An Honest Guide to Making a Living Filming and Writing the Ocean

It might be THE query I get requested above all others. And it’s the one which it’s trickiest to reply. Well, that’s not strictly true -it’s a doddle to reply, however provided that you’re conscious that by doing so that you’ll crush hope and ambition within the course of. The query is ‘How do I get into, and make a living out of, writing and filming in the marine media?’ The quick reply (see above) is ‘Don’t’.

The cause for this vigorous stamping out of the embers of desires is that it’s absurdly aggressive, ridiculously underpaid, notoriously unpredictable, and there’s a real threat you’ll find yourself hating the factor you at the moment love. The good cash is a strong profession, with development, a pension, respectable advantages, and in the end the prospect to in the future go on any aspirational dive vacation you fancy. That’s the smart route. But then once more, people of my age have been saying it to people of the subsequent technology for completely ever, and fortunately, this recommendation regularly will get a rattling good ignoring. I’m a living proof, having resolutely blocked out the tinnitus of excellent profession recommendation with the headphones of ludicrous plans for dive expeditions.

So, right here’s the way to get into the media. Oh, and by the best way, that’s a query in itself. Just what’s ‘the media’ these days? This was the only a part of your complete equation – it was TV, and print. Either you had been in it, otherwise you weren’t. Now just about everyone seems to be a producer, it’s by no means been simpler to create content material, which is all properly and good however does imply that the market is completely flooded. Much of the time that flood consists of utter effluent too, so slicing by way of with good materials is trickier than ever. Here we go then. In this present model of ‘media’, these are my prime ideas.

Everyone Is a Producer Now

First off, you’re certainly a producer. The skill to create good content material is at your fingertips, is eminently transportable, accessible, and what with AI enhancing programs rising at breakneck pace you’ll be able to create gorgeous finish materials. So get on the market and do it. Yes, a lot of will probably be desperately poor, and initially no-one will watch it. But the highway to creating gorgeous content material has by no means been simpler to navigate. So set out and do it.

Make Yourself Impossible to Ignore

Secondly – and maybe most importantly – make your self indispensable. What I imply by that is that there are 1000’s, actually 1000’s, of well-qualified, gifted, pushed younger folks on the market attempting to interrupt into this house. They may need marine biology levels, have a showreel of unbelievable footage, and glowing testimonials from one and all. But they’re routinely and relentlessly ignored. If you occur to have an expedition medic qualification although, have a business boat driving qualification, have expertise utilizing marine radios, a well being and security evaluation qualification, or concentrate on a selected a part of the world, then you definately turn out to be much more tough to disregard. Accumulate these additional expertise like a voracious hoarder, and finally you turn out to be a merely priceless asset to any manufacturing or expedition.

The Only Rule That Really Matters

And thirdly, crucial rule of all. Well, it’s really a triumvirate of guidelines in a single, three guiding ideas if you’ll. They are:

1) Persist.
2) Persist. And lastly,
3) Persist.

There will probably be one million causes to surrender, numerous crappy jobs that break your coronary heart and sap your will, and a cacophony of well-meaning people in your life telling you to pack all of it in. The folks I’ve been fortunate sufficient to work with within the diving media and movie manufacturing have one factor in frequent. It is an unbelievable skill to graft, to work relentlessly on reaching the purpose. It’s an honest precept to use to the journey as properly.

And lastly, ignore outdated geezers telling you the way absurdly arduous all of it is. Someone on the market studying it is a future doyenne of wildlife filmmaking, an enormous of the style, a head of the BBC Natural History Unit. It would possibly as properly be you.

Frequently Asked Questions