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Are you a PRO or amateur?
  • 45 Replies sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    It's not an auspicious thing to shoot funeral here but the money is quite good. The market has lots of potential if you don't mind the taboo. I

    Btw it is great idea for wedding guys. As market has huge potential.

  • kellar42kellar42

    Professional, I guess. Doesn't feel like work, though :)

    http://stuarthooper.com/clientspublications/

  • inqb8trinqb8tr

    Btw it is great idea for wedding guys. As market has huge potential.

    LOL, really sustainable branch

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Sometimes people pay me to push the red button and keep it in focus. Other times I'm just a mobile prop :)

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I define a "pro" as someone who either has a job, or does not have a job. I do not have a job. And yet there are no days off.....

    But, even if you have a job, that doesn't make you a "pro". And so it goes.

    Another way to think about it is if the phone rings, and someone offers you work, and you turn down more than 80 percent of it because you already have too much work, that certainly is a different category.

    I guess if someone asked me if I was a pro or an amateur I would say amateur because I have too much work and I'm afraid they might call, and besides it is kind of stuck up the whole pro thing. Besides, I might suck and not know it yet.

  • inqb8trinqb8tr

    @vicharris Hahah, my good friend DP has ultimate line when he comes to the set: I just push the red button but if I die the aperture is 5.6!

  • vicharrisvicharris

    @inqb8tr Even better!!!

  • JuMoJuMo

    I find this to be a difficult question to answer. It's my only job and I'm certainly no hobbyist. I've got some small awards, operated, edited, written and scored for TV shows, documentaries and films, developed TV shows and multi-media platforms for broadcast networks, even taught a little, but a 'pro'? I think I'd say I'm more of a working creative.

  • aljimenezaljimenez

    Amateur

  • CidCid

    Film School, TV camera operator, freelance DP for publicity, video editor for TV programs, workshops and universitary professor, and some more... if that makes me an amateur or pro I have no idea. I´ve got paid on those. Some felt another day at the office and others a really fun ride.

  • tonalttonalt

    Amateur. And I want to keep this as hobby because otherwise it wouldn't be that much fun.

  • jimmydkjimmydk

    Definitely amateur.

  • dbpdbp

    Well I'm definitely going to retract my 'pro' comment now. Rank (probably lifelong) amateur here!

  • JOFOJOFO

    amateur as well.. just learning how to shoot, but it's hard to tell what is pro... I've seen some footage from guys who calls themselves "pros" but many people tell me, that my footage is looking more pro than their :) but in my opinion, I'm very very amateur :)

  • kendallozkendalloz

    I have been doing freelance photo and writing work for about 15 years as a side job. But video is new for me. Not paid for any video work. Just shoot stuff for fun and for a fishing club. I have shot some fishing footage for guides that they use in shows and talks...but they are my friends and I did not get paid. Did it for fun to help them out a little.

  • arnarfjodurarnarfjodur

    I find it quite interesting how difficult it seems to be for people to define themselves within either category. Actually, a few months back I wrote a small blog post about how I think these categories are shifting - how new requirements in the workforce and new tech redefining these things. It's short, but be warned it has some high brow vocabulary: http://arnarfjodur.tumblr.com/post/46427195594/prosumer-artivist-amateur-hacker

  • maxrmaxr
    An artivist realizes that the opportunity for change lies in how we interact together, not in the incremental properties of the fetish object we spend money on {…}
    An amateur is here not a measurement of the skills of the creator - but it’s relationship to the platform {…} The amateur does this without being an active participant in the system and structures governing his production. An amateur uses the platform as intended

    @arnarfjodur interesting "light" reading =) Don't know why, it brought to mind Bansky's Exit Through the Gift Shop a must see compendium of on/off the clock (added value) contradictions

  • arnarfjodurarnarfjodur

    @maxr I did warn you :)

    Every year, a highter % of the texts, videos, pictures, music etc that we consume comes not from "pros". It might be a music video posted here - or it might by holiday photos from Mexico by my friend on Facebook. The epoch of the pro content creator is in decline. Only a few decades ago, 90% of the texts, pictures, movies etc that an ordinary person would look at would be made by a tiny minority of "pros".

    It is also not easy to distinguish people by what tools they use, it doesn't really make a huge difference any more in most crafts. Aesthetic ability is also a dubious criteria - my friend's holiday photos might be just as "good" as the guy's working in a studio (of course they are usually not).

    Part of what I was saying in this article is that Capitalism is finding new ways to make money out of creativity, now that you can't sell someone a record or a DVD with profit. One way it does this is through platforms that live off our creations (Facebook, Youtube, etc) but more particularly to us on this forum, it is creating this ever growing market ("prosumer") of selling us the idea of us as artists through the buying of stuff.

  • maxrmaxr

    @arnarfjodur

    {...} selling us the idea of us as artists through the buying of stuff.

    IMHO that's the real issue. But I differ a bit from your view in that I think it is not the idea of being/becoming somethin' that's being endorsed. Ultimately it is the sense of belonging, as you said before the opportunity for change lies in how we interact together. In every practical posible and impossible way (in the sense that we don't even know, like the observer changing the phenomena) we are driven to believe that if we want to be accepted, to be respected, to be loved, to be REAL we have to possess and master certain tools/things/assets so we are able to deliver certain product (technical production) and reach particular preestablished goals... which funny enough are changing faster and faster... so either you master them quicker or you deliver a shittier product... are you gonna be happy though? Are there other practical ways of relationing?

    In a way I think humans have always been like this, longing, conquering and distributing power in a specifically stratified way, what seems different now is that effects' scale is almost immediate, tools for brainfucking are highly developed and sophisticated (we are truly confused, bored, sad and longing) and we have finally managed to kill god and replace that idea/concept/mystery/relation/need with a selfie of James Franco; BTW Fuck you James Franco!!! I know, I know waaaayyyy oooffffff tooooppiiiiccccccccccc

  • B3GuyB3Guy

    Right on the fence. I want to school for filmmaking and fine art, just graduated. Ive been paid and unpaid on various projects along the way, though nothing wildly profitable yet . . . so I work at a convenience store to pay the loans.

    Amature, I guess, for now. But one that is fast becoming equipped to go pro in some way or another.

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