Survey Answers: What Does Surviving As a Working Creative Mean to You?

Last week, Sebastian Martinez (Current Creative, Former Assistant at Paradigm) published an article about his takeaways from the Tribeca panel "Surviving As A Working Creative."

We asked our readers to share their thoughts on the question, "What does surviving as a working creative mean to you?" Here are some anonymous answers:

1. 
   

“To survive in Hollywood as a working creative, you have to be resilient, persistent, patient, and find a community. The mailroom at a talent agency has been really great for that.

I had to learn to celebrate every tiny win my friends have, and they do the same for me, because we’ll never survive without each other. 

I had to learn that surviving as a working creative means you have to keep trying and keep submitting until something sticks, and shaking off the “no”s and moving on to the next. I had to learn to never give up, which would have been so much more difficult without my friends encouraging me and sending me links to fellowships and contest submissions.”

2. 
   

“Surviving as a working creative means having to take extraneous jobs to make a living. You find yourself in roles you never imagined you’d have to take - or were capable of taking. You have to adapt quickly and learn to land on your feet, even if that means moving outside of your skillset and trying something new.”

3. 
   

“Surviving is getting to show up every day and exercise my creative toolbox, or that's how it feels on good days. On the days like when I turned 26 and ceased to have health insurance, it's less romantic. Surviving is about six sources of income, good habits, and all that jazz-- but on a basic level it's about recommitting to love of your creative craft. It's about utilizing the time you're not working to create something you love, entirely undiluted by industry. If I can do that, have something to show for the low-amenity bohemian existence, something I can put my name beside to say "that's my art," then it opens up so many avenues to promote oneself and begin to gain independent respect as a working artist. It's a challenging process but I'm very privileged to undertake it and if I ever get down about my lack of cash, I have to remember that ultimately I elected to do this. It's also a privilege to stand by your choices.”

4. 
   

“Surviving as a working creative is exhausting.

It means spending all my spare time "working" - because even when you're having a fun time making art, if you're trying to make it a career it's still work. 

It feels like having two jobs, but one (being an assistant) is overwhelming and unfulfilling and I'm just hoping I learn and meet people who will help me later, and the other doesn't pay, and I don't know if it ever will.”

5. 
   

“I’m not surviving as a working creative yet, but the idea that I could makes me hopeful. Working in the entertainment industry (at a talent agency) while pursuing a creative career means I learn things that help me become a better filmmaker, and also I see people succeed at what I want to do every day. Sure, I also see the clients who try and fail, but I also see them keep at it. I also see the people who work as hard as I do and make as many sacrifices as I do sell shows and book roles. And working at a talent agency means I don't just see them as public figures, but as human beings with the same feelings and flaws as me. So if these people who aren't that different from me were eventually able to make it, then why can't I?”

6. 
   

“To me, surviving as a working creative while working as a Hollywood Assistant means spending my lunch breaks making art, going to rehearsals every night because that's the only time I have, getting home after 11pm every night. It's having 2 tabs open when working on weekends - my work email to respond to clients, and a script open on the other tab.”

7. 
   

“It means being in a constant hustle. It’s about living in two worlds at once. By day, I’m on the phone, rolling calls, updating grids, calming down clients, pretending I don’t care when my boss yells at me. By night (and early mornings, and weekends, and lunch breaks), I’m writing. Pages, pilots, features, punch-ups for friends of friends who might maybe recommend me to their manager boss someday. Surviving as a working creative means ignoring the little voice in my head that makes me doubt myself, or I would burn out so quickly. Surviving as a working creative means believing that my voice has value. That if I can just get the right person to read that one script, everything could change. But until then, I continue to grind with a smile because I remind myself: Every great screenwriter has a day job until they don’t.”

8. 
   

“I spent years in film school. I graduated thinking I’d be directing shorts, pitching features, working on my own projects while assisting a director who could mentor me until I made it as a filmmaker. Instead, I’ve been a production assistant for 3 years and I've gotten nowhere. When can I find the time to make my own stuff if I’m working 12-14 hour days, 5-6 days a week, and then spend my free time exhausted? How can I schedule shoots for my own films when my day job hours are so inconsistent that I don't know if I'll be working at 11am 3 Saturdays from now? 

How can I survive as a working creative if I can't be creative? I know I have to find a day work/creative work balance (never mind a work/life balance), but sometimes I wonder if that balance even exists.”