BUILDINGA CAREER CASE STUDY
Most work, however, comes by word of mouth and maintaining connections on a job-by-job basis. They also landed a commission to film and interview Sir Richard Branson for his book launch for Penguin Live via a personal contact. Chloe admits “I was so nervous before the shoot, but on the day it was such a whirlwind that we were running on adrenalin and I coped by going into autopilot!” One of the biggest boosts to Sam and Chloe’s growing business has been the decision, taken a year ago, to relocate to Putney in west London. While the couple initially worried that this would naturally put their overheads up substantially, the increased amount of networking that their more central location has enabled has paid remarkable dividends, to the point where financially the couple are actually better off. They also now find themselves positively surrounded by a thriving community of creative freelancers, a pool of talent that’s willing to collaborate.
I’mmore of a realist who thinks about what would or wouldn’t work. I tend to do the logistics and Sam directs and shoots, but we share the editing and colouring and work together on the conceptual side of things. What’s really good is that we tend to get stressed out by different things so, despite being in some incredibly challenging situations at times, one of us can usually calm the other one down!” Finding work The perennial problem for freelancers in the creative industries is how to find work, and Sam and Chloe spent the first fewmonths of their new career sending emails out to a wide list of potential commercial clients. As so many have discovered for themselves, however, this approach tends to yield little positive response, but it certainly wasn’t a wasted effort since it did manage to net them a company that remains one of their best clients.
ABOVE Sam Johnson and Chloe Robinson always wanted to establish a career in filmmaking, but getting the chance to make a film for Comic Relief provided the push they needed to give up the day jobs and go for it full time. means that we can be more competitive on pricing than a company supporting a team of employees. Whoever we hire in, however, we always make sure that we’re in control of the job and we never let it leave our sight.” “To start with, we did jobs for very little money and said yes to everything, just to get the experience,” says Sam. “At that point we were living with my parents near Brighton and so we had no rent to worry about and our overheads were low, and that gave us the chance to take our time and to focus on getting the foundations of the business absolutely right.” Fortunately Sam and Chloe discovered early on that they have complementary skills, which enabled them to work together well. “Sam is very creative with all the big ideas,” explains Chloe, “while
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AUTUMN 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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