When Things Get Quiet

Quiet Morning Spring Neighborhood Walk

Winter and spring is typically the quiet season for video work. This year has been even more slow than the “normal slow”. As summer approaches and I line up several nice sized projects the anxiety of a slow start is fading away. Soon enough I will be traveling and filming for a cherished client before the school year lets out.

Most winters I will get one decent sized job (many times with the perk of travel to warmer temps :-) to quell the anxiousness of the slow season. This year I didn't get that job. I’ve had micro shoots, I’ve had various maintenance edits, but overall I have had more downtime this winter and spring than I have had in a long time. Filling this time is not easy for me. I love being busy and productive like most people and a full schedule of shoots and edits is when I am at my peak. There is nothing like the adrenaline rush of a big travel shoot on a tight schedule while filming in a interesting environment. When these jobs aren’t coming I tend to get angsty and I have to do everything in my power to chill out until they do come. The cold temps, short days and gloom of a heavy winter surely doesn't help. To quell this I have been reading more books, watching more videos and films and spending more time thinking about different ways to approach video projects. I have been leaning into taking meandering photographs without any goal or purpose than to look at the world and situations in a different way.

meandering winter/spring

All of these habits have been great for my creative growth but not always easy to abide by. My default is to go back to the humdrum feeling like my biz is losing out. But with two steps forward and one back you do make slow progress. In forcing myself to slow it all down I start to notice little things in day to day life that I can apply to a shoot. Sitting in the doctors office waiting room I think about how I would light in this setting. Hanging out with my parents and wondering how I would approach a sit down interview with my dad. Taking a morning walk and noticing the light and the shadows at the intersection of Park and Oak that would look amazing with a low flying drone shot between the two Oak trees.

This is the type of growth that I think often gets overlooked. It doesn't show up like a new hire update on linkedin, a brick and mortar expansion or a logo and website overhaul. Although subtle, you will see it and feel it in the frame to frame of the final cut. In every shot, angle, camera move and cut. Every time I go into a video shoot I want to be thinking in this way. Focusing all my energy into turning every moment into its best creative state. Look closely and you will see it too.