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.

Working and Feeling Good

This week was a straightforward week of working. I continued to steadily march forward with my 3 primary business objectives. Some work I can't show, other work has it's own blog already, and the other thing is less showable. So, yes, nothing to look at today. 

But that won't stop me from chatting with you for a bit. :)

I'd like to restate just how happy I've been, owning and working for my own business. My goodness. The level of satisfaction and calm that I possess absolutely dwarfs the last seven years of my career. My choice to objectively listen to what I want was the best thing I've ever done in my life. It sounds hyperbolic, but it's true. Sometimes I start to feel bad when I tell people how happy I am, because maybe it comes off as boastful. But to hell with that. I am happy. I think I've earned it.

The thing that would make me even happier would be to help or give confidence to others to go out and get what they need. A number of my closest friends have also gone out on their own, and they too seem much happier. Owning a business isn't for everyone, I know, but lots of people I know complain about working at a big company. All I can say is to listen to your heart. You may not like what it has to say, but it won't lie to you.

If anything, I'm the epitome of this idea. I was actually pretty happy with where I used to work. I was an artist working with great minds. I also happened to live in one of the nicest and safest cities in America. And to top it off, I had great friends and family all around me. And to top the top off, I made pretty good money. What could be wrong?

My heart. That damn heart of mine didn't just want something else, it needed it. It wasn't money that I wanted. It was a more fulfilled and satisfied type of happiness, specific to me. In my case, it meant I needed to do things my own way (among other things).

Of course, this is the same story I tell everyone. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. If you feel like something is amiss in your life, go out and fix it. Remember: good is the enemy of great. It takes time and effort to figure it out, but it's worth. It's so, so worth it.

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And as a reminder, there are 2 blogs on this site. The one you're reading, which updates every Friday. And the other one is about my short film. That one one updates every Tuesday. So go read about Hunted if you haven't in a while. Because dude, there's always stuff to look at. Last Tuesday, for instance, I showed some screenshots of me working on the finale for the film. Cool stuff is happening!

Bailey

More 20-Mile Marching

This has been a good week. Now that I'm feeling really good about what my objectives are, my mind can just focus on getting things done. Knowing what not to do is a freeing experience. I recommend it.

In addition to this, I decided to keep better track of my 20-mile marching. I have 3 calendars on my wall, and each day I get to add a satisfying x when I hit my minimum performance goal. Why 3 calendars? Each one represents some aspect of my business strategy. So far so good.

Speaking of 20-mile marching, I decided it was time to dedicate an article to the subject. I wrote about it in the blog last January, but now it has a permanent home in the Learn section of the site. If you've never heard of this concept, or are a little hazy on the details, go read it! I tried my best to make it easy to understand. My hope is that it is a useful resource that people can refer to or send to their friends. I even made a poster that people can print out. :)

Bailey

Change

Up until now I've thought about this business as a two phase business strategy. Phase one would focus on contract work as a revenue source. Phase two would be when all efforts focused on developing unique IPs for revenue. However, I've been wondering if this is the right approach. And, more importantly, when would I make the switch? Of course I have years of failure ahead of me, but that's expected. So why not start developing IPs faster? I've had them on slow burn while I've been doing client work, but is that really so smart? In the end, I want to make sure I'm turning the right flywheel (read Good to Great for more on that).

First of all, I've discontinued doing the daily animation sketches. I did a two month run, but I figured out that I want to be doing more interesting and high quality things with that time each night. The good thing was that the sketches resulted in a lot of new knowledge, so it wasn't for nothing.

Secondly, Forma Pictures will remain open for business as a freelance shop. However, more time this year will be devoted to developing original works. I don't know when I'll have this chance again, so I'll be damned if I'm not going go for the gold (successful, self-sustained business). Worst that happens is I learn a crap ton, faster.

These decisions I made this week, and more like them, took a lot of effort (and help from the people I trust) to come to. I'm not afraid of failure. I'm more afraid that I could end up getting good at something I don't fully want to be doing. Here's where I'm at...

“Forma Pictures will develop original art, animation and music in the service of creating stories. We will own these characters, worlds, and ideas. The goal is to create and own meaningful properties.”

The format is less important, but they'll be short films and serial episodes for now. This won't be easy, but that's the direction. After writing all of the options out and staring at them for days, I feel confident in what I need to attain. Monetizing is going to take time to figure out, but working on and owning meaningful works of art is what I want to have 10 years down the line. In summary, I have my 3 circles mostly figured out. However, my economic engine is a tad weak. Still looking for a more effective method of cash flow. That precise profit per x eludes me.

As always, when I write publicly like this, I worry that I'll come off as a bumbling idiot. Or worse, arrogantly. If you know me, then you'll know how much I fear hubris. It's the poison that ruins people and businesses (not to be confused with confidence). But the truth is that I'm on a journey, and it is one that has largely been solitary. And on this journey, I've been learning the hard way about what works and what doesn't. But more importantly, I'm discovering more about who I am and what I want to accomplish. I hope that the mistakes, insights and stories I share have some value to you, the reader.

Remember, you can always reach out to me about anything (info@formapictures.com). Let me know if you think I'm being dumb, going down the wrong path, or maybe you like something I've made. I love feedback, however brutal it may be.

Bailey

P.S. My media recommendation this week is the podcast called StartUp. It documents the beginning of a real business. They make mistakes, but they usually figure it out. Makes me want to do something like that! CHECK IT.