"Saving $30K is hard, but does it need $30K upfront?"

This is from a reply to our email last week about the common challenge of needing money to make a film. We loved this question!

Our answer? Definitely not. Here's why...

Making a film can be a long and complex process. It's very similar to running a business. Yes, it's hard. 😮‍💨

Fortunately, you don't have to do everything at the same time. The filmmaking process, like building a business, can be split into stages, each with their own sequence of steps that are completed one at a time. Because you wouldn't work on everything at once, you wouldn't need to pay for everything at once, either.

Instead, you can make steady progress, one step at a time. An example of steady progress might look something like this:

1. Start with step one.
2. Identify challenges.
3. Problem solve.
4. Take action.
5. Evaluate results.
6. Make changes as needed.
7. Repeat with step two and so on.

When you divide the process into digestible pieces, it helps filmmaking fit into your life, leading to a holistic balance rather than burnout.

You can work on your movie without sacrificing sleep.

You can pay yourself and others a living wage without going into debt.

You can make your next film without having to start over from scratch.

Step by step.

We are currently in our "step one" of making our feature film about sleep. So far, we've started this newsletter as a way to communicate with you.

In order to gain awareness for our movie and achieve our goal of changing the culture of independent filmmaking, we need to expand our audience.

How do we do that?

Let's explore our situation as an example of how to start the filmmaking process by dividing it into manageable, intentional steps.

1. Start with step one.

Grow an audience (for our newsletter) that cares about making meaningful films in a healthy and sustainable way.

2. Identify challenges.

Growing an audience takes time. Sharing our ideas in a YouTube channel, podcast, or other communities can bring more people to our newsletter and get us closer to our film goals, but it doesn't make money—at least not quickly.

We need money to pay for our time, and we don't want to delay the start of our film journey any longer. Our website business can make enough money, but takes a lot of our work time and is mentally exhausting, leaving us with little time and energy for our film goals.

3. Problem solve.

If we make our website business more efficient, we could take less time and energy to find more clients and complete projects.

On the other hand, organizing an online film summit is a way to build our audience, make income up front from event sponsors, and start sharing ideas about how filmmaking can be different than the status quo.

The catch? In order to meet our monthly budget and start our creative passion in film, we have to do both.

4. Take action.

We divided our next work cycle—approximately the last six weeks of the year—into two smaller cycles. One for website work. One for the film summit.

Doing both doesn't mean we do twice as much in the same amount of time. We're not pro-hustle-culture. 💪🏽 Instead, we'll do both at a smaller scale. We like the phrase, "half, not half-assed," as a way to narrow our focus on the most essential parts.

For the website work, Matt redesigned the website landing page for his main website design service, called Joy and Joy Training. He focused on making the messaging more clear and the design more representative of the work he can do. This will ideally help potential clients understand the value without needing as many calls or emails back and forth before they purchase. Then, he sent personalized videos to around 30 potential clients. We're hoping this strategy will require less dependence on Matt's time and energy to find new clients.

For the film summit, we are writing a short summary of the summit that we can share with nonprofit sponsors, paid sponsors, and event presenters. This way, we can keep our commitment to making the summit free to attend. We also made sure to design it in a way that felt manageable to us. Instead of a four- or five-day event, we narrowed it down to two days, about five hours each. Large enough that sponsors will have reason to financially support the event, and still small enough that we can coordinate the event without excessive stress.

5. Evaluate results.

Since the website changes Matt made and the outreach he did, we haven't received a new client. This feels a bit disappointing, but we also know this is common, especially during the holiday season.

Our film summit outreach to sponsors is still in progress. It feels like it's going well. We have more clarity around what we want to create. One concern we have is that responses may also be less likely around the holidays.

6. Make changes as needed.

On the client side, we will be patient. We'll continue to reach out to potential clients because, our hope is, the website can do more of the "selling" for us. We just need to get people to the website.

Depending how potential sponsors respond, we may need to change our strategy for the film summit. For now, we just try it!

7. Repeat with step two and so on.

We're not here yet. One step at a time. 🧘🏽

Making progress on step one.

We hope that by sharing our example, it can inspire you to think creatively about how you could divide your next or current project into manageable steps. You only need step one to get started.

If you feel overwhelmed, try thinking about how you can apply the "half, not half-assed" concept to your first step. Perhaps step one is too big. What truly needs to be done to accomplish the goal of step one? What doesn't need to be done at all?

Take care,
A Creative Duo