Film industry sucks: The Burnout.

You know the feeling when on set everything goes on time, two takes per scene, the storyboard is followed as intent, the room tone with the silent crew, no clouds getting in the middle of the sunlight… a delicious crafty, no last-minute changes. And then you come back home, get in the shower and start crying on the floor? I do, and most of my film-related friends know this feeling I’m talking about.

"I'm living ‘The Dream’”.

”At least I do what I love".

"I'm living from my art". .

Starting from the ambiguous quote "Living from what I love". What is it that you “love”? You don't dream about being burned out; you dream about loving the stories you make.

Think about the very first time in your life that you felt the spark for being creative with filming. As a child, when you watched that iconic movie; the first time that you took a camera and filmed your friend skating or just a travel journey. The first time filming your family, pets, or your day-by-day.

Documenting life, recording moving images of unknown people on the street.

"How can I improve the art of my videos?"

"What if I use this light instead of this one?"

"The sound at this hour in this part of the city is perfect for a romantic scene, tomorrow I'll come back to record this."

"This take... edited with this other take… looks better than what was written."

That is the moment when you start translating life into the screen.

It started with a spark that turned to be a hobby, evolved to be your lifestyle, and after many personal projects, people reach you out. You grow, make contacts networking, accept shitty jobs that you hate with shitty payments because you're just starting "at industry". You start making videos of everything, everywhere all at once. Name it, and of course, you do it. One-man band on corporate work, documentary ones, short films, weddings, ultra shitty long films, music videos with stupid artists, receiving crush due you need to deliver 30 videos in one day and everyone want you to make changes for free.

In the blink of an eye, being a tool for everyone has become your habit loop. It’s now your everyday routine.

Nowadays, the film industry is filled with lack of soul projects where the essence of the art is crushed, driven by people who don't even care about stories, much less about art. They just care about money. People blinded by their egos that don’t give a dmn about their crew, because "you are living the dream" and you accept these bad habits. We often confuse that essence from telling great stories with making whatever stories.

You hate working on weddings because you love horror movies, but you have been doing weddings for over 5 years "to pay the bills".

You hate doing corporate work and your mind is a gun of creative ideas, but you have been writing and filming corporate 4 years in a row.

The same speech about "being a family" in whatever business.

You hate working on TV shows because you love the documentary side of life, but you have been a TV Sound Mixer for over 10 years.

Remember those trips, friends skating, pets, and unknown people doing random things that you used to record on the street? With time, they have disappeared from that old film camera, and we have forgotten to listen and look at the emotions to be saved in our memory, and we ask ourselves "how do I put this on the screen?". What on a lovely set would be a well-planned scene, an on-point makeup, a calm room tone, a not-cloudy day, a perfect stage for you, or a day without clients notes now have been converted on "Whatever, let’s do the next take, I don't give a Fck about this".

In modern times everything is repetitive and tedious. People have a 'mono-formula' to create a 'perfect shitty post' to show on the feed of whatever social media channel. They kill what creates or keeps feelings happening in the audience by creating a continuous and boring industry just to catch your attention for half of a second, and sent it to the trash by another stupid trend at the next one.

You love your craft, but hate your job. That’s the paradox.

You're burned out to ashes doing what you love, and sitting on those ashes while you are alone in the shower you ask yourself "Is this what I've always wanted to do and how I've wanted to do it?" This is not even close to the feeling that you got when you started doing this as a hobby, as a lifestyle, and making it what you dream to do for a living.

Your own work is often what gives more meaning to your client’s work. Developing our own work as filmmakers takes time, which we have less of as our career grows. As our career grows, we work more to make money, and working more means there’s less time. A rabbit hole in the industry. A habit loop in our lives to be broken.

Remember the feeling when that spark inspired you for the very first time?

That was you trying to scream to the world with a fire burning in your heart that you could make art. Stop betraying that just to complete the fake dreams of those who don't respect you and your work, looking at you like a replaceable tool. Allow yourself to fall and taste the defeats in life, learn from all the ‘Shitty Work’ where you have been and done. Rest enough, and enjoy the journey of discovering your own path to make the kind of films you love and others will love to watch in the cinema. Enjoy the journey that started that first creative spark.