companies have deep pockets and can afford the extra staff to cover the biz-dev opportunity costs that 99% of the production companies face when they spend their limited capacity making their own projects.
Personally speaking, I think you’re better off keeping narrative work and client work separated like church and state. By all means, create stories, make films, and pursue non-client endeavors. The more the better. But be careful about keeping it all under the same business banner. Instead, use your commercial business to focus obsessively on your clients and then carve out space for you (or your team) to make projects separate from the business. Offer a leave of absence for team members to go make a movie and be able to come back to their job once it’s completed. If possible, even offer them a salary to some degree while they are away.
While both Nate and I agree that running a client/narrative film business is difficult, he does think there are paths to success. And with his 20+ years of experience doing it, he says that at the end of the day it has been a net gain for him and his clients. He says you just can’t expect most potential clients to care about your projects unless you’re explicit about how it benefits them.
For example, showing a potential client your film or music video could be used to demonstrate a particular film technique such as your strength in writing, shooting dialogue, set designing, or casting expertise. But whatever it is that you’re exhibiting, make sure you’re sending it to a potential client with the clear intent of expressing how it can help them, and not as self praise.
Nate implies you can have success with this approach because it shows you’re thinking about the client while highlighting your specialty, but when done wrong you are likely to receive this reaction:
“You would have had a better chance getting work not showing this to me.”
The insights and tips Nate generously shares are critical for any production company owner balancing the desire to make work for clients and for themselves. So, please give it a listen.
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