No Excuses by Shaun Bond

As the year of 2011 comes to an end and promises are made, resolutions created, I look back on the last twelve months and say quite honestly- ‘I’ve had a comfortable year’. That may sound pleasant, and it was in some ways, but with no more pages to flip on my calendar it has dawned on me that for a wannabe filmmaker/creative, or anyone with ambition, being comfortable is a bad place to be.

In all honesty this is a lesson that I should have learned two years previously during my time at university. Joining together with new friends in a five-man production group, for the practical part of our John Moore’s Screen Studies course, meant that we worked together quite well- I suppose you could say ‘comfortably’. We each had a role, we each knew what we needed to do and we created fairly good work together. But as my three years of tuition was coming to a swift end I realised that I knew my role to the detriment of all others. For the last project I needed to punch through the comfort bubble- I needed to take a chance.

I joined together with three others and formed a group relationship which was like a breath of fresh air. Roles were shared and skills were borrowed, rather than assigned, making the whole process feel natural and above all- fun. Together we created a ten minute documentary about busking, which not only acquired us a good end-of-year mark but inspired our lecturer to enter it into a BBC Production Competition; where it became a runner up in its category.

Coming out of my comfort zone, on this occasion, paid off. To this day I am immensely proud of that achievement, mostly because it is very unlike me to do something which, at the time, appeared to be a reckless move. The fear of taking chances is born from the fear of failure. For someone who is still tentatively taking their first few steps up the almighty media career ladder I do not believe that there is any way a young creative can truly fail. There are always lessons to be learnt and not succeeding is one way of discovering how not to do something next time.

I recently created two shorts for a video competition and put a lot of effort and time into their creation and promotion, but unfortunately did not win. Whilst, initially, I felt that it was all for nothing, I learnt many things whilst filming them and even more when editing and promoting them. It was, in effect, a win-win situation when it came to getting something out of it. But somewhere along the way this year, the doors of the comfort zone slammed shut and I began to make excuses as to why I couldn’t do more in the here and now; whether it was lack of equipment, lack of money or a lack of crew- but they were all rubbish. In the right frame of mind you need none of these things, a mobile phone with video recording capabilities is enough because it’s all about the ideas, about learning and about the fun you have on the way.

I suppose what I am saying, in a very long winded way, is that for anyone in a position similar to mine and who believes that complacency is the Devil, allow the New Year to usher in a new sense of urgency. Let nothing get in the way of you taking chances – you can have them if you are lucky, you can be given them if you are luckier, but it’s always much better to just take them.