How to Balance Your Mental Health Working in the Creative Industries
Also, A Few Notes on Working with a Crew and My Most Anticipated 2024 Movies
Sunday, March 24th
Welcome to this week’s Sunday Evening edition of The Backlot. These newsletters will include lessons and stories from my experiences working in filmmaking, helpful resources for emerging filmmakers, and other posts about working in the film industry.
NOTE - This is the free version of the newsletter. This version will continue to be free, with the Wednesday version moving to a paid subscription in May….
This week, we’re discussing a few things I’ve learned from working in the creative industry and with teams of people. Before we get into the post, let’s see our breakdown…
🎞️ How to Balance Creative Work and Mental Health
🎬 A Quick Tip for Working In A Crew
🗞️ A Few Films The Backlot Is Really Looking Forward to in 2024
A Few Tips on Balancing Work with Mental Health
One of the hardest things about working in any creative industry is balancing your work with sustaining your mental health.
In our current society, mental health issues and burnout are major problems. In the creative industries, the tendency to overwork ourselves and place immense pressure on our creativity can lead us to lose our passion for the work, our art, and our dreams.
Over the last five years, I’ve learned alot about the outcomes of overworking and placing too much pressure on my creativity, which often lead to effects on my mental health. In many instances, I’ve dealt with the consequences of these issues and had to reckon with my own choices in my career and life.
Through these experiences, I’ve found a few ways to create a sustainable relationship between my mental health and my career pursuits. That’s why I want to share these lessons and a few tips I’ve learned for balancing mental health while pursuing a career in the creative industries.
Take Breaks
In the creative industries, our work is often very closely related to our emotions, beliefs, and identity. Whether we’re writing blog posts or making a feature film, our personality is often present in our creations.
The work can be more than physically or mentally taxing, it can be emotionally taxing. It can also be hard to turn off or clock out because we’re always thinking about our creative work, how we can improve it, and how we can work harder to make it in the industry.
That’s why I’ve found it especially important to take breaks and step away sometimes. And I’m not talking about a twenty-minute break in your day to clear your head; I mean days, weeks, even months at a time.
Often, when we push ourselves and put pressure on the work, we become too stressed or move too fast. When we’re neck-deep in the process, trying to meet deadlines, or putting immense pressure on ourselves to perform, it clouds our judgment and creative abilities.
Finding an opportunity to distance yourself from your work can have profound positive effects and be both important for your mental health and the work itself.
When we take breaks, we take the time to relieve stress and clear our minds, relaxing the body, and calming the nervous system. This helps you see the work differently because once you are away from the stress and anxiety of creating, you can begin to think more openly about the work to see new solutions to any problems.
After some time, the pressure begins to go away, and all of a sudden, the work becomes filled with passion, excitement, and flow.
And distance doesn’t have to mean going on a vacation or taking on a new project, it can mean just allowing yourself time in your life to think about other things that make you happy. Work on your passions. Give time to your hobbies. Work a job that is easy and allows you to clock off for a while.
This opens up more space in your mind for your future work and allows you to move forward in a sustainable and mentally healthy way.
Have Other Forms of Creative Pursuits
As a writer, I’ve often found myself using every aspect of writing to try to make a living. I’ve tried copywriting, content writing, technical writing, and journalism. Now, these efforts led to some really amazing things, but too often, they’ve led to burnout.
I would go through periods of time where I hated writing. I hated the process of putting words on the page, no matter what they were. I became disgusted by the action and begged for anything different.
I lost my passion for the act of creating.
After a few rounds of dealing with this writer’s burnout, I realized I needed to make a change because this wasn’t a sustainable career.
That’s when I decided to compartmentalize my writing.
In one compartment, there was the writing that helped make me a living and pay the bills. In another, there would be the writing that I was passionate about and that made me happy.
This compartmentalization of my writing had a tremendous effect on my mindset. The act of writing was no longer a blanket term for “work”. Instead, there was the “work” writing, which I could distance myself from when I wasn’t working, and there was the “creative” writing, which I could look forward to.
This allowed me to write to pay the bills during the day, and then come home from my job, and write because I loved writing.
I’ve found that this duality keeps you interested in the creative pursuit for longer periods of time because it continuously reminds you to see the reasons why you love the practice.
Consume Less
This is arguably the biggest one and the hardest one.
Personally, I’ve too often found myself consuming more than I create, and that, my friends, is a problem.
In our technological era with social media, it’s so easy to go online and spend hours consuming other people’s work. We can scroll Instagram for hours, watching other people follow their dreams, create beautiful art, and share it with the world.
This isn’t inherently a bad thing because it can teach us new ideas, techniques, and sharing art with a community is a beautiful thing.
It becomes a problem when it stops you from creating.
Usually, this happens in two ways: We see other people’s work and become discouraged that ours won’t be as good, so we don’t see the point. Or we become so enamored with other people’s work that we struggle to find our own imagination and creativity.
That’s why I think it’s incredibly important to let yourself be free of other people’s art. In other words, sometimes it’s good to be bored or disconnected.
When we let ourselves exist in our own minds and foster our own imagination, then we can begin to foster new ideas. We then act on those ideas, creating new art, and feeding into our own creative abilities.
Therefore, log off social media, turn off the TV, and be bored for a bit. You’ll be amazed at what kind of things you can create with the time.
Fund Your Life in Different Ways
I’ll be honest, this is my achilles heel.
We’ve all heard the success stories of filmmakers, writers, artists, and musicians, all pouring their soul into their work, barely able to pay rent, and then hitting the big time. It’s the broke artist trope. Rags to riches.
Society teaches us to risk it all and go for broke, and that’s the only way we can make it in this world. Because if you aren’t giving it every ounce of your being, then you aren’t trying.
This is a recipe for disaster. And trust me, I know because I’ve fallen into this trap too many times.
We need to be honest with ourselves; building a career in the arts and entertainment industry is incredibly hard. These industries are notoriously hard to break into, and success stories in these industries are a lot less common than they seem.
Now, I wholeheartedly believe it can happen, and anyone can make it - but it has to be done the right way. And that means taking care of yourself first.
One of the first steps in taking care of yourself is finding different ways to fund your life and ensure your safety, that are completely unrelated to your creative and artistic ability. Whether that means working a bartending job in your town or taking a full-time job and chasing your dreams on the weekends.
This financial safety allows you the peace of mind to give your work everything you’ve got and not put some much pressure on it to fund your living. This also allows you to feel safe, protected, and in a place where your creativity can thrive.
Some people say pressure makes diamonds. Unfortunately, making a living from your art is more like building a fire; it needs air to breathe.
Quick note: I’m going to explore this topic more in next week’s newsletter and discuss the ways financial safety and art are intimately related and how they are both necessary for success.
How to Do Creative Work with A Crew
Over the years, when talking to other emerging filmmakers, one of the most common hurdles they have expressed facing is working with other people.
Many filmmakers start on their own, especially if you follow a non-traditional route into the industry, and this means you are used to working alone.
Film is inherently a practice built on teamwork. It’s like an engine: Every person has a role, and their role is just as crucial as anyone else’s.
This can be difficult when we first start out on sets, working with crews, or collaborating on our creativity. We now have people who are playing a role in our process, bringing their ideas to the table, and challenging our creativity. And these individuals all have different personalities, ideas of what’s best, and ways of working.
At first, this process can feel uncomfortable and cause us to feel vulnerable, attacked, or prodded by these new people who are now privy to our creative process.
For that reason, I want to share one thing that has helped me the most in my experiences working with a production crew, writing in teams, and working with different personalities.
Approach Everything as a Collaboration
The key to working with different personalities is to start viewing everything you do as a collaboration between yourself and the other members of your crew.
Think of it this way - a film, TV show, video, or whatever art you're creating is the end product. When you view everyone on your crew as a collaborator, it no longer becomes about you or them. It becomes about what is the best way to meet that end goal.
In that way, everything becomes more objective and less emotional. Suddenly, conversations about someone’s idea or their critique of yours become more about how you can work together to improve the end result. It’s no longer about people trying to derail us, but conversations and discussions that are critical to the success of the process.
Now, in theory, this sounds easy, but in practice, it’s a lot harder.
Not everyone is going to think this way, and sometimes you have to be able to identify when your ideas are right or wrong for the work. But if you can orient yourself to view even the most trivial of these conversations as a collaboration, then you can start to distance yourself from the idea of it being about you or them and just about what’s best for the job.
For instance, maybe a director says your acting isn’t evoking the right emotion. Or maybe you are a writer, and an editor sends you back a draft that’s colored red in revisions.
You could take that personally and react, or you could see it as a necessary part of the process and as feedback to improve the work you’ve created together. Then it’s not about you; it’s just about the work.
In this way, every piece of feedback, every discussion, and every conversation becomes a collaboration. It’s no longer about who has the best idea or who is right, it’s about making the best thing you can make together.
Five Movies To Look Forward to in the First Half of 2024
Alright, now let’s finish this week up with a list of movies that need to be on everyone’s radar for this coming year in film.
As we’re already a few months into the year, this list will include anything from April forward.
I Saw The TV Glow (May 3rd)
If you saw my note the other day, you would know this is my most anticipated movie of the year.
Jane Schoerbrun is known for Let’s All Go To The World’s Fair or directing Lucy Dacus’s “Night Shift” music video. Their latest film follows a couple of teenagers who bond over their love of a television show, but after the show is canceled, their reality begins to blur.
The film looks to blend elements of Schoerbrun’s “creepypasta” horror with the nostalgia of a teenage coming-of-age drama. In the trailer, the film evokes visceral feelings that seem targeted at a generation of individuals who grew up on the internet, transfixed with the online world, and learning to live in a society dominated by this blend of reality and virtuality.
Throw in a soundtrack that includes Snail Mail, Phoebe Bridgers, Alex G, and The Weather Station, and you’ve got an evocative film surely meant to stir up all emotions.
Furiosa (May 24th)
On the opposite side of the spectrum from the indie-horror genre, we’ve got the summer’s first big blockbuster.
George Miller returns to the Mad Max universe with the prequel to 2015’s Fury Road. The film follows the story of a young Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron in the previous film.
In this new film, Anya Taylor Joy plays the main role, with a seemingly unhinged Chris Hemsworth playing her foe. The film appears to follow the same style and tone as the previous film, with all the insane vehicles, stunts, and metal music of the previous movie.
As someone who was not expecting Fury Road to be such a masterpiece, I’m equally excited to see how this film establishes itself. Plus, give me more insane scenes with people blowing up armored vehicles and guys playing electric guitar at the helm of a fire-shooting semi-truck, and I am all in.
The Bikeriders (June 16th)
This movie was originally supposed to be released in the fall but was postponed due to the actor’s strike. Then, its distributor, 20th Century Studios, dropped it and it was re-acquired for distribution by Focus Features. Since then, it’s been given an official release date, and we can begin getting excited again.
The Bikeriders, directed by Jeff Nichols, follows the Outlaws MC, a motorcycle gang from Chicago in the 1960s. The film has an ensemble cast, including Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, Micheal Shannon, Norman Reedus, and Boyd Holbrook. In addition, the film is led by Austin Butler, whose stardom continues to rise after his role in Dune.
The film looks to be a deeply emotional and exciting story that brings to the screen feelings evoked by movies like The Outsiders or Sons of Anarchy. Plus, an unhinged Tom Hardy is always great viewing.
A Quiet Place: Day One
This year is looking to be a great year for horror films. With the already stacked lineup, the A Quiet Place franchise is coming back to the big screen.
Since A Quiet Place premiered in 2018, the film series has been much beloved by fans of both horror and those interested in the genre. The work of John Krasinski to adapt and produce these films has been massively successful.
The new film is a prequel, occurring on the first day the aliens made their assault on Earth. It takes us to the initial arrival of the creatures, where we follow Lupita Nyong’o as she learns more about the new world and attempts to survive in silence.
This is the first film not directed by Krasinski, instead helmed by Michael Sarnoski, who is known for directing Pig.
The trailer carries all the intensity and suspense of the original, led by Nyong’o, who we all know can be a powerhouse in horror films (see Us). It also has Djimon Hinsou reprising his role from A Quiet Place: Part II, which will be interesting to see how they work into the film and the story.
Alien: Romulus
Finally, we end on yet another beloved horror franchise. The Alien series gets another entry, this time helmed by Fede Alvarez, who is known for directing Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe.
The film takes place between Alien and Aliens and follows a group of colonizers who come across an old derelict space station that is being ravaged by the Xenomorphs.
This entry into the series appears to really lean into the horror elements of the Alien franchise, combining Alvarez’s reputation for bloody horror with terrifying practical effects. Yes, you read that right, they used mostly practical effects for this film.
The film stars Cailee Spaeny, who is having a hell of a year so far, and a few other rising actors like David Jonsson and Archie Renaux.
This one will be interesting, but so far, Ridley Scott and James Cameron have both said the movie rocks, and that’s good enough of a recommendation for me.
On Wednesday, we’ll be diving back into the AI Conversation and discussing a few of the latest updates and commentary around the issue…
🎞️ The Latest Updates on AI, including the OpenAI announcement
🎬 Understanding the Reaction to Late Night with the Devil and What It Means
🗞️ Other Latest News and Updates from the Industry