Down time equals prep time

This week I realized that for the majority of my working life the economy has been good.  Ever since I had my first jobs in high school I never had trouble finding employment.  I’m sure lots of factors played in to that, but I don’t think I ever felt the effects of a bad economy.

Now I have friends who have been laid off, relatives that have been forced to retire early and colleagues who are struggling to find enough freelance work to keep the bills paid.

I’ve had a few conversations recently with friends in various professions about the economy, and what I’ve learned is that what happens in a slow economy is that there are just no scraps to be had.  No scraps for the little guy, the new guy or the guy wanting to make a change.  There just is no extra.  Everyone clamps down on risk and the big boys  scoop up all the work.  No one wants to take a chance on someone or something new.  Everyone becomes conservative.

I have seen this in large tv companies battling for small budget shows they might  previously not have bothered with, commercial directors working with smaller crews and less fancy gear, openings for new young talent becoming even more rare, budgets continuing to shrink.

But with all things, there is an upside.

A teacher I had at NYU said something that really stuck with me.  He said “In our industry, you may have a lot of down time between opportunities, those are the times to work harder, improve your skills and be prepared to make the most of the opportunities when they do come along.”

Now is the time to learn a new skill, make a new contact, strengthen an old one.  It’s the time to absorb the world, write a spec script, learn how our industry is changing, apply to labs and workshops, make a crappy low budget film just for the heck of it.  Now is the time to do whatever you can to make yourself a better filmmaker.

The work will come back and if we’re all smart we’ll have used this slow time to get ready to accept the opportunities that will come with it.