The Question

On a recent StartUp episode, the team at Gimlet were telling the story of a particular startup in the Bay area that almost failed over and over again. Before eventually selling their company at a ridiculous price, there were many times when they had no idea if the damn thing was even worth all the trouble. There was a lot of stalling and failures before success. Have a listen:

Everyone that goes off on their own will inevitably face the question of "do I push ahead, or do I hang it up?" And rightly so. Even though my small freelancing business is small, I've asked this question over and over again. It's so hard to know when to change direction and when to push on. Because in the moment, both paths feel exactly the same. Those who have been far more successful than I say that the success they did eventually acquire was usually a surprise to them. That is, things were bad for a long time before they were good.

So, is this an immovable wall, or is it just the way of it? I don't know. But I'm going to push on.

Bailey

Video Essays

Back in January I decided to start creating weekly tutorials. Mostly this meant walking through a process inside a program. However, I quickly realized that I greatly prefer to talk about art and business philosophies. I've spent countless hours thinking about that kind of stuff, and I wanted to share my thoughts in video form. So, I started creating video essays in addition to the standard tutorials.

While they've been more engaging for me to produce, the essays require a larger time investment. Specifically, I have to write them and tell a story of sorts. It's been fun, and difficult...still not very good at it yet. But practice, baby!

Your bud,

Bailey

The 20-Mile March

I've talked a lot of talk about 20-Mile Marching over the years, but I finally created an actual video about it. Check it out!

About a year ago I wrote an article about 20-Mile Marching. It's got the elements that are in the video, with some more details on the matter:

Lastly, if ya like posters, there's a poster that you can buy and hang on your wall:

Work smart and rest well!

Bailey

Audio Amateur

I spent some time this week editing video and dialog tracks. I love me some video editing, but the voice work continues to be a tough learning experience. Besides practicing my ability to speak well, a sleuth of practical issues are always cropping up.

Weird buzzing noises caused by an interference of some kind, coupled with a less than adequate recording environment have been the latest culprits. I think I may need a better mic, but surely there's a work around? Regardless, the point is that every new endeavor is bumpy ride, but of course totally worth it.

Next week I'll be releasing the most ambitious video essay I've yet created. I'm practicing up for a video I conceived last summer, but didn't feel my skills were good enough to tackle. Hopefully I'll learn enough from these video essays to make the game analysis that I've been cooking up in the back of my mind.

Until then!

Bailey

Numbers

Achievement is the direct result of diligence. And diligence is a matter of consistent effort over a period of time. I've found that sustained effort is often made more difficult because it can be hard to see the big picture when I'm down in the details.

For instance, last summer during one of my periods of drumming up business, I had to contact a lot of people. A lot. Now, I could have just contacted a whole bunch of people and hoped that it would work out before I got too tired of reaching out. But that can be dangerous, at least for me, because I can over estimate how much work I've put in at any given moment.

Instead I kept careful track of the number of people I contacted. And at the beginning I reminded myself that only about 1 percent of contacts will result in a working gig. What this did was it set up the right expectations. So, when I got to day 30, and there still wasn't any bites, I could rest easy knowing that I still hadn't played the odds sufficiently.

All this is a long way to say that setting proper expectations, followed by disciplined action, results in better returns (I eventually got a client, but it took many weeks).

So, these days I track almost everything I do with a list of numbers. It's reassuring and helps me to see the incremental progress toward my goals. I have a number for how many tutorials I've made, how many cinematic articles I've written, and of course how many potential clients I've reached out to. I even have one for the number of blog entries I've written for this blog.

This was blog entry #79.

Bailey

Always Another Project

Now that Behind the Cinematic has launched, I've been thinking about how I'm going to expand on it and how much to use it as a vehicle for another project I have in mind. But what I'm slowly realizing is that not every project needs to make perfect sense. That is, I don't need to know exactly how it's going to evolve over time.

So, my mind continues to race. Always calculating how best to invest my time and energy. And I think I've finally got a good idea for what to do next.

I'll talk more about it later. For now, check out this recent entry into the Behind the Cinematic database:

Bailey

Working Towards an Avalanche

Despite having recently created a video essay about time and how it helps us, I couldn't help but feel a little helpless this past week. Why does everything have to take so much damn time?

I feel lucky to be working on a couple pretty sweet projects, but it's no surprise that they're all huge time investments. Anything worth doing is hard, right? Still, it's aggravating at times.

The principle point of tension is just how damn difficult it is to get the snowball moving. All four of my projects are piddly little snowballs that haven't picked up much steam. I just hope that they can start to speed down the mountain before it's too late.

With all of that said, my love for art can never be squelched. No matter how much shit I've been through, my passion has never died down. In fact, it burns stronger and more fiercely than ever. Art truly is the single greatest source of joy in my life, second only to the happiness I get from being with my family. I feel lucky to have that energy behind me. It's a weird thing, if you think about it. Or maybe it's not. I don't know.

Bailey

Behind the Cinematic

I am very pleased to announce the initial launch of a brand new website:

What is it? Well, it's an online publication dedicated to cataloging and providing behind the scenes content for game cinematics. The primary goals are to centralize learning resources on cinematics, provide insight into their development, give credit to the wonderful artists who work so hard on them, and ultimately to celebrate this unique artform.

I've been working on this concept for about three months now, and it's finally ready for people to start reading it. It is going to expand A LOT, and the site design will improve considerably too. But I felt that I should release SOMETHING before I spend countless hours polishing it to absolute perfection.

AND more features are coming too. Like interviews, and in-depth discussions with industry professionals. I can't wait! Bookmark this bad boy because it's only gonna get better.

Anyhoo, that's all for now. Please tell people about it! Get the word out! The world can always use a few more cinematic enthusiasts. :D

Your bud,

Bailey

Time Is Our Ally

Time is a resource that is the same for all of us. We all experience the same number of hours in a day. And as such, the least productive and the most productive people have the same amount of time to get things done. So why is there so much disparity in how efficient people are?

I've often felt constrained by time. And over the years I have learned to work with it to be a more efficient person.  But I recently had an epiphany that has helped me to see time in a different light. Have a listen to what I think here:

Bailey

Reel

Today I'm pleased to release the first Forma Pictures showreel. Check it out:

It's been a long time coming, but I finally got everything put together. Hope ya like it. Now, what else has been happening, well...

• Recently wrapped the first phase of work on a new video game. I've been having a blast getting that put together. Can't wait for it to release!
• Continuing to get the new journalistic website together, which I'll talk about a lot more this month. It's set to release on March 18th.
• Tutorials are still coming out each week. I could talk a lot about how difficult they've been, but they've also been good for me. Here's the latest one:

Bailey

Facing the Truth

I wanna talk about the concept "do what you love." At this point in time, everyone has heard this phrase. But relatively few people actually understand why it's so powerful. It has less to do with doing things that are enjoyable, and more to do with facing the truth of who you are.

Being honest, brutally honest about who you are is no easy task. It takes years. And it takes even longer for some. Doing what you love is not about doing something that you like doing, like eating or sleeping (although it could be related to them), it's about being true to who you are. What do I mean by this? Well, for me it was about recognizing what I was predisposed to being good at and also what I'm obsessed with.

For instance, I have a great love for the sciences. I think that molecular chemistry, astronomy, and the laws of thermodynamics are fucking awesome. When I was in college, I almost exclusively took classes in the hard sciences. I took a year of chemistry, as much astronomy as I could, and my favorite class was physics. It was so deliciously cool that I thought I should get a degree in astrophysics just for the hell of it. And who knew, maybe it would lead to something else.

But...

I couldn't run from who I was. My brain, for better or for worse, is intensely attracted to design, art and being creative in an emotional way. The idea of being a scientist is very cool to me, and I wanted to be one (in some small way), but I was passionate about art. And it was a passion that I did not choose.

Now, I could have ignored my predilection for design and animation. But I would not have been as happy. So, I gave in to art. As I often say, "I did not choose to be an artist." Seriously. If I had my way, I would be something else because being an artist is a fucking serious emotional roller-coaster. But for whatever genetic or environmental reasons, I am bound to art. And I love it. But we don't get to choose what we love.

So the lesson is to listen to yourself. Unhappy every Sunday night because you have to go to work in the morning? Well, listen to that. Feeling a sinking feeling when you're getting ready to create something? Listen to that. Every one is different, and the answers you seek will be nuanced. But there are answers. They are there all the time.

As one of my favorite people in the world says "Notice what you can't stop doing." The truth is that you already do the thing you love, even if you don't recognize it yet. It's there, in some small way. It might be hard to see, but it's there. And as my grandpa says, "We're always busy being ourselves." Yep. Truth.

Your bud,

Bailey

3, 2, 1 Update!

It's been a while since I just had a normal update post without a bunch of philosophy thrown in. So here are the facts!

Working on a game right now. An awesome designer (this guy) hired Forma to make the art and UI for it. I'll show stuff later!

The new website I'm developing is coming soon! A few close friends have already previewed it and I've gotten some good feedback on its direction. Will launch in March!

Been going crazy with the tutorials. Really working on my speaking presence and learning (slowly) how to be myself on camera. Not there yet by any stretch of the imagination, but one day. Also teaching myself a lot about lighting and stuff like that.

Side projects are crawling along. Getting a better mic set up so that I can do narration over videos. Also learning about how to clean up audio so that it doesn't sound like trash.

That's all for now! Love!

-Bailey

Death Comes for Us All

One day we will all be dead. If you're reading this, you will be dust one day. Your organs will rot and bugs will eat your body, churning it into a fine powder to be used in something else. No one has cheated death yet. It is the fate of every man and woman who ever lived.

With that in mind, what will you do today? Will you work on that project that you've been procrastinating? Perhaps it's worth procrastinating, and you should do something more valuable to you. Or maybe it really is something that you want to do. These are the questions you should be asking yourself every day.

Recognizing death's coming embrace has a great utility. It forces us to confront our present for what it is: fleeting.

Figure out what's important to you in life. Whatever it may be. Family. Creating. Peace. Happiness. Whatever. Prioritize this thing (or things) each day.

Time speeds on like a cruel mistress. It never slows down. So, live the life you want to live today. If it sounds corny to you, then you're missing how important this is. Death is coming for us all. You can ignore this fact or embrace it.

Choose wisely. Or not. It doesn't matter to anyone but you.