Creative Entrepreneurship in Film and Video

It never occurred to me while I was at university that I could set up my own business. Work related topics and life after education were never really discussed. I didn’t now how to network, or even what networking was.  The course was mainly theory based. I soon realised that I needed to find out more about the film industry than what I was being taught at university in terms of hands on production so I ventured out to find work experience and see what it was like for myself.  The experience gained working at different companies and film organisations in Liverpool gave me a taster of what it was like but I wanted to learn more…

After my second year at uni I decided to take an internship at a production company in New York called Giraldi Productions. I helped out in the office, logged footage and did a bit of research for commercial pitches. It was here that I was given my first chance to produce an independent short film.

I was given the task of finding a location in Chinatown, getting together the crew and auditioning the cast – all on a very low budget. It all came together for the day of filming and I produced a quirky surreal film with the help of a great team. This was the start of my film making adventures. In America, they have a thriving film industry and work is available if you work hard and show willing. I wanted to make the most of my time there and learn as much as I could.

After I graduated I went back to NYC to work in film and television. It seemed like the best place to gain a lot of valuable experience in the space of 6 months while I could get a visa.  This involved working in the costume and production departments and learning a lot about how projects operated.

I returned to the UK to work freelance in film, television and corporate production. I wanted to be working on more varied and challenging projects so decided to set up GOSH! Productions Ltd  (www.goshproductions.com) in 2008 to make films and videos. The challenge was finding a market for my video services for businesses & balancing the creative projects with the corporate.

Combining creativity with entrepreneurial activity is essential if you’re going to make a living out of your creative pursuits.  The hard part can be convincing yourself that you must charge for your services, even if you do love what you do, you need to pay the bills. People will value what you do and will be willing to pay for it.

Being a creative entrepreneur is about constantly thinking of new ideas and putting them into practice. It’s about seeing an opportunity and going for it. You can utilise all of the options available to you and make the most of them. You combine talents and projects and go as far as you can with it. It can be exciting and risky at times but much better than your average job in my opinion.

by Hannah Quinn of GOSH! Productions

http://www.goshproductions.com