It's About Time I Start Using This Whole Internet Thing
Matt Fisher
I recently read Austin Kleon's book "Show Your Work" on my daily subway ride into work. I was inspired on many levels. His advice has come to me at the perfect time in my career.
MUST READ
A little back story
I moved to New York City about a year and a half ago to focus on directing - particularly in advertising. For a year and a half I have taken dozen's of gigs to pay the bills, but not once in that time have I actually directed my own project.
Before moving to NYC I owned a small video production company (Emblem Film Co.) and in three years I directed dozens and dozens of commercials, web videos, animations, and other video content. I feel now like there is a creative gap that directing once filled.
My whole adult life I have worked freelance. I would live gig to gig. Which has big paydays, but cash-flow is very irregular. I recently landed a "permalance" gig with a pre-visualization company that focuses' on nationally broadcast commercials. I am turning 30 in a month and this the first time in my 20s that I have earned a regular paycheck.
This is the first time where I have had a stable job that can underwrite my personal projects. I finally have the means to pursue directing my own projects again since moving to New York.
I have three personal projects in the works for this year: a faux movie trailer for a fantasy dragon movie, a spec commercial, and a short film.
So, what does this all have to do with the book "Show Your Work"?
I have spent years making projects that almost nobody has seen. This book has given me the kick in the pants I need to start a new project. A project that hopefully you and anyone else who lands on this blog will benefit from.
Biweekly, I plan to post case studies of the many varied projects I have taken part of in my career thus far. Additionally, I will share my works in progress with some of my process and inspirations. I have a growing inventory projects I have done or am working on:
- commercials
- short films
- documentaries
- game shows
- apps
- logos & branding
- city-wide scavenger hunts
- interactive entertainment
- umbrella designs
- startup companies (and at least three different business cards for each)
- a ton of random personal projects
I want to share it all with you.
Along the way I've shown up in a award-winning Star Wars fan film, I've been mentored by M.C. Hammer, and traveled the across the country associate producing a game show with Bruce Campbell. Some projects were big hits, some flops, others have never seen the light of day. I want to share what I've learned in making each of these.
I also look at this as a personal archive of sorts. I have several hard drives packed away in closets and drawers that represent whole years of my work that I have not archived in any useful way. I figure that this blog will be incredibly helpful even just for my own benefit to act as a living portfolio of my past projects even if no one else sees it.
Filming "Field of Honor" on the sound stages at Full Sail University, 2010.
So to start things off here is an updated feature page of my student film "Field of Honor." I plan to go into a lot of detail breaking this one down in the future, but this has a lot of great behind the scenes looks through photos and Director's Journals that we shot on the set. http://www.mattyfish.com/films/ I'd love to hear what you think of the film in the comments or what kinds of projects you might want to see in the future.