Working Hard When Things Hardly Work

I come from a perception that good product comes out of restriction. Look at some of the best companies out there right now. Apple has always minimized their products to create a unique and satisfying User experience. What about Nintendo? They have been running in 1st place (until recently) with a console that uses 10 year old technology. And then there's me... I don't have expensive gear, or top of the line software... I don't even have formal training or a degree. But what I have is a desire (a tenacious one at that) to learn more and more and to be able to do what I've learned with what I already have.

I'm a commercial producer for a local TV station in Northern California and I couldn't think of a better place for me right now. Because this station is so small, I really have to stretch my brain on how to come up with ideas that are ground breaking and yet be able to pull them off with little to no budget. It's exciting really. I think to myself, "there's no way I can pull this off" but my brain won't stop thinking of ways to... well pull it off. I lay awake at night thinking of methods and workflows that will make my process easier and more effective. I come up with some of my most creative stuff just before my brain powers off and slips into dreamland.

I've done two spots recently that required me to take the image of a brand and give it a national feel within a local market. I had to make these spots look really good... and I had to do it with no money, limited resources, untrained actors, and a crew of two at the most. But to me, that's what makes it so much more worth it. I get to pull off things that normally would require a small army to do and reach a similar, if not the same, result.

Now I know my commercials aren't always right on and there's always room for improvement but that's where the "working hard" part comes in. When everything you have around you just barely works and you're dealing with a lack of resources or time constraints, you have to work your butt off to make it work... and I love that. I love that I put hours of myself into thirty seconds of product and not one average Joe would know the difference. I guess it's a pride thing. The common TV watcher doesn't know what goes into it, but all the people who do this for a living understand. We give each other the proverbial wink by adding into our work the tiny things that show how hard we work.

Basically it all comes down to how much you love your work. Do you do it because you were told to do it, or do you do it because it's a part of you. When things are hardly working for me, I have to work hard. It's simple, but it's rewarding. even though no one knows that I just spent 5 hours on 4 seconds of animation, I can say that I didn't slack off. And in a business where people skip through and fast forward over my work all the time, somehow I find the reward and I believe that that comes from hard work and the sense of accomplishment that it brings.