How Youtube Ruined My Filmmaking Career 

Same for me brutha. I think this is going to become more of a trend as budgets continue to dip and dive, as they have been for the past few years. The beautiful thing in my eyes is being able to say no to the jobs I never wanted to do but was just doing for the survival money. And now being able to respect myself and my works worth by walking away from a job if they’re not willing to pay a fair amount. And saying yes more to the things I always wanted to film, covering stories I could never afford to take the time off to tell, work with the people that I never could manage to fill in, work on myself and my creativity and my bigger future goals. RU-vid has been a blessing for me. It’s allowed me to be me.

Dude I totally understand that thought spiral you're experiencing. For me personally, my solution is to make more passion projects and treat them like client gigs. But I get total creative freedom and the potential of also getting brands to sponsor them, AND obviously you can post them on your channel without any issues. That way I still learn critical "pro" lessons but don't have to deal with cheap clients. Win win.

I totally understand you. That's why the same b-roll is constantly repeated when you reviewing various equipment. You must find a solution to this impasse yourself. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, because it's really nice to hear from you.

This is why I love your channel mate! So openly transparent, great vid as always 🙌

Enjoying your content and your honesty bro. Time will show you the path. Just follow your gut and do what inspires you :)

I'm still struggling with going out and fine tuning my skills. I aspire to be a film maker and I appreciate your honesty and vulnerability.

You're not alone bro! I barely shoot anymore unless its something I really want to do and pays more for me to leave the house lol. We're playing for the long game don't forget! 💯

I really thought I was alone, I really appreciate this video and transparency because it gives me ease knowing it’s a part of the process! I really forward to your and our growth as a filmmaking community!

I think what's happening is there used to be a bit of a 3 tiered system, solo run and gunners, medium scale productions between $10k-$100k, and then the really big stuff. Social media and access to more affordable equipment is creating more and more filmmakers capable of hitting that middle quality and flooding the market for the small percentage of brands that need it. I think things are quickly moving away from sexy high end product videos as brands settle with good enough looking stuff from one man bands or tiny crews, and everyone in that group will race to the bottom as more and more people enter it unless they're really special. What's left is stuff for people with large followings and quality doesn't really matter, or the really large productions, and those are often produced through agencies that eat up most of the profit.

When I quit my full time job, I was banking on doing more videography work: Weddings, freelance gigs etc...; but very quickly I realized that for the effort required, these gigs were either paying less, or the same as focusing on my channel, or doing my own projects. It's an odd place to be in, but as a fellow videographer told me: it's a good problem to have. Can't wait to see where all of this goes for the both of us!

I feel you my guy! You hit it on the nail. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

I really really appreciate your honesty on this video Kofi ! I takes courage to talk about something like this. And it's a breath of fresh air for a "filmmaker youtuber" to hear turths like this.

Totally know what you mean man! I worked at Gymshark in the UK for 2 years and left thinking I'd be shooting lots of cool fitness/clothing commercials. Turns out the budgets aren't there and those brands really love the audience generated content/tiktok style stuff. It's becoming very rare that I can flex some actual cinematography muscles unless it's for RU-vid or a passion project. But money needs to be made so... it's tough! haha

As someone who started in this business before youtube I can definitely sympathize to this situation. When I started I was a pro-wrestler who had a background in television production and I made more money producing the content. I was in my 20's and it was before the big NLE boom. Now as someone who is restarting this production company now in my 40's with a family I feel the struggles of trying to make content as I write my tv/film projects. Problem for me is all my gear was stolen 4 years ago so starting over sucks.

Dude, you are not alone, I promise you. I run an audio and production channel with over 6k followers now (this is my incognito film making account I am on right now). I am in a very similar position to you. I had a pretty successful mixing and mastering freelance company as well as running a record label which was doing pretty well. I love to teach as well so I started a RU-vid channel. It built organically and at a good rate and offers started to come in from audio companies. I started making more videos on a more regular basis, but a a result did less freelance work and less of my own productions. In 2022, I released around 30 tracks and they all did well. I mastered around 150 songs for clients. I probably made around 30 YT videos. 2023, as the offers started rolling in for products to review, I concentrated on YT more. As a result, I made around 60 YT videos, but only released around 5 tracks and probably mastered around 50 songs for clients. And if I am to be totally honest, I am totally lost as to what to do in 24. I feel very deflated and slightly lost. I have no more ideas for YT videos, and less clients. My label has slipped to the back of the queue on a lot of download sites and my own production output is in total limbo. So that’s me. I have no idea what I am going to do frankly. Thanks for sharing dude. I really relate to you on this video. Stay safe brother.

Seems like a lot of us are in this boat just tryna figure it out. Great 9 minutes of what we’re all feeling 🙏🏾

Bro. I go through this constantly. But like life it’s all about balance. Once I found the balance of what’s work and what’s the final goal, it feels like it’s working way better

Get your money. It all will work itself out in the end. Truth is, you are a natural teacher.

I have no advice whatsoever, since I'm extremely low on the RU-vidr totem pole; but IMHO, your channel is one of a handful that actually offer real, genuine value to a lot of people working in the industry across the board. So whatever you do, I'm sure it'll be rad 🤙

Thank you for the transparent thoughts process. I think at some point, most of successful film makers facing the same problems. And great to hear that you are not alone in this. Thx Man And happy New upcoming year !

Go make what you want, my friend! As an AOD guy, do what they teach. Let this fund your passion projects. Then you get to practice your craft while also doing the project you love. I know easier said than done, but now it is time to scale. I love what you are doing here; keep going. Thank you for all you do.

Respect man👍. That means you are loyal and care about both your RU-vid viewers and Clients.

Thanks for sharing. Stay honest like this and follow the projects that feel right (whether YT or freelance or something else) and continue to share them on here in a transparent way and you can’t go wrong for yourself. Of course there will always be noise from people saying this or that but as long as it feels right to you and you can support yourself then your still heading in the right direction. The landscape is continually changing and if there ever was a clear idea of what being a filmmaker is then it certainly isn’t clear anywhere in the world now and it’ll continue to shift and change. Listen to your gut and keep doing the work you enjoy and feel proud of.

Thanks for the vulnerability. I respect it. I know in my market there has been a big drop off in local business clients willing to spend in the 20k to 75k threshold. We happen to be positoned in the 4k to 20k threshhold so its been a boon for us. Its wild seeing all these bigger regional media companies struggle. We try to split our time doing indie & doc stuff as well as paid gigs. Its working so i guess we'll worry about scaling later this year. We're so lean as a production company we're built to profit in this climate. Im happy to soak up any knowledge I can from guys like you and others.

Love the transparency bro. I have hit this same spot. I would love to make more short films but shooting for brands has a lot of perks that help me directly in life with money.

just got into filmmaking and ur videos have been helpful. I'm sad to hear about how your skillset isn't matched with your industry 100% but, RU-vid brings so much meaning to your work because it really inspires a generation of filmmakers. Like what beginner filmmaker wouldn't look at RU-vid. and throughout that process, they will certainly come across your video. Keep these up because the quality is amazing and your channel will grow for sure.

It's interesting how RU-vid is disrupting a lot of the traditional industries because it allows space for progression and exploration, but it is a frustrating transition because you still have to do the thing you started your channel about, but what pays the bills haha like you said. I'm struggling with gaining the experience bit and finding my place. Trying to work with other RU-vidrs editing videos, but everyone is looking for like that Mr Beast style or the hyper retention marketing editing and that's not appealing or sustainable. I want to build my own channel, but I know I need to learn under someone for a bit (and pay my bills) hahaha. It's interesting, but the journey is fun and I appreciate you sharing your experience bro!

What a breakdown! Transparency feels rare these days and this was great. Thanks kofi

I love those kind of videos you do. When I discovered your channel a few months back, I binge watched a lot because and still watch every single video because you're not always talking about "filmmaking" but about the "filmmaker" and the person behind the camera and the gear because that's way more important for people like me who are discovering this craft and want to learn. Oh and also very well articulated, peaceful and nice guy... With lot of muscle 😂 can't resist that as a fan of body building 😆

Really interesting video and something I have thought about too. My goal of my channel next year is to really focus on teaching how I shoot resort and travel films for clients as that's mostly what I do. However I could see, even from just the few sponsored videos I've done so far, that there could become a point where there's more money in talking about it rather than doing it. Not sure if that's a good thing or not!

Keep up the good work fellow Canuck! Thank you for sharing.

I know that feeling, the filmmaking rat race is tough, and you don’t want to get pigeonholed into RU-vid. That how felt about shooting music videos for the longest time.

It's a vicious circle. My approach was a bit different in that I always wanted RU-vid to take the backseat over my professional work. My goal was to never necessarily have a goal for RU-vid, for better or worse, and by setting those low expectations I don't stress as much over growing the channel. RU-vid is cool because it gives me a creative outlet to focus on when work gets slow as a freelancer. If I'm only posting once a month, I'm probably too busy with my DP jobs and if I'm posting 4 times a month, work is probably a bit slower but the financial needle starts tipping back towards the content creator route. It's definitely a balance. Great vid, bro!

This is an interesting post, and something I had not thought of. Great post on here from others as well. As a full-time freelancer I have always tried to leave as many doors open as possible. You never know when one industry will dry up. Bring in as much cash as you can doing what you love and as a wise man once said "Always Be Closing!!"🙂🎥

Hey you’re doing it. I’m just now trying to get my career going had kids and responsibilities so got delayed. Been doing video since I was 14. I call myself the experienced beginner. But I check out your channel because you have good content. I work full time have two RU-vid channels and try to grow filmmaking. It’s crazy but love do keep going.

I came across this quote which I often refer to when feeling the same way: “Sometimes, the right path becomes clear when we encounter unexpected turns.” Seems like you’re on this journey like many of us. We can never really know what we are supposed to be doing in this life unless we try to do what feels right. All I can share is to always have this conversation with yourself as a way to stay true to what feels right.

Seems like an interesting conundrum, but I appreciate the candor and you sharing with us

Mannn I am in the same boat right now. Hope you can figure it out man, will be following along!

I see where you’re coming from and had the similar issues when it came to teaching music then moving to video production. I think one of my biggest issues is where to begin. It’s as if I’m at a race track and there’s no starting point mentally.

Kofi, listen man. Knowledge is Knowledge. Does it help to add to your resume as an educator that you’ve actually worked ‘in the field’ as a videographer? Yeah, for sure….but that’s the thing, it’s on your resume already. You don’t need to keep proving yourself or your quality of knowledge or experience to anybody. I think it’s wonderful that you’ve been able to morph your career trajectory toward higher pay and more flexibility. Filmmaker or not, I think that’s EVERYBODY’S goal in their own careers. Keep killing it man and if you want to take on a client job, totally do it. If not, then f**k em! Lol, do you and talk about gear, make a short film, review a product, or do whatever the hell you want, really. This is YOUR channel and we’re all here for you, nobody else. 💪 you got this.

My thought is..... keep working. keep doing YT. At this stage in your career, take the jobs you dont really want to do either. Sometimes those can teach you just as much if not more than other jobs. I know putting out a steady stream of YT videos is though and time intensive.....especially when you add set work to the schedule. But the only answer is to grind it out. If you stop doing setwork eventually your content will loose value....maybe. Some YT's manage to entertain and retain an audience....even grow an audience without the set expirience. I think being on set will bring so much more long term value to your skills and to your channel. I for example will be returning to set work this year. In the end ..... listen to your gut. follow your gut instincts. All the best, happy new year.

Dope video bro, thanks for sharing and being transparent! Believe it or I’m kinda in the same boat. Keep us posted on this!

I’ve had the opposite trajectory. I have a degree in TV Production and have been shooting “content” since the late 1990s. I started a production company 12 years ago and we now have a solid book of commercial clients, and I don’t do real estate or weddings. RU-vid I have completely neglected, but seeing other filmmakers - like yourself - use it to grow their brands and create new opportunities has inspired me to start posting. I may have a solution to your conundrum, which we can talk about offline…

For sure, the youtube experience has helped you gain another perspective on things. Doesn't have to be good or bad. Most of the creative youtubers push their channel to a certain point, where it's the gift that keeps giving, then take a break to do passion projects.

Love this man!! You’re my go to in this space brother! You have a great problem!

I get that, RU-vid is great, and if it’s what you want go all in. If I were in your position, I would say either open up your own studio or find one to work at. Higher budget videos, more money, and you work with higher end gear and produce more beautiful things. It definitely becomes more challenging when you only have a set number of takes and have more pre-production. I got in with a studio here in Baltimore and it looks like I’ll be doing more work on set. Planning on doing content around my journey

Great video. Love your vibe man. Keep it up.

Appreciate you being honest about this dichotomy. I’ve been watching filmmaking RU-vid since like 2013 when I wanted to learn how to do all this stuff and it’s unfortunately a pattern that I’ve seen before. People are doing production so they start a channel on how to get better at production, eventually they get successful enough on RU-vid that they want to make it their main gig. So their content, whether they want it to or not, becomes much more about how to make RU-vid videos (to at least some degree), which isn’t as directly applicable for people that want to get into the production industry. I still think these channels can bring a ton of value (Caleb Pike is a great example, love his stuff) but there aren’t a ton of people that successfully walk the line between being a fulltime DP and making high quality RU-vid content.

Yep know the feeling . I think it comes down to do what feels right

I couldn’t relate to this more. So well said

Man, so I spent a couple of decades getting to the top if my chosen industry. I'm getting paid as much or more than anybody I know who does what I do, but I just want to make RU-vid videos. I've gotten my channel up to 23k recently as well. So I have been taking time off from my great paying gig where I am also my own boss just to do RU-vid videos. I guess I'm lucky since I just film what I want without having to worry about getting paid. But I sure do wish I could just do RU-vid!

May The Force Be With You !

I think for a freelance videographer nowadays due to “lower” budget gigs Ytb is a stepping stone for the business and than it is a challenge how to keep doing both ytb and the jobs. But I see ytb can give a great opportunity to shoot things otherwise you would not been able to! Keep up 💪🏻🇨🇦

You're very good at reviewing complex equipment and explaining complicated processes. Maybe you could be a tech guru like marques brownlee,

kinda in the same boat of trying to figure out how to go full itime in creating videos. I am currently doing social content for a couple clients and hate it so strongly. No one wants to pay the prices that I believe are completely fair. But I am trying to move forward and work with clients that I want to work with creating larger budget videos with brands that want to work with me. And most days it is hard and want to give up and work for a already established company but I know that with time i will be sucessful it just dosent seem like it now.

I'm sort of on a crossroad of my own. I'm a pretty notable artist (music) from Maryland but I make a living shooting visuals and creating content. I've found more success in filmmaking in the last 4 months and for the most part I've leaned into it. only problem is my original goal was to have my visual effort be combined into my musical efforts and since I've made a notable mark filming I feel like I'm being pulled in both directions. this feeling is nothing new. but its never been easy to balance. and I don't think it will get any easier. but I'm headed some where with one of the two passions sure enough.

It’ll be ok. I feel you can do both. If right now it’s important for you to focus on RU-vid, that is ok. Your artistic style and talent will resound loudly throughout your RU-vid channel. And once you are financially independent you can always return to filmmaking.

This happened to me with music videos lol😂😂😂 hope the economy changes everyones budget is tight

I've been freelancing for over 20 years. If I were in your shoes I'd do RU-vid and get the Brand deals. Freelancing is hard, especially when it gets slow and budgets aren't what they used to be. You can always do a passion project to get the creative flow going and then do a video about it. My Best.

I think watching this dude named Dan Koe could really help you. As someone that does videography, music production, comedy, and RU-vid It’s truly eye opening for me and changing my goals and career trajectory

Soooo I have gotten a couple of paid jobs to shoot and edit videos for clients...any tips on how much to invest back into gear? New camera or other items? I am in a weird dilemma where I have gotten paid for jobs just having a drone, cell phone gimbal, and now dji osmo pocket 3. Should I just get better at using those items or reinvest into be better camera or drone? At what point does one price out themselves with gear and the job level you plan on taking? New to all of this

Like to learn from your knowledge! But most important do what you love! Eventually you will still learn a lot if you go full time on RU-vid and you can teach that to your audience. And combine it with your knowledge about filmmaking and freelance work. At the end everyone who is starting a business in filmmaking want to learn and you can learn them. Your video’s on RU-vid will be a resource for years. But at the end do what you love and what you want! Keep up the work💪🏼

I’d love to see you take the financial freedom to create the things you would like to make. Maybe a documentary on the fitness influencer industry as a whole or one particular persons story.

Suggestion: do stories for causes you believe in at a discount … you’ll get more creative control, get paid some, learn as much as you want, and help people in need. AND be able to go to bed at night knowing you are doing more than just selling sports bras. 😉

Look at Freelance being an investment for your youtube channel and an escape to go out.

Well spoken😊

Do Ur Films And RU-vid Ur Behind The Scenes For Ur Subscribers 🎬🎬🎬

I have been a film maker for a decade now and never made more than $1,500 a year, so it was never my main source of income. I love filming, editing and the like, so I will keep on going until I can't. I have friends in the business that make a lot of money but they are great, I am not so great, but I love it still the same.

Old story. People just out of College or Film School undercutting the professionals in order to get a foot on the ladder. A few years later, the same graduates are the professionals, being under-cut by the latest generation of graduates.

Noticed your website sales your luts in Canadien currency. I’m in the United States trying to buy them how would I go about getting them? Also was curious if you could do a video showing them off.

If you measure your success on the impact you have on other people's lives, I wouldn't despair about having RU-vid be the financial "anchor" which gives you the freedom to CHOSE the "high-affinity" jobs you want to do and those you want to reject. You've made a big impact on my life, in terms of nurturing my interest, providing technical direction, and providing a "model" upon which I can template my own perspective and aspirations. I will give one piece of advice. Keep your eye SQUARELY on that which feeds your passion. If you concentrate on that, the money for what you love will eventually pan out. Just make sure you are the master of your craft, that you want to be so that you are ready for those breaks which represent quantum leaps. You have co-flows, counter-flows and cross-flows in life, and nobody ever made significant progress by STOPPING to handle a particular flow. Forget that sh&t. Just keep producing and developing. You can tell when you are not doing enough because that's when you have time to consider yourself... Master athletes only stumble when they show up. When they "disappear" into the flow, and for all intents and purposes - just disappear, that's when they perform their greatest - but as soon as we "show up", (either as the memory of a "tip", or momentary critique etc.), mistakes do as well. It's not the current shot that the pool player is concerned about, it's where to leave the cue ball to hit the shot to leave the cue ball to hit the next shot - many levels deep to actually leave the cue ball in the place that the master pool player is really concerned about. Don't worry about the results. Just keep the positive motion going. We are in a dance with the way the world shows up for us. All it takes for masterful action is for the world to show up for us that way. Not skill; ability, intelligence, creativity - no! None of that - because who we "ARE" is not a collection of attributes, we are a context in which many things can show up - and what gets shown is that which is correlated to your showing up! 🙂

yeah I mean shooting any fitness stuff on a Venice (like you do in the b-roll of this video) is a total overkill and nobody is going to pay enough for that

love ya man!

I try telling myself that in my 40's I'll be able to go back to narrative work lol. Using the grind time for procreating 😂

I would say follow the money. It doesn't sound like your heart was in those shoots you were doing anyway.

How about reviewing the gear whilst on site with a client. Make it part of the condition that you have to provide a “real life” review

I watch a lot of your videos and realized I'm not even subscribed

Leveling up your skillset, your gear and pricing yourself out of smaller clients' budgets is probably not the best business decision tbh, but it's the only way to keep growing as a filmmaker. The only clients that can afford you are the ones that prefer quality over quantity, but you can't quite compete with big production companies working with huge budgets yet.

Hope we can link up if you do make it to Ghana

Hey brother, yeah I can relate to all of that I live in Vancouver, BC Canada and kind of face the same thing and yeah the whole Covid thing wiped out whatever freelance stuff I was trying to do here in Vancouver. It’s so competitive there’s 1 million guys here all with good gear all the talent and it’s kind of like if you, haven’t been in the game for a long time and made a lot of relationships and contacts you just get passed over not necessarily because your bad or works bad but just because they know this guy and they worked with him before and they always worked with him and so it goes so I am facing the same dilemma. I really don’t want to sit and do a RU-vid channel for the rest of my life Showing people how to do something on a camera or the latest hack or something and at the same time I’m not interested in doing a GoFundMe to raise money to make an independent film that I wait for years to come together, so yeah I am where you’re at it’s it’s hard because there’s a lot of stuff out there like you said somebody wants you to just shoot some video that you really have no real interest in the content at leastand the only want to be able to pay you two or 300 bucks for it because they don’t have a budget same thing here this all the time now we don’t have the money for anything but we need this know what the answer is, I would love to connect with you and chat some more about it because I’m sure there’s a whole lot of people sitting where we’re at and there’s gotta be something we can do

Yes, you take the sponsorship deals, and take the freelance that pays what YOU need to earn to make the job worth it. Get that check, make a living!!!

What do you charge for a day rate now vs then

This is the second video I seen today where Content Creators are giving doom and gloom videos. It's like you guys are going through a mid life crisis. The key to me in my freelancing is look for little joys in the gig I'm on. Not all gigs are going to be the art of "filmmaking", but they keep your momentum for the next job. An old saying, "A bad day in the field is better than a great day in the cubicle"...lol. Anyway, that's the state of the business these days, smaller is better. I used to hear stories from old timers who started in film when working in tv production, and how much money was in the game back then. Clients flew them everywhere and spared no expense, had the use of a crew. Much more than what anyone is seeing in today's market. Also, I agree RU-vid is a negative in the production business because it's showing clients that any goober (in general)with a camera can do this. Hey let's let Suzy in marketing shoot content with her iPhone and be done with it! I have been in the business for 25 years and there isn't anything a RU-vidr can show me that hasn't been done, yet they just discovered. I'll watch some just to see how some gear might work within my workflow, because Aputure or DJI aren't sending me gear to audition. Sometimes you just have to know your lane and see if it's right for you, if not try to change the lane. Damm! I'm looking up and I typed up War and Peace! Anyway, I don't feel sorry for you or anyone. Why? Some of us don't have another revenue stream like RU-vid yet we are still in the game and making a living doing what we love to do. I used to dig ditches for a living when I was young, so everyday that I'm doing this, is a bonus and I'm grateful. Don't be influenced by influencers on RU-vid thinking that the grass is greener (how the fuck did this dude afford a sprinter van and his work look like a new kid coming out of college??) Lastly, and I'm can attest to this, the life of a one man band is lonely and you are probably feeling that. You miss the collaboration aspect of the business. I worked on a movie set recently and damm it was so much fun talking to people with more knowledge and all us problem solving together. This is what I missed about the "old days"...:o)

The part where you said you’re proving to an audience you barely know that you’re a “real” filmmaker struck a chord with me. Dude you are beyond a real filmmaker. You don’t need to prove anything to anybody, because anybody who’s spent all of 5 minutes on your channel can very clearly see that you are a filmmaker. And I’ll do you one more, I can see that you enjoy this RU-vid stuff. Your quality of RU-vid video is at level where I can see the passion and the fact that you do enjoy it. Someone who didn’t enjoy doing what you’re doing wouldn’t be putting out 🔥 like you are. I enjoy watching your content for that reason and I look forward to your uploads because of this. All this to say, do what you enjoy and what you want to do. You have 2 very good options here, and I heard you say you don’t want to do one of them. So do the other. Just because you’re not getting your RU-vid video ideas from freelance work anymore doesn’t mean that you need to go back to freelance. I saw this video from Rick Rubin today (legendary producer) and he was saying that if you make the work that you want to make and you do it for yourself and nobody else, success will follow every single time. And audiences prefer art you make for yourself vs art you make specifically to keep them happy. That’s why we like original movies and not cheap cash-grab sequels. Regardless of what you do, I’ll be supporting you. You make amazing content and I hope you do what your heart calls you to.

In my opinion, this is a '1 step back, 2 steps forward' scenario. Slow down on the RU-vid stuff. Get more jobs in the industry. Who knows you might venture outside gym stuff and be on set? Then you'll have WAY more content for the RU-vid

all i heard is that you're a canadian. unsubscribing immediately (jk, but still)