Filmmaker & Digital Artist Wayne Sables
About this episode…
FILMMAKER & DIGITAL ARTIST WAYNE SABLES
After years as professional dancer, Wayne started to make moves in a new direction.
He picked up a camera and taught himself filmmaking. At first shooting what he knew - the dance world. Before stepping out into other genres and techniques including projection mapping and light installations.
After a decade of freelancing Wayne’s realising the power of working with other freelancers. Both in promoting his business, pushing himself creatively and making his business bigger than just himself.
Read the highlights in the next tab.
EARLY WORK FOR FREE
Wayne started out as a dancer and is a self-taught film maker. His early work was with people he knew in the dance world, learning his new craft as he went.
“A lot of my early stuff I did for free. There's lots of value in doing that. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily advocate for that now having been in industry for a while, but at the time it was absolutely on my terms. So I went to people and said, ‘can I film this? Can I make this? Can I do this?”
GETTING CLEAR ON WHAT YOU DO
Wayne continued working as a dancer/choreographer alongside his new film work. But it was when he finally decided to concentrate on just one thing that it all became clearer for both him and those who would refer or hire him…
“So the minute I said, 'I'm not a dancer anymore, I'm not a choreographer anymore', that's when my perception of what I do changed, which then meant other people's perception of what I do changed -so I muddied the waters for myself.
Being really clear about what it is that you offer and being really clear about what work you want to put out in the world. When I stopped trying to do everything and I really refined down what I want to do - that's when I started getting a lot more work. And I'm really, really lucky to have a real mix of clients now.”
LEARNING NOT TO DO IT ALL YOURSELF
Particularly over the past couple of years, Waynes learned a lot about not doing it all himself…
“It's great if you can do everything, but the danger is you also limit yourself when you do everything. Yes, you can keep budgets low and you might get lots of work. You might be booked up and run around like a headless chicken for five years. But I had to take a step back and go, is that what I want to do? Do I want to be working 12 hours a day, six days a week making alright money, but feeling completely overwhelmed all the time?”
BLOG POSTS AND PR
Wayne has put a lot of effort into his website and SEO. He’s even hired other freelancers to help him ‘be found’. PR not only gets him noticed but also provides valuable backlinks from trusted sites to his own…
“I have a copywriter that writes blogs for me. And I have a PR person I pay monthly and every time I get a project, they do the PR for me - increasing that exposure online, increasing that searchability - it's coming from different angles.
It's one less job that I need to think about and need to do. Really I'm learning the value of maximizing my time. What I really love to do, is make work and what I really don't like to do is publicise and sell that work.”
UPSKILLING IN THE QUIET SPELLS
All freelancers have busy months and quieter ones. Wayne now takes the time with no work, to work on himself…
“I take them as a blessing now. Before I used to really panic when I'd have a month that was really quiet, but now I take them as an opportunity to learn something new or an opportunity to dive deeper into something that I'm already trying to explore.
When you work digitally, you're always learning. There's always something else that another company has brought out that can enhance your workflow. So I spend time invested in that and I try to upskill myself as much as I can.”
COLLABORATIONS
We might be solo workers, but there’s strength in others. The networks Wayne had built in his dance career gave him a strong start to his filmmaker career. And now collaborating with others pushes him creatively and stops him feeling isolated.
“I'd tell my younger self to 'build networks and build collaborations'. Because some of the most fulfilling work I've ever done is with other people and it's outside of my comfort zone.
…You know, the real challenge of being an independent is it's quite lonely sometimes. And I do like my own company, but I get bored of myself as well. So being able to work on a project with other people, not only sparks creative ideas but on a really practical level, it means you're not on your own”
“Come out of your comfort zone…
Come out of your comfort zone, build collaborations and partnerships.”
Wayne Sables, Filmmaker & Digital Artist
More from WAYNE SABLES
Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and Freelance Filmmaker & Digital Artist Wayne Sables
Steve Folland:
As ever, how about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance.
Wayne Sables:
So I originally trained as a contemporary and ballet dancer.
Steve Folland:
I knew we had so much in common.
Wayne Sables:
I know, I've seen the videos. So I had a career as a dancer for 10 or so years. I was really lucky, touring all over the world. And then I kind of fell out of love with it really, and then retrained as a filmmaker between 2006 and 2009, primarily with the aim of working within dance, but as a film maker. And then I think I'm a bit of a chancer really because from there I have that really weird brain - I look at something and I go, oh, I think I could do that. That doesn't look that difficult, which is the same with film.
Wayne Sables:
So when I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker I was touring the USA. I was in New York, walking to the studio one day and I saw this big film shoot happening. I'll never forget, there's this really amazing woman on the top of a firetruck rolling down the street and all these cameras were filming it. And I thought, oh, I'd like to do that. Not be on top of a firetruck, just to add that caveat, but the people filming it.
Wayne Sables:
So I literally went out and bought a little camera and started filming. So that's how I ended up becoming a filmmaker and then I did the same with projection mapping. I was at a light night festival a few years ago and I just thought, oh, that doesn't look that different to filmmaking. I think I'd like to try that. So I went up to the chaps that were projection mapping and just said, can I come and hang out with you for a bit because this looks really interesting.
Wayne Sables:
And they were really gracious and said, yeah, if you want to come and spend your own time with us, by all means, fully not expecting me to turn up the next day. So I kind of knocked on their door the next day and just went, right, let's go make some stuff. So then I learned how to projection map and I combined the two. And then more recently I was thinking I'd quite like to develop this a little bit further because I felt I'd gone as far as I could go with my skillset. And I was at another light night festival. And I thought, oh, I wonder if I could make a light installation because you know, film and projection uses light, can't be that difficult. So right now I'm in the midst of creating a prototype for a new outdoor light installation. And I should say my naivety along the way of going 'it isn't that difficult', absolutely steered me in the right direction to try this stuff. Had I not been as naive? I would never have done it because it is that difficult.
Steve Folland:
So from dancer to chancer, so much to talk about. You mentioned the fact that you went and studied film. So did you do that alongside your dance career or did you simply take a break?
Wayne Sables:
So I'm a self-taught filmmaker really. So 2006 is when I picked up my first camera, all we had back then and you'll remember these well, Steve - all we had is books and a head full of dreams. So I read lots of books and I just made stuff. So I tried things and I got it wrong a lot. I'm dyslexic ,so I'm not great at kind of reading papers and learning off the page. So for me, the best way was just to actually pick something up and go make stuff, edit it, learn the software and do it all as one process.
Steve Folland:
When it came to actually making a living from it, though, how did you start to get clients?
Wayne Sables:
For about two or three years I had this parallel career. So I was still performing. I was still choreographing, I was still performing. So I had this dual career. And then I was developing my film practice, but I used myself as a test subject because at that point my vision was to make dance film. I kind of had everything I needed: I had a body which was me, I had a camera and then I just had the idea to go out and make stuff. So I started to build a portfolio of dance film primarily with myself, or I'd film my own work. And then I started slowly getting known for making dance film and less for choreography or performing. So when I finally hung up my dance jockstrap, people were already knowing me as a filmmaker, as a dance filmmaker. And then actually from there, it was a lot simpler to start making other styles of film and coming outside of that dance genre. So it felt less of a leap because I'd already had three years kind of learning my craft.
Steve Folland:
But the first clients were dance.
Wayne Sables:
Yeah. So dance companies, independent dance artists - to be completely blunt: friends, really. So people that I've performed with. And a lot of my early stuff I did for free. There's lots of value in doing that. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily advocate for that now having been in industry for a while, but at the time it was absolutely on my terms in terms of making it. So I went to people said, can I film this? Can I make this? Can I do this? So that took a lot of pressure off because I was working with people that I knew really well. And I knew that choreographic processes really well. So I was able to film, I guess, at that point slightly differently to what they'd seen from non dance trained filmmakers.
Wayne Sables:
So I then started applying for commissions. So the first job I ever got, which I don't know if I would have been brave enough to apply for it had I started now, but I got a big documentary commission for a local council. And I think a lot of it is serendipitous really. So the arts council officer at the time was an artist. So he'd seen my kind of my artwork and thought actually, that's a really interesting approach. And he really supported me in those early days, transitioning into documentary filmmaking. As with these things, once you've made one thing in a genre, it's easy to keep making things inside of that genre. The challenge that I did have actually, which I'm still kind of figuring out 10, 15 years on is: in different cities around where I live, I was known for different things. So in Leeds, I was like the dance film guy, In Barnsley I was the documentary film guy, and in Doncaster, I was the dancer still, even though I had not danced for many years. So that actually was my biggest challenge - kind of unifying all of that in all of those cities to go, actually, you know, I do this and I do all of those things but it falls under the filmmaking umbrella.
Steve Folland:
How did you overcome that?
Wayne Sables:
I think it was a threefold thing, really. So firstly, it was actively articulating it to people and saying, no, I do this, this and this. It was then actually making work in those genres, so I had a portfolio. So curating your online presence it's really important in terms of finding the work you want to do. So I was quite early on in terms of curating my website and creating my Google My Business presence and all of those things. So when people were searching online, I was ranking and coming up. So that opened a lots of doors that an email wouldn't necessarily have opened. So by the time I spoke to X person in York, for example, I was searchable online and had a body of work.
Steve Folland:
So you've done the work for free. You've got the first client that isn't dance in the form of council. So a really good client as well. How did the business evolve? How did the work keep coming in?
Wayne Sables:
So looking back now, I guess it was quite sporadic. If I'm honest with you, I didn't really know what I was doing that much. So I was kind of applying for everything and trying to do everything. Trying to do everything and not doing any of it to my full potential. The minute I publicly it was... it was kind of like coming out to the world as a 'non dancer'.
Wayne Sables:
So the minute I came out and went, 'I'm not a dancer anymore, I'm not a choreographer anymore', actually that's when I think my perception of what I do changed, which then other people's perception of what I do changed -so I muddied the waters for myself. And, you know, I've heard a lot of this from lots of great people you've spoken to on the podcast around being really clear about what it is that you offer and being really clear about what work you want to put out in the world. So when I stopped trying to do everything and I really refined down what I want to do - that's when I started getting a lot more work. And I'm really, really lucky to have a real mix of clients now.
Wayne Sables:
So I work for like big organisations. I still work in dance and I feel much more connected to dance now as a digital artist than I ever did as a dancer, I get to work with a lot of friends that are still artists. So I get to do all of those arts based projects or corporate type projects. And then also I get to make my own work because I have an arts background. I can still work with the arts council and work with various cultural organisations to bring all of that understanding of the arts and my experience in the arts and then turn that into a digital product, whether it be a projection map to performance or whether it be a film - that I think still keeps those core principles of the organisation, but has a wider kind of appeal to a general audience.
Steve Folland:
When you say you can create your own projects with the Arts Council - how would you describe the Arts Council for people around the world?
Wayne Sables:
The Arts Council is a phenomenal thing. It's a funding organisation, so it has a finite amount of money that it can distribute to artists and organisations. So not everybody can get funding all the time and it is absolutely a lottery when you apply for funding, you might have the best idea in the world (and of course we all think we've got the best idea in the world when we're applying for funding), but it's not a guaranteed way to fund the project. But because I've been funded from the arts council since I graduated university in 2001 as a dancer, I'm able to have conversations with them and go, 'oh, I'm thinking of fusing this art with this digital medium'.
Wayne Sables:
Now that doesn't mean that it's fundable and it has no way any bearing on whether I get funding. But I think I have enough contact that I'm able to send an email and say, can I have a conversation about this? Which I think is really, really important with funding organisations that they're really approachable and you're able to have conversations. What I should say is there's a really strict set of criteria that you have to hit for the Arts Council: it has to have social impact, it has to have a social value, it has to have an audience engagement model around it. So it's not just, Hey, I have an idea, ere's a funding bid, let's apply for funding. I mean, it's quite an involved process and you have to have partners on board. And I think what I'm saying that probably I'm not articulating very well is: because I've been in the arts industry for so long, I've got enough relationships that I've built up over time that I'm able to go to X cultural organisations and say I'd really like to make a digital project with dancers or with visual artists, can we build a project together? The social outcome would be X, Y, and Z, or the wider appeal, organisational pillar would be X, Y, and Z, for example.
Steve Folland:
It feels like there's often a lot of people involved in making film. Do you just do it all yourself? Or do you hire others? Collaborate with others?
Wayne Sables:
So I do both actually. So I'm the atypical producer-shooter, the atypical independent filmmaker. I write the theme tune, I sing the theme tune and all of those things, and that's great. It's really great to be flexible. And it's great if you can do all of those things, but of course the danger is there, and I'm just realising this over the last 18 months really - is you also limit yourself when you do everything. Yes, you can keep budgets low and you might get lots of work. You might be booked up and run around like a headless chicken for five years, but I had to take a step back and go, is that what I want to do? Do I want to be working 12 hours a day, six days a week making alright money, but feeling completely overwhelmed all the time?
Wayne Sables:
So what I've started doing now is I started building a freelance team that I work with and that's actually opened up other opportunities in other jobs. Sometimes I lead the job. So I direct the piece and I might just bring a sound engineer in, and it's the two of us. And we double up on cinematography and lights, or sometimes depending on the project, we'll have a team of five, but also what that's done for me is it means that those people I'm collaborating with are also bringing me into their jobs. So I might do the sound for somebody else this week, and next week, they're doing the sound for me or vice versa. So that's been a bit of a revelation for me really recently, and actually, you know, there's enough work to go around. You know, the real challenge of being an independent is it's quite lonely sometimes. And I do like my own company, but I get bored of myself as well. So being able to work on a project with other people, not only sparks creative ideas but on a really practical level, it means you're not on your own.
Steve Folland:
How have you found managing that scenario and managing the finances?
Wayne Sables:
Managing people is a whole skillset in itself. I do it, but it doesn't come easy to me to do that, which is why I think I had such a long time just working on my own. Cause it's easier to get myself there then to arrange to get other people there. In terms of finances, I think I'm quite frugal. So, you know, I'm Northern - I grew up in a very atypical Northern town. So I learnt to manage my money really on. You know, I was working from being 14 years old - I used to bag sawdust in a saw mill at 14.
Steve Folland:
Wow. And then you became a dancer? This really is a film.
Wayne Sables:
I know right? Billy Elliot who? So from an early age I've tried to be really frugal. So I'm that guy that gets my fee and 20% goes into the account there - that's my tax. Right. Well, actually I don't need that 70% so I'm going to put another 20% in my rainy day fund because you know, when you're freelance, it ebbs and flows. So there are months where I have very little work and there are months where I have lots of work. So when I have little work, I have my 20% that I've put away. So I try to kind of live really simply with my life in terms of my expenses. And then that 20% rainy day fund, funds my equipment when I need to upgrade my equipment or funds that slow week or whatever it is really. So I am that really boring guy that gets my budget and goes so the budget is X, so I need X for that. I need X for that. That's our travel costs, that's our fee. And I break every thing down, which in the last 18 months (of the pandemic) has actually served me in good stead.
Steve Folland:
You mentioned equipment. That's another thing I think about when I think of filmmakers is the amount of equipment and presumably insurance and things like that - there's a lot involved.
Wayne Sables:
Steve Folland:
So you mentioned office. So do you have a workplace where you go to?
Wayne Sables:
Well, yes and no. So I did have a shared office and then when COVID hit that all closed down. So I started working from home like the rest of the world. So I'm currently now looking to go back to a shared office space because part of me is really personable, I want to be with people and I love being in an office space where loads of stuff's happening. But when you are editing, sometimes you just need to disappear into a dark corner. So yeah, I'm currently looking for an office space.
Steve Folland:
But you prefer being in that office or co-work space environment?
Wayne Sables:
Yeah, absolutely. I want my cake and I want to eat it. I want to be in a space where there's lots of people and lots of creative people busy around me, but I also want to be able to retreat and disappear into a room on my own when it becomes a little bit too overwhelmed.
Steve Folland:
Do you work as a business name or as your own name?
Wayne Sables:
So I have a business name. It's called Wayne Sables project. And it comes from my dance days really. So I had a producer - as a dancer - she had lots of clients and on her likespreadsheet, she just went 'oh it's a Wayne Sables project'. And it just stuck. And I did try to change my name about 10 years ago, my business name and nobody ever used it. And they just kept using Wayne Sables Project.
Steve Folland:
And even though you're hiring other people, clearly people find that you're at the core of it.
Wayne Sables:
Yeah. I mean, it has been a bit of a challenge with some clients because they go, 'oh, I expected you to turn up' and I go, 'oh, okay. Yeah. Well actually I'm on another job somewhere else'. So it has been an interesting thing to kind of negotiate in terms of growth.
Steve Folland:
I see. So you might send people out on a shoot and not go yourself.
Wayne Sables:
And there's loads of things that go on there for me. So like, I don't mind saying this on the podcast, Steve, I'm a little bit of a control freak. Yeah. I get a little bit anxious if I'm not there. So for me, it's really good to have other people that you trust that you can go, 'oh, you guys go do that and I'll go do this'. And it means we can do more work. And it's helping me get over my need to control everything.
Steve Folland:
The business can keep going. If you were, for example, off sick.
Wayne Sables:
Yeah. Which is a real thing when you're freelance - if you're not working, you're not earning. Or if you go on holiday, there's always that consideration to go, right. If I take two weeks off here, I've potentially lost X amount and you just have to kind of deal with it and go, okay, look, it is what it is. Whereas if you can work with other people under your company name, at least, you know, that potentially you can still have revenue coming in whilst you are away.
Steve Folland:
So I introduce you as a freelance filmmaker and digital artist. We've kind of touched upon the fact that you might now create a light installation, dabbling in projection mapping. Also live streaming, it sounds like you've gradually added more and more strings to that bow.
Wayne Sables:
When you say it out loud, it sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But for me, they're all kind of natural extensions to the previous one. So live streaming for example, is just live recording really. So it's filmmaking. But because it goes out live, obviously it's a little bit more pressure, but I started my career filming live shows, filming live dance shows. So for me it was one extra piece of kit to start live streaming. So it felt really, really natural to be able to do that.
Steve Folland:
And did that come about, because somebody asked you, oh, we're thinking of doing this thing or did you go to people and say, Hey, have you thought about doing this thing?
Wayne Sables:
It came about from me. So I was doing a project with a dance in health charity in Leeds that I work with a lot. And they had a showcase and I get far too excited sometimes and I say things and I don't realise that I've said and my mouth runs away with me. And I just said, one day when they were in the studio, you know what you should do instead of filming it and sending it out, just live stream it. And it was before the infrastructure was in place - this was about five or six years ago - so there was only really one or two platforms that could handle live streaming, but I'd said it out loud and the director said 'Yeah. Alright, let's do that'. So I had to kind of go away and then just learn how to do it.
Steve Folland:
Instead it's become a skill that's much in demand,
Wayne Sables:
Definitely more recently with everything that's gone on in the world, and with this hybrid thing that we have right now, it's definitely become more of a thing. Before 2019, it was quite ad hoc, really. So I'd really only live streamed with maybe one or two clients and my own work, to be honest. So financially, it wasn't big, it didn't make me any money, but you know, the side benefit to that was that it increased my portfolio and it increased my profile online. And it gave me a bank of work online so that when everything hit (wity COVID), when people were searching 'live streaming' in my area, I was coming up as somebody that had done this previously. So it's only really taken off by accident this last two years.
Steve Folland:
You'd accidentally built up all this SEO - and actual experience to be fair - in it. So did that also mean that when it came to the pandemic, that because you had these different elements to your business, that you were able to keep working?
Wayne Sables:
Yeah. So, I mean, it's a little bitter sweet if I'm honest, the pandemic for me, because I've only had like three or four weeks off during the whole affair really. Because I'm digital and, you know, early on, obviously lots of organisations, were kind of going, 'we still have a program we have to deliver because we have certain outputs we need to reach, so we need to move all of this online..' I was able to pivot really quickly and offer that service to organisations. So I was able to almost become a digital consultant in the sense that I was able to go, 'right, well, here's the infrastructure you need, I can come in, obviously with all COVID rules, set all that up, or I can get you up and running, and then I can mentor you through the process". So I did that for about five or six organisations, both in the UK and actually abroad during the pandemic. So for me, obviously, I was incredibly thankful to be working, but I was very aware that a lot of my colleagues weren't working. So it was really positive, but in a really weird way.
Steve Folland:
Yeah. That element of guilt.
Wayne Sables:
Yeah.
Steve Folland:
You said about curating your online presence.You mentioned Google My Business. It sounded like you've put a lot into that.
Wayne Sables:
So I've always had a website from when I first set up as a freelancer, but obviously it was as a dancer. So I had to rebuild it in 2009 and then subsequently rebuilt it again during the pandemic. But when I was building the website and learning how all of that works, I came across this thing called Google My Business. And early on, I was very aware that Google is collecting data and doing its wonderful thing where it kind of refreshes and you need to keep uploading content. And then I realised one day that when I went on to Google that there was this side panel that was Google My Business. I realised that my rankings were getting higher and higher because I was updating Google My Business. So I started using it almost as a social media platform, like Instagram and like Twitter, you know, all of the social media stuff where you update content regularly. So I use Google My Business the same as that. So if I'm sending something to Instagram, I'll also send it to Google My Business with my location, data and stuff, because then if anybody searches that particular topic, I'll be in the mix.
Steve Folland:
As an example. Let's say you're doing a live stream of a dance thing, and you've added that to Instagram. You've then also added to Google My Business with a description...
Wayne Sables:
Yeah. So I use a third party application that sends it to all of them. And so I only upload it onto one platform. and then it reformats it, so it's Instagram appropriate, Facebook appropriate and so on. But what you can do is you can add your location data just for specific social media. So I can just say, actually, I'm in Leeds. So I had location data for Leeds for Google My Business. Then I'll put a description about what I'm doing. So 'live streaming X dance performance today at said organisation'. So I put all the key indicators that people might search in my description. And then, you know, Steve, when you're in Leeds and you're doing your welcome back tour to dance and you go, 'I need this live streaming' live stream dance Leeds. It pops up.
Steve Folland:
What's the app?
Wayne Sables:
So, there are lots and lots of different ones, but I use something called Publer just because...
Steve Folland:
It's got the word 'pub' in it?
Wayne Sables:
Yeah. It's got the word pub in it and let's be honest most of our business does happen there.
Steve Folland:
Publer... and it will put it to Google My Business. That's great. And what about reviews? Do you ask for reviews?
Wayne Sables:
So I'm really rubbish at newsletters and it is on my to-do list to get better at it. So, what I normally do is I ask for reviews through social media channels because actually I get quite a bit of work through social media. So every two or three months, I'll just put a post saying, if we worked together and you're happy, please leave me a review and here's the link. So I make it really simple to click it. And it takes you to that page because, you know, we're all fighting our attention online aren't we?
Steve Folland:
You wouldn't just email them after you've done the job?
Wayne Sables:
No, I probably should, if I'm honest. But again... so I'm slowly learning the value of outsourcing as well. That's why Publer is great because for me, I still have a little bit of control. It's one message. And it goes to all those different platforms. I don't need to continually upload it to different areas. But I am looking at outsourcing a newsletter at the moment.
Steve Folland:
With a copywriter?
Wayne Sables:
Yeah. So, so I've done it with my blogs. I have a copywriter that writes blogs for me. We do it between us. I'll write some and she'll write some just to keep content going over. And again, just to keep Google indexing and optimising my website.
Steve Folland:
How often would you add any blog post?
Wayne Sables:
So I should really be doing it every week. But I do it kind of every couple of weeks really.
Steve Folland:
When it comes to your copywriter... How does that relationship work?
Wayne Sables:
So we have an online Google drive document - there's a list of questions in there that I answer every time I'm doing a project or every time I'm doing something I think blog worthy. I'll answer all the questions for her and then that instantly sends it to her. And then the other thing that I started doing about two years ago is, I have a PR person I pay monthly and every time I get a project, they do the PR for me. So again, it's just increasing that exposure online, increasing that searchability - it's coming from different angles. So the other thing that I wasn't aware of until recently is that it's all well and good having all of the stuff on your website, but actually Google needs to authenticate you and anybody can put things on a website. So to have your name mentioned, or have back links or things in trade magazines, for example, all adds to that kind of credibility of Google making sure you are who you say you are. So I started working with a PR and that's been great actually, cause that's actually brought work in.
Steve Folland:
In all 260+ episodes of this podcast I'm not sure I've specifically heard someone say they've hired a PR before. So the PR person does what?
Wayne Sables:
So if I'm doing, like this light installation I'm researching at the moment - so I'll do lots of video. I'll take lots of film that I would anyway for social media, but then I'll send that to them and then we'll have a meeting every month and I'll explain all the projects that I'm working on and who are the funders, what's the project, all of that information. And then they'll write an article about it and they'll send that to the local newspapers or they'll send it to trade publications and so on. And then that gets published or sometimes it gets picked up. So, you know, I was on the local BBC news for a documentary that I made a couple of months ago that is in the festival circuit. So they just increase exposure really. It doesn't mean it's going to get picked up, but it just means it gets put in front of people that potentially could publish it. It's kind of one less job that I need to think about and need to do. Really I'm learning the value of maximizing my time. What I really love to do, is make work and what I really don't like to do is publicise and sell that work.
Steve Folland:
So have we covered all the ways that Wayne Sables and Wayne Sables Project makes money? All of your revenue streams?
Wayne Sables:
I do have a couple of other things. So during lockdown, I lost everything in a week, so the first month I kind of did very little. So I thought, well, what have I been putting off? And I wanted to do a series of online courses. So I built a course around editing, using the software that I use to edit on. I built a course around smartphone filmmaking because, you know, I was at home and I wanted to still make stuff in those early days. And I've built a course around projection mapping.
Wayne Sables:
All of these are available online, that people can purchase. I mean, interestingly having them online has actually brought me work in. So as a result of having those online, I've taken on a couple of jobs where I'm mentoring artists that are transitioning from movement into digital. So what started off as a knee-jerk reaction has become a really nice side hustle. I don't like the word hustle, but side project. So that's been a really interesting avenue for me - something I would never have done had we not had all of that time and space at the beginning.
Steve Folland:
Where do you host the courses?
Wayne Sables:
So they're on multiple platforms. Vimeo On Demand is my preferred platform. That's just because I don't have to give 50% of it away to the hosting platform. I mean they're the same price across all of the platforms. And then it's also on Skillshare and on Udemy.
Steve Folland:
So it's okay to put the same on each place?
Wayne Sables:
So you own the content, right? So you're allowed to put them wherever you want. What I do do is, each one has a couple of videos that are specific to that platform as well. Just covering my own back really to say that actually they are different.
Steve Folland:
Interesting. And so it's brought you work, has it also worked the way where you might hope - bringing you income?
Wayne Sables:
Yeah. So like I'm never ever going to be able to retire on it in any way, shape or form, but it brings me a couple of hundred pounds a month which actually covers all my insurances for my equipment and indemnity insurance and all those things. So it kind of pays for that really. So I treat it as a little bonus each month. I mean, the thing is, is it's a little bit sporadic - some months it might be 200 pounds some months it might be 90 pounds, so it's not the same guaranteed every month, but it's a nice little bonus.
Steve Folland:
You said that there were months where you might not have that much work on - what do you do when it comes to those?
Wayne Sables:
I take them as a blessing now. So before I used to really panic when I'd have a month that was really quiet, but now I take them as an opportunity to learn something new or it's an opportunity to dive deeper into something that I'm already trying to explore. And when you work digitally, you're always learning. There's always something else that another company has brought out that can enhance your workflow. So I spend time invested in that and I try to upskill myself as much as I can.
Steve Folland:
It sounds like experimentation is big in what you do - do you make time for experimenting?
Wayne Sables:
Yeah, absolutely. I'm getting better now the older I get, so I'm really good at going 'right this week block is for this and I'm taking no work on for this', but for me I love playing, I love kind of trying new things out and I love looking at something and going, I don't know if I can do that, but I'd like to try. And I think for me that's taken me into loads of really interesting ways to apply what I do in different environments.
Steve Folland:
If you could tell your younger self, one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Wayne Sables:
So I'd tell myself 'build networks and build collaborations'. Because some of the most fulfilling work I've ever done is with other people and it's outside of my comfort zone. And it's taken me into other areas of work like projection mapping and all those things. So come out of your comfort zone, build collaborations and build partnerships.