Picking a Career

[LGM]

Okay... I'll try to make this short. I hate rambling.

Here's the deal: I thoroughly enjoy photgraphy. It's gotten to the point now where I'll randomly hold out my hands and form a frame with my finger, looking at potential shots around me. I'll also observe the lighting and say "Hot shit, in this light, that collection of sporks would make a great picture!" It's truly addicting.

On the other hand, I love films. I love watching them, I love writing them, I love making them. I love planning out entire scenes in my head or thinking up dialogue snippets while waiting at the doctor's office...

I also love telling people what to do.

So it seems natural to me to want to direct films. And I do want to direct films. Yet at the very same moment I want to be a photographer.

I'm starting to think that maybe cinematography might be a good field to go into. It's the best of both worlds: on one hand I'd be composing pictures, but instead of static they'd be moving. On the other, i'd be a part of the film world. Since there is no special degree needed to be a director, maybe someday, through experience and connections, I would be able to make films anyway. Eventually.

I'm finally coming to that road where I have to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life (or a really large portion of it.) I'm lost and confused, and would value any input from those who have made these types of choices before.

Thanks!

P.S. I found out yeterday that I've been accepted into the Cinema department at University of Iowa...

[Kinoko]

Yep, we've all been there. That panic that you can't say, `In the future...` anymore because it's there and you have to start doing something about it.

My best advice is to make the decision - either one, and live with it for a few days to a week. Really decide on it mentally and act as if that were your final decision. You'll soon get a much better idea of exactly how that feels. Then try the other one.

[LGM]

Thing is... I've been doing that with film for two years.. SO I guess I should try on photography for a bit. If you missed it, there's a link in my post to my first ever model-shoot.

See, I could enter the world of photography and become a photojournalist or a model-photographer... But then there's this world of film which I've dreamed about since I was a wee little kid.

But man, if I could get to the point where I can charge 10,000 bucks to shoot the cover of Vogue magazine... Holy crap that'd be the best job ever.

[Kinoko]

By the way, that advice comes from Dr Phil ^_-

I miss Dr Phil... no Dr Phil in Japan.

[shbaz]

I can't comment much on going into that field, I'm sure you already realize that it's a potentially dead-end career that not many people succeed in, so I'll just say:

It's gotten to the point now where I'll randomly hold out my hands and form a frame with my finger, looking at potential shots around me. I'll also observe the lighting and say "Hot shit, in this light, that collection of sporks would make a great picture!" It's truly addicting.

I'll bet this looks freaking hilarious.

I chose electrical engineering and it's turning out to be the most difficult task I've ever taken on in my life.

btw sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's pretty much the way it is. All kinds of people dream of being CEO's, musicians, artists, movie directors, actors.. and it's difficult to succeed amid the masses. If I would have realized how difficult it was to be a NASA engineer I might have went into economics or accounting - fields that are easy but so boring that hardly anyone goes into it so there's mucho easy money.

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

Photography would be a pretty good career-- Fun, artistic, etc...
My father tried to do photography, however all the major photographers from a magazine lost their jobs and took all potential low grade photography jobs, leaving my father with nothing to do with photography.  He went into jewelery instead afterwards, starting with airbrushed pebbles he found and made on Jones Beach, and eventually moving on to silversmithing. He makes enough money to live on.  But before I start rambling, my point is that photography is a risky trade to go into--as well as filming.  Make sure  that if something doesn't work out, you have a way of surviving without working full time as a shift manager in CVS, or as a bartender. 

[Las Naranjas]

[LGM]

As much as I enjoy the cynical outlook on life, telling me I can't do something is non-productive.

The reason many people don't succeed in their dreams is because it takes alot more effort than they think it does. I realize this effort. I realize what it takes to be a director. I think I have it. No, I know I have it.

Sure, cinema (or even video or TV production) isn't the best money maker unless you are A-list... But why should money be the reason for picking a career? I'd rather be doing something I love then making tons of money and being miserable.

[bspeers]

You're mistaking a necessary condition (of all jobs) for the requisite condition.  Yes, those fields take work, no, breaking in is not impossible, but a good measure of your success is having connections (or building them), being willing to utterly fail, having resources, and luck (or, if you, as I do, don't believe in luck, random unpredictable conditions).

Often (though not always), the people that break into such fields are hard workers (and even if they aren't they'll tell you they are), but that does not mean that many people who work as hard or harder don't succeed.

The key in my mind is to not set up a "pass or fail" life-plan, but rather plan to do many kinds of work and work on your projects and grander career goals with other smaller goals.  Many great artists did it this way, and until you get lucky AND respected AND skilled enough to get paid a consistant income, you will actually have food and not be depending on your family or gullable life-partner.

Also, from people I know, remember these three mantras:

Rarely is your hobby fun when you're doing it for money.
Rarely is the money good when you treat your job like a hobby.
Hobby work and show-biz are seasonal and/or occasional, even for all but the most famed people in the biz.  Plan on having other fallbacks even if your plan is to be the next Bradd Pitt or Steven Spielburg.

OR:

Join an autonomous collective.  No money worries, no compromising your art and the possibility of overthrowing the entire political system and getting a statue in your honour.

[LGM]

Don't get me wrong, I of course will have a fallback plan. But I understand completely what you are saying.

I know it may sound like I'm stuck in this fantasy, but I know there are lots of oppurtunities in both careers I have mentioned. Even if I'm an intern for some B-movie or Fox sitcom, I'm stlll in the industry and I would be meeting potential connections every day. I like to look at Evenwolf for example. Sure, he's not some huge director or something, but he still gets to work on movies and and do what he loves. If he can do it, why can't I?

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

I wasn't telling you that you can't do something, I'm telling you that photography and filmography are both very risky careers, so try to make sure you end up better than my father did.  No other point to my story there.

[Tuomas]

I'm struggling with the same problem between being an architect or a doctor. Well not nearly the same, but I in some odd way find them both interesting.

I figured that by the time you have to make choises you have been processing yourself to become ready to make those choises. Thus if you need to choose between one you like or the one your father and his father did before or the one you like, the answer is simply the one you like. I've been grown with the idea that one should make a lot money, and i find myself in the situation where none of those low paid jobs seem interesting or pleasant. That's just the way it is. And when I think of gaining more money, I don' feel like those jobs either.

Let me get this straight: You want to be a film director. Imagine yourself as a film director, are you the Lucas type wealthy guy who spends his leisure time at playboy parties, or do you see yourself as a passionate artist who does either mainstream movies trying to get to the top or the one that maes what he likes? (wow, what a horrible sentence )
Ã,  Ã,  There are but a few who are blessed with such popularity, but sure it is as realistic as me becoming an architect. (they take in 90 a year in the whole land). The odds are small, but they do exist, so I think you have to get deep into it, which you have already done I believe. But if you see yourself swimming in a moneypool, I bet your chances are more scarce.

And about photography... I think you really have potential! Anyhow, isn't the photographers professiondying a bit due to digi-cameras? Still if not in your own get-your-pics-here -shop, you could start a career in a magazine, or as a free-lance photoer. All this you knew of course, but there is no way that I could decide for you. I'd rather see you weighing the possibilties that both professions provide. Yet I don't see why you couldn't do both in a way, the one being a hobby for example...

I myself will have a serious problem if I get in the med-school and the tech. university. Wouldn't know which one to start... But IÃ,  think by the tie it will surely get clear.

[Andail]

I also have problems deciding which direction to go, since I'm interested in so many things. My temproray solution is to become a teacher, and try to pursue my artistic aspirations as time goes by. In the meantime, I just do it every day.

I'm an optimist in the sense that I believe I will be happy and have a stable income somehow, but I'm a realist in the sense that I know I might not become successful enough with my hobbies to make a living out of them. I know I will become better and better, and some day very good, but that's often far from enough.

Anyhow, you should be happy to have such an inspirational and creative passion, it's a real bliss.

PS: Just saw your new gallery, and I'm rather impressed. Feel free to pop by the critics to get some feedback some time

[Czar]

I don't think I can really tell you what to choose, but I can feel you cause i'm in a similar situation. I can only tell you that I can see your career starting in the cinematography field and as you said with time you would get your connections and slowly going on other fields and then after making some story boards or whatever, your friend famous director starts working on the fields of directing that you are weak in, and then maybe you two do a film together or something like that.
I mean, I know almost nothing about movie making, and I just visualized your words, and then I have put it in words again.
Because you would probably want to make a lot of money, this could be a good way. Starting   
in the more safer lane, and then with experience doing finally what you have always dreamed of with means to do it, unlike perhaps going from studio to studio trying to get that break.
Just my 2c.
What I want for you is to choose your way (yes, yes, very well thought out), and I'm really curious what you will choose.
Keep us informed!

Izar

[Chrille]

Bryan Ferry was a teacher before he formed Roxy Music, so that sounds like a plan ;)

[Kweepa]

Sting, Ian Dury and Gene Simmons too.

[passer-by]

You are lucky to have one hobby (if you combine photography and directing which can both be used in your chosen field)Ã,  not two thousand of them. The troubles start when you like many completely different things and you feel a stranger at any job you choose. I think you should proceed, but be ready to be beaten not by talent but networking. Hard work and talent are not the most important equipment you need in this job, in any job really. Just make sure you have back up plans and escape routes...
Making lots of money may not be important, but making enough of it to pay your rentÃ,  and meals(and your internet connection to keep us informed ) is paramount .

I'd say go on but plan carefully and keep all your other skills sharp.

[Chrille]

Andail now has four artists he can choose to follow (my bet's on Gene Simmons!)

[Andail]

Sting also got a part in Dune, so I think I'll go with him.
What's a great music career compared to playing a misinterpreted morbid character in an obscure, low-budget sci-fi reel from the early eighties?

[LGM]

King nipper - I wasn't necessarily talking to you...

Anywho, thanks for the enouragement everyone. Thanks Andail for you kind words. It means alot coming from a skillful artist such as yourself. I'll be sure to swing by the lounge... Because as I enter digital photography, there are some things that bug me (specifically the noise and actuance) that I'd like to learn how to minimize or overcome in photoshop (or at shoot time.)

And as for the comment about photography jobs diminishing... It shouldn't matter if digitial is becoming popular. Even though I know how to work and SLR and devleop and print, Digital is just much more practical nowadays, especially when you are on a budget.

If it wasn't obvious, the gallery I linked above was all shot on my 4 year-old Nikon Coolpix 995. 3.2 Megapixels of glory man. Just think what I could do with a Canon EOD Mark-II (the cameras they used to shoot "The Corpse Bride.")