Everyone must explore their creative side. Yes. Everyone. Without exception. This is especially true in the light of the ever-uncertain job scenario and to build in an additional income stream. Of course, it is not as easy as it sounds. If you are talkative and introverted, you could try voicing. If you are talkative and extroverted, you could start a Youtube channel about something, anything. If you drew well as a child, you should do something around drawing. Like storyboarding. There’s a person I heard of quite some time back, who’s an expert in sharpening pencils. If you have a lot of medicine bottles lying around, maybe you can do something with it. If you liked gardening, there are so

It seems to me that the full-time salary model is no longer the default mode of #employment. Large staff = Large office = Large cost, especially in a city like Mumbai with prohibitive real estate costs. Speaking for myself as a first-generation #entrepreneur, this is suicidal. Also, all said and done, #firing is not easy. A project-to-project involvement is more viable, especially in our kind of business where we work with equals, and can cull in #experts of different kinds in different combinations from project-to-project. Moreover, #remuneration is linked to performance and not attendance. Also, now there are no longer any distances, and we can work with #talent spread the #world over. So

One person who’s doing wonders with Video is Kezia Noble. Reasons why, IMO: Humongous content, so so many Videos that one or the other Video is bound to throw up in random, unrelated searches. Also, anyone who can create so so many Videos is bound to be an authority. You cannot create so much content on borrowed knowledge. Simply shot, but with flawless audio.

It can be argued that the dice is loaded against first #generation #entrepreneurs, so much so that first generation entrepreneurs almost do not stand a chance. Of course, there have always been successful first generation entrepreneurs and there always will be, but there might be merit in examining things from the above perspective. There are many things we do not know, the kind of knowledge which can be gleaned only through growing up in a #business family. Such as (and this is just the tip of the #iceberg) how to #negotiate, the various #techniques. what kind of relationship to have with your team, how to ensure that you are not losing a mile while taking an inch, how to do maximum dealing

This was in #2004 or roundabout. We had a meeting with a #Corporate Honcho, head of a #Company which is considered among the biggest #debacles of #Corporate #India. At that point when we met him, he was blacklisted by the #RBI, a fact he himself informed us about. “My travel agent gets a car loan, I don’t”, he said .For obvious reasons, I will take no names. We were meeting him for a #Corporate #Film they were planning to do. The Film was to be directed by the most promising young Directors of the day. And I was writing it. We were sitting in the restaurant of #JW Marriott, Juhu. “What stupid things we did. We had #Rs 800 #crores and we simply threw it away”, he said. And then pointing towar

From my experience over the last 2-odd years, my one suggestion to this Govt is to simplify the #Tendering/RFQ process for #VIDEO PRODUCTION in #Govt organisations/#PSUs. We are #creative people (somewhat, if not too much) and this process is simply too complicated for us. In fact, it’s 10 times more draining than the work itself – with its hundreds of clauses, assprted Legalities, requirement of L1 and occasionally Bank Guarantee, and no advance. After all, if a service provider (any service provider for that matter) is reasonably proficient, they can focus on other opportunities, without worrying about these endless formalities. My suggestion (yes it’s audacious) to Govt organisations/PSUs

As a #service provider, or let us say, media-related service provider, what will you include as your ‘#Fine Print’. In our case, Fine Print is not so fine and clients do read all of it. This is something we need to think about. There was a #Computer Graphics team closely aligned with us a few years ago, but I must still make a mention of their Fine Print. Their Estimates used to come with some 15-20 points as the Fine Print, two of which I remember: - At least 80% of the material must be given to us before we start. - Face-to-face meetings must be kept to a minimum. Maximum communication must be done on phone, email or #skype. There was another Estimate a client had shown me once, which ag

There’s a parable by #FranzKafka which goes like this: A man goes to his stables and asks his assistant to bring his horse. Assistant : “Sir, where are you going ?” Man: “Away from here”. Assistant: “Away from here “? Man: “Yes. As long as I keep getting ‘Away from here’, I’ll reach my destination. ‘Away from here’. A #philosophy for #life and #work. Thoughts welcome.

There’s a #scene in #GovindNihalani’s ‘#ArdhSatya’ which goes like this. The characters of Shafi Inamdar, Om Puri and a third police officer finish a meeting, sit in a taxi and are about to leave from the place. Suddenly a voice is heard off camera: “Excuse me gentlemen”. By then, the doors of the taxi are shut and the taxi is about to leave. Now, we see suspended Inspector Mike Lobo, played by Naseeruddin Shah. Naseeruddin Shah: “Excuse me gentlemen. Excuse me.” By then the taxi is leaving and Om Puri asks for it to stop. Naseeruddin Shah taps Om Puri’s window. Om Puri opens the window. Naseeruddin Shah (after Om Puri opens his window): “Can you lend me some money please? Can you lend me

This was a few years ago. I had mailed our Profile and #Showreel to a #client in #Bengaluru, and then he called me. “Can you mail me your #methodology in half an hour ? he said. Wow. What a brilliant way of knowing whether a person or team or company knows their job to professional satisfaction. Beyond #Profiles, #Portfolios, #Showreels and Samples, it’s almost foolproof, calling for years of experience to be distilled into a few lines, not even a full page. Moreover, required to be communicated in a short 30 minutes, so the person has no time to cross-check with anyone else and must rely on her or his own knowledge. Of course, I mailed him our methodology in 10 minutes.

There’s a photographer whose name I will not take. He is not a very hot-shot photographer, but whenever I call him he has work, he’s at a shoot, which is a lot to be said about any creative professional. A few years ago, I had copied his whatsapp status, which is as follows: “Apni keemat itni rakh ki adaa ho sake’ Anmol ho gaye toh tanha ho jaayoge, Taash ka khel ho ya zindagi, Apna ikka tab dikhao jab saamne waala baadshah ho”. “Quote a price which is affordable by your market, If you become priceless, you will walk a lonely path, Whether it’s a game of card or life itself, Reveal your aces when the person facing you is King.” #creativity #pricing #av #corporatevideo #eyeqfilms

Issues with creativity: “I make cycles of gold. I will charge Rs 5 lakhs for each piece.” Boss (or lady), what you are saying is absolutely right;. Your cycle is worth not one rupee less than Rs 5 lakhs. But what will a person do with a cycle made of gold ? Only a cycle made of iron can be put to daily use. #creativity #pricing#eyeqfilms #video #corporate “Sir, give me 2 days. I’ll do a fantastic job”. Boss (or lady) the event is tomorrow. We need to mail the client an acceptable quality by tonight. Issues with creativity #creativity #eyeqfilms #video #corporate

If you are a creative person, it can be safely concluded that money-matters are not your strength. That’s a problem. You could be the greatest talent ever born, but a transaction happens only when supply meets demand at a certain price. Of course, we needed to open this subject with pricing, but as we all know, pricing is a big big subject and even reams are not enough to address this complicated issue, therefore let us not elaborate on this here. However, other things are also extremely important. You must be able to send the client a Formal Estimate with break-ups. Trust me, this is not as easy as it sounds and many creative people find it well nigh impossible. Are you going to ask for an

In our business, technical surprises are a certainty. Sharing one such episode. A while back, we were doing a project. Finally, it was time to take the final product. I carry a 32GB pen drive. The project size was 8GB. The operator tried all he could, but the 8GB project simply wasn’t getting transferred to the 32 GB pen drive. The main editor had by then left for a pre-scheduled holiday (another pitfall of our business). After struggling for a while, the operator called the owner of the Studio. He informed us – “You will need to convert your pen drive to NTFS format.” He tried converting the pen drive to NTFS on his laptop. After about 15 minutes, the capacity of my pen drive was reduced to

What if Watson were the senior partner in a Sherlock Holmes film ? The real brains, as it were. Such is the audacious, incredulous premise of the 1988 film WITHOUT A CLUE, starring Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley and Jeffrey Jones. The single-greatest challenge of this Film ? Of course, the character of Sherlock Holmes, complete with his idiosyncracies. He has to be sufficiently daft with respect to Watson, because after all, that is the premise of the Film. So for example, in a sword fight with Moriarty, he cannot even wield a sword Yet he has to be within control and pivotal at crucial moments. After all, all said and done, he is Sherlock Holmes. When Watson goes missing, it is Holmes who se

The world would be a much better place if most people were engaged in the honest pursuit of money. The way human society has evolved, at least in these parts, is that most people are in the ‘intellectual’ zone – everyone has an opinion on everything. I’m not sure if it helps matters. On the contrary, if most people were in the entrepreneurial zone, many problems would simply disappear. This does not mean that everyone must necessarily become an entrepreneur, only focused on creating value wherever they are.

Several years ago in an article on Devsaab (Dev Anand), I came across this line, ‘He has a remarkable capacity to disregard failure’. As we all know, Devsaab has been among the greatest icons of the Indian film world, with a string of landmark films and a heartthrob of millions to this day. I think there is a big lesson in ‘disregarding failure’. Quite often we get bogged down over-analysing and mulling over setbacks when the right thing to do would simply be to move on. ‘Failure; can mean not just the larger disappointments, but also encounters with people on an everyday basis, reflecting on which is a drain on our own energy. Quite simply, an able ‘Guide’ for our life and work. ------ This

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY – A delightful 1954 Alfred Hitchcock Film, the likes of which can be made at a cost less than most of these Short Films. The Film is set in a small village, with 3-4 houses and a small adjoining patch of forest and 4-5 characters. An air of suspense hangs throughout the film, keeping the viewer’s attention riveted. This simply goes on to prove that the challenge in our business is to control budgets and not some hi-falutin creativity. Moreover, anything that we do now must be better, or at least equal to what has been done in the past. Not the ‘Protagonist-Antagonist-Heroine-Accessories’ rigmarole we are used to in these parts.