The Client and Artist Relationship

People say that when you're a freelancer, all that matters is keeping your client happy. And while I make every effort to establish and maintain a healthy and productive working relationship with my clients, ultimately the product is what's important. The effectiveness and quality of the art is more important than simply doing what my client wants me to do.

“The effectiveness and quality of the art is more important than simply doing what my client wants me to do.”

First and foremost, my job is to make a good product. Those sixty to ninety seconds of story, art and music are all that matter. But the journey to that moment is a long and arduous process of toil, joy, frustration, anxiety, learning, epiphanies, excitement, fear, and exhaustion.

Understanding that the art is what matters gives me the confidence to perform to the best of my ability. Sometimes it's tempting to agree with a client and give them exactly what they ask for. After all, we want to please. But it takes guts to push back when it's called for, and to educate when needed. On the surface it may seem right to immediately give them what they want, but often times it's a disservice to them. Why? Because artists can deliver so much more.

Ultimately what a client really wants is for the artist to tell them what they want. As artists, it's our job to interpret what they tell us into actionable endeavors and then to expand on that. And when a client takes issue with something, they're usually not sure how to fix it. Often times they don't know how to describe the thing that's rubbing them the wrong way. It's not their fault, but they will use language and terminology that doesn't translate well to the art tasks. Or it may be misinterpreted. It's a language barrier of the professional variety. They speak the language of their profession, and we speak ours. An experienced artist knows how to bridge the gap, and determine what they actually want to convey.

“They learn to trust how I work, and I learn how to interpret their desires. ”

I work to develop strong communication channels with my clients. The more I work with specific people, the better we're able to work together. They learn to trust how I work, and I learn how to interpret their desires. This requires that I occasionally educate them on how things work. It can be tricky, but I strive to gently show them how the artistic process works to build trust and ease their fears.

On the whole, this profession of mine has caused me more than a few heartaches. Art is an emotional, vulnerable and risky endeavor. It's one hell of a journey, I'll tell ya.

Bailey

Artists Have Value

It should come as no surprise that I care about the treatment and well-being of artists. Today I want to address a pervasive issue. Based on behavior alone, it would seem that there are a number non-artists (for lack of a better word) that devalue the artistic professions. These include any kind of creative professional, like a musician, filmmaker, designer, performer, and more. And this negative behavior leads to poor treatment, unreasonable expectations, and underpaying.

Artists working at companies might not feel the effects of this devaluing or are at least shielded from it a little bit. However, I would guess that most of my peers are extremely aware of this bizarre stigma that has adhered itself to artists everywhere.

The art profession is a lifelong pursuit that takes decades to get good at. It requires significant study, practice and time just like anything worth paying good money for. The best artists dedicate their lives to the craft, working in excess of 80 hour weeks, researching and relentlessly practicing in their downtime. Good art is very difficult to create. It's painstaking and demands patience. It’s a profession in every sense.

So, why are artists devalued? My best guess is that people are simply uneducated about how it works. Creative endeavors appear easier, and it doesn't help when some unmotivated, so-called artists perpetuate the stereotypes. But the truth is that is that there is a large group of top-notch, hard working artists out there who don't get the pay and proper treatment that they deserve. These words are coming from me, and I am an artist, so I understand if you feel I am biased. However, I can only speak from my experience, and I am eminently familiar with the art industry that I am part of.

This issue will take time to correct. I believe it starts with artists standing by their own self-worth as artists, and not caving to poor working conditions (if they can help it). If a client is asking an artist to do three days of work in one day, they need to say no. It will require artists to gently and kindly educate those around them about why art demands good pay, proper treatment and reasonable expectations.

I recently came across a humorous essay that pokes fun at the idea of doing speculative work. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's basically doing some work for free for a client before they decide whether to hire and pay you. The point is that it's ridiculous that some people feel this is an okay thing to do.

Bailey

Invictus

Before I started working for myself, I was trapped in a world where I had almost no control over what I got to work on. The projects were decided two or three levels above me. And while I had some creative freedom in the actual work, I hated how little influence I had on the bigger picture. Not to mention the fact that the high-level decisions were made by the arrogant, but I won't get into that.

People on the outside of freelance almost always say this exact sentence to me "You have freedom now, right?" This idea is flawed. The truth is that I'm still beholden to my bank account. Money has to go in it. So, that means I have to take jobs on a regular basis. However, I do have a lot more freedom. I get to define the rules of my engagement with clients, in the form of legally binding contracts...that I write.

After the basics of pay and project scope, there are a couple rules that I don't budge on:

1. Anything I create can be used for self-promotion in my portfolio.  I'm firm on this one. If they can't agree to this, we don't work together.
2. Payment doesn't go below a certain amount (based on what I need to pay all of my monthly and yearly bills). I also demand a decent pay in general, so as to educate clients that artists require good pay. The work is hard after all.
3. Additional requests for additional work beyond the project scope will require compensation at the normal pay rate. This ensures I don't get caught doing oodles more work for no extra pay.

Still, I've been lucky. Most of the gigs I've had so far have been with pretty great people. I'm fortunate in the quality of my friends and clients. And I have no regrets. Quitting my well-paying job over a year ago was the best decision I ever made. In my whole life. Period.

Some recent layout work for some style frames!

Bailey

Goals

Over the course of my career, and in my personal life, I've discovered that I'm useless without a plan. My will power is decent, but it doesn't solve everything. I need goals or else I don't achieve well.

Trouble arises whenever I complete something. Last week, for instance, I completed a 3-month, long-distance running goal. Over the 12 weeks, I knew exactly what to do each day. The decisions were made for me ahead of time and were in service of a larger plan. But as soon as it was finished, I began to flounder again. I had no fitness purpose.

My career has endured many ups and downs like this. I know what I'm working towards, and then I feel a bit lost, and then it repeats. Luckily this time I had a plan figured out, but I still felt a little down after my last project. Project ends are always high energy for me, so I guess it's natural to have a decompression afterwards? I honestly don't know.

So, I'm thinking that I may need concrete goals ad infinitum. This means I need to figure out exactly what needs to happen every day, forever. I suppose my walls are doomed to be covered in an unending stream of calendars. I wonder how ambitious people manage to achieve consistently. It's a tough business, I'll tell ya.

Bailey

Creating MatterControl

My most recent commercial endeavor now has a home in the behind the scenes section here at Forma Pictures:

This was a really fun project to work on. As I've said again and again on this website, be sure to check out MatterHackers. Such excellent people. Alright, that's enough talk about MatterControl. Next week I promise to talk about the other projects. ;)

Hmm, well, I think I teased this before, but I've started work on an exciting new project. I'm currently in the middle of the arduous (and fun) task of fleshing out the story. It's due to launch early next year, and it really has the potential to be something unique. Now all I have to do is work until I can't work anymore, because it's shaping up to be one of the most ambitious projects I've worked on to date.

Exciting stuff! :)

Bailey

MatterControl

Good news! New video to show:

This is the second video I've had the pleasure of making for MatterHackers. The first video was all about the vision of 3D printing and this video is about their product MatterControl, which is the open source platform for 3D printing.

On the whole, I love working with these guys. They're smart, dedicated, and a total joy to work with. I said this after the last video, and I'll say it again: I hope I get to work with them again! Check them out!

In the meantime, Forma Pictures has got a number of projects in the cooker. Hunted will continue its slow development, as will a couple other small things which are yet to be revealed. And, of course, client work continues too. The next for-client video is scheduled to release in January.

Bailey

What do YOU want?

So, I've been writing this weekly blog for 10 straight months now (haven't missed a Friday!). Sometimes I write about changes to the business, sometimes I show what I've been making. Other times I ramble about art philosophies of mine. But what do YOU want to know about?

I heard in a podcast that a well known business used their blog to post interesting analytics about their product to drive traffic to their site. The posts (and I've read them) are genuinely interesting and insightful. They contain lots of data too, so that's fun.

As an artist, I feel like showing art should be the primary focus of this, but I don't always have stuff to show. And sometimes I can't, because it's not mine to show (contracts...etc.).

Anything you'd like to see or know more about? Comment below!

As for an update, I'm knee deep in an ambitious client project. Super excited about it. It has the potential to be very good. Just gotta work my arse off to get it there! :)

Bailey

Forma Turns 1

Wow.

I can't believe it. Forma Pictures is officially 1 year old.  What was once a crazy dream is now entering a new year of existence.

When I started this thing last summer, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. All I knew was that I had to do it. It's hard to explain unless you've felt what I'm talking about. I just had to go for it.

One thing I can attest to is that I have no regrets. This past year was the happiest year of my life. I'm pretty darn grateful that I got the opportunity to live it. If I can manage to keep this crazy train going another year, I will almost feel greedy.

I've learned a lot this year too. Like, I'm surprised by how much I didn't know about running a business last year. Still, the greatest takeaway I've garnered is this: go for your dreams. I was terrified when I decided to do this, but it was worth enduring that fear. The joy outweighs whatever cons crop up from time to time.

And so I march on. :)

Bailey

A Whole New Project

I've got some cool news. This week I began working on a new animated video project with the good people at MatterHackers. The last video I made with them was so fun to make. And it came out a year ago...

Well, we're excited to be working together again. It's going to be a difficult one, but it has the potential to be good. The mission that they have is special and inspiring. It gives these video projects real meaning. They also have a mature understanding of the artistic process and we trust each other to do our jobs well. I couldn't ask for a better situation.

So far I've been looking for the music and writing the story. As of now, I've listened to over 1,200 potential (and relevant) songs. It's really tough when I find a song that's almost right, but not quite. The story is coming together too, but it still lacks a certain feeling. Writing is hard!

Lastly, I'm going to do my best not to kill myself working on this project. I have a 20-mile marching schedule in place. Slow and steady, baby.

Bailey

The Crucible

I'm in still in a metaphorical crucible right now. I was having lunch with a friend and former colleague of mine and it dawned on me this stage in my career is what I'll later consider to be the dark times. But there's no way around it. I have to go through this to get where I wanna be.

This isn't complaining, it's just an acknowledgement of how much more I have to experience and learn. It's not like I'm a baby to this industry either. I've been working for years and years. But it really just takes that long, or it can, depending on luck.

The thing that I'm "waiting" for is when I'm at a level in both skill and presence where I don't have to struggle so hard each day to work on the kind of projects that satisfy my heart. More than anything, I just want to work on meaningful projects. And high quality ones too.

The following may sound braggadocious, but believe me, it's not. I sometimes wonder what it would be like not to care so much about the stuff I work on. Maybe I would be happier overall? While passion has its benefits, I think that the negatives should be discussed too. Here's how I break it down: Passion means that you want things to be a certain way, you want them to be what you envision. This means that you have expectations about how things should unfold, and therefore happiness is conditional. And when situations don't fit this, frustration naturally arises. In my experience so far, it has been very difficult for me not to be affected by this sequence. Passion is a double edged sword. That said, I'm grateful for it.

My new thought this week is that each hardship I endure (of varying degrees of pain) is toughening me up. I've noticed that I can better handle things that used to cause me a lot of stress years ago. Every embarrassment, failure and mistake I make create opportunities to learn. So as long as I keep at it and continue to work hard, things should get easier.

Or so I hope.

Bailey

Quality Crusades

Before I begin this post, let me make it clear that I am still not at the artistic level that I want to be one day. When I talk about quality, I talk about how badly I strive for it. I would never assume to say that I've creating anything truly great. This is just about the intense struggle for quality.

I often feel like a lone crusader in the fight against mediocrity. I've worked with a number of great people who are passionate about quality above all else, but most of my days are still spent alone in this seemingly unending struggle.

Everyone says they want high quality work, but when it comes time to spend the required time and monetary resources on it, you'll find a select few are able or willing to do it. Some businesses and people simply aren't in a financial position to commit to extremely high quality projects. That doesn't bother me, and I completely understand that. What bothers me is when people have unreasonable expectations about how much quality costs.

When I became a freelancer, I started frequenting job posting sites. What I found unsettling was how little the clients were offering to pay. I saw dozens of people asking for weeks of work for absurdly low dollar amounts like $400. If you do the math, that’s not even minimum wage. And quite frankly, artists should be insulted that their craft is so undervalued.

These days some (but not all) of the people I attempt to work with still have incorrect expectations. To be fair, most of them aren't looking for something great, they just want something. But why? I guess that regardless of how primitive the art is, it's still valuable for their company.

All I can say is that I will live and die by Quality. My company will either fail or succeed based on how good my art is. If I can only book projects that don't give me enough time or resources to make something worthwhile, my company will suffer. I need quality stuff for the portfolio. More often than not I use my personal works to fill this void, but I'd love to make a living making work that will promote me. So, you see, quality may not be necessary for every video project out there. But polished works are critical to Forma Pictures. Quality is the best business plan, after all.

This is why I will fight for quality. Everyday. Ad infinitum.

Bailey

P.S. If you are a client, I implore you to really consider going for quality not just for my sake, but for yours.  Just ask yourself if your customers and potential business partners will be delighted, motivated, inspired, or intrigued by average art.

Movin' Right Along

It's been business as usual this past week. Every day there's been development going on for the 3 aspects of the business strategy. I think I've talked about it before...original works (the flywheel), collaboration, and client work (for now). It was a good week for all of them.

Hunted reached a milestone, which I talked about in the Hunted Blog, but it's worth mentioning here too (for those of you who don't read it). So, yes, Hunted is coming along. A new and improved version of the layout has been completed. 

Some screen captures of the layout scenes. I'm using 3Ds Max.

Bailey

Gaining an Audience

This week I have some observations on gaining an audience as an artist. These days social websites play a role in this process. However they have a way of confusing and tangling us up over what's actually important, and what we really want as artists.

Around the time I started Forma Pictures, I decided to use Twitter more. Because in addition to it being a great resource to me over the years for learning (I follow great people), I thought it would be good to share and reach out to the community at large. To be clear, all of my tweets are in some way related to art and the profession (since 2009). I reserve personal stuff for direct texts with my friends and family. But check out the last 3 years, you can see the shift in my tweet strategy:

Bailey's Lifetime Tweets

Bailey's Lifetime Followers

You can see when I made the decision. Sometime in August of last year I decided to tweet everyday. I did my best to post and talk about great content. I aggregated pretty videos and learning resources that inspired or interested me. I also posted more of my work and engaged with people. However I recently decided it wasn't worth the time investment (1-2 hours) each week to do that. So, now I'm less regimented. But the negative effects of that have been non-existent. Case in point: in the last month I've had a 32% decrease in tweets and 10% fewer profile visits. However, in that time I've still managed to have a 20% increase in mentions and an 7% increase in followers.

Conclusion: Consistent activity does not necessarily result in more viewer engagement. More activity will naturally result in an engagement increase (nothing happens if there's nothing to engage with). But the biggest determiner in gaining a following, in my experience, has been to get retweeted by established personalities. That's basically Twitter's version of the trusted referral concept that we already know in business, which makes sense. Whenever I've been retweeted or favorited by known comedians or artists, I get an immediate bump in interest.

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That's all well and good, but the real lesson I've learned this year is that gaining an audience of like-minded people takes a long time. Years even. And the best people I have in my circles are due to direct contact methods. And while I've never been one to obsess over it, I have found myself yearning for a larger audience. It's only natural for artists to want to share with people. For me, that's what art is all about.

The obvious behavior is just to concentrate on the work. Thinking about a social presence is fine, but I think one can spend too much time on it until it turns into a distraction. Still, I understand the frustration of a lackluster viewer base. Hopefully my strange art sensibilities will begin to strike a chord with more and more men and women. Because what I really want is to continue to expand my close-knit community of lovely people to share and collaborate with. And as I release more and more content, I expect things to come together.

It just takes time. And referrals. Call to action for the day: if you like me or my work, talk about me to others. It helps me more than you think. Those who have been lovely enough to refer me have helped me pay real bills. I love those people (you know who you are)!

Bailey

Follow @bkalesti

P.S. The blog that you are reading was also part of my strategy. It was a way for me to post more content between my films. However, the metrics on this blog are extremely weak, that is, very few people read it and even fewer people engage with my site past the blog (one of the goals). Nevertheless, I'm keeping the weekly blog because it turned out that it had a very positive impact on me. So, even if 0 people read this, it's still highly beneficial to me and my career.