#creative industries

lots of authors have been posting great pieces of advice for up and coming buckaroos and i agree with so much of it. GREAT RESOURCES right now so i thought i would add my own. usually i use words like scoundrel but for meanings sake i will just be direct: dont make being an asshole your brand

let me preface this by saying it should be taken with HUGE grain of salt, you can do whatever you want buckaroo its YOUR art and your personal expression. to be honest i often refrain from ‘advice’ because id rather simply tell what works for me, but i feel like this one is pretty universal.

i am in incredibly rare position to have come up in TWO MAJOR CREATIVE INDUSTRIES and reached ‘traditionally published’ or ‘major film studio contract’ level completely separate from each other, without connections between, and this is ABSOLUTELY a massive factor in the buckaroos who trot long term

there is always a sort of incoming class of buds who rise up, and inevitably a few of them will seem to WANT to make enemies with everyone around them the second they have even the smallest voice. i UNDERSTAND in the sense that we have these legendary jerk artists in our culture. HOWEVER

1 those artists generally let their asshole flag fly AFTER they reached the top and 2 if not, it was a different time, there is simply not enough money in the creative fields for major creative entities to tolerate talented up and coming assholes. it is FINANCIALLY a different timeline now

EVEN SO you can point to a few old big timers who are notorious assholes but i would say its important to consider JUST HOW BIG WOULD THEY BE IF THEY WERE ALSO KIND. what if they were that talented AND watched out for their buds? heres what happened to the 'jerk brands' i trotted up with personally

every single one of them got intoxicated by the identity of being mean or ‘just tellin it like it is’ and then fell directly onto their face. the only ones who escaped were those who started that way on the trot up and IMMEDIATELY pulled it together and stopped and changed course

i know it might seem obvious to many reading this but you would be SHOCKED how many buds thinks it is a COOL IDENTITY to cultivate. some will probably subtweet this haha but listen bud, the directors you trash SEE IT. publishers DONT NEED TO TOLERATE TALENTED ASSHOLES ANYMORE THERES NOT ENOUGH MONEY

important reminder that i am talkin on artists who are PUBLICLY assholes, who trash talk their classmates or their fans. the ones who EMBRACE THIS IDENTITY as a sort of flag to wave because it gets them attention. theres plenty of SECRET assholes who find success, unfortunately. that is other topic

it is also important to say that FIGHTING THE POWERS THAT BE or protesting the scoundrels of the world is not being an asshole. KINDNESS CAN BE STRONG AND DIRECT AND POWERFUL. we need kind, strong buckaroos these days. it is not a weakness to love, and you should speak up for those who need it

so what can be done? what happens if you are reading this post and thinking ‘oh heck i can feel myself falling into asshole trap?’ well as a first reminder you can do anything you want bud, HAVE AT IT because i am not telling you this for MY sake, but if you want some actual advice id say this:

just being kind is MUCH easier than it seems, it only takes a little effort to reach out to your buds, to help, to encourage, to assistant, to talk about how much you liked someones film or song or book. jealousy or frustration are NATURAL feelings, but you dont have to let them run the show.

you MAY have to mourn the times an author couldve reached out for a book event that never happened because you turned them into an enemy. or a record executive read the stuff you said in some interview and pulled the soundtrack slot that was waiting for you on their desk. but IT IS NEVER TOO LATE

I don’t know that you will actually respond to this but I think it’s worth a try sending in, I really like your work on Magnus stuff and your work at Rusty Quill!

I’m trying to be a creative director and I had some questions that I thought perhaps you’d have some answers to?

So my first question, how do you get the job? What kind of resume should I have to be hired in somewhere as a creative director, or even is it better to start low somewhere and do the whole corporate ladder thing? 

I also wanted to ask about what aspects of a project you actually control. I assume you work with the writer(s) to build the larger story but after that what else do you work on? (Also how stressful is it?)

Anyway sorry for the long ask but if you have any advice I’d be super happy to hear it!!

Okay time to kick up a stink and point out the emperor is wearing no clothes... Firstly, I believe "Creative Director" is a nebulous term that has been so abused by this point it can sort of mean whatever you want it to. Auteur? Dramaturg? Marketer? Director? Generally I resort to the definition of: "I am mostly sort-of in charge of creative output in a specific organisation except for when I am not." That makes it really hard to give broadly applicable general advice and means you should not be intimidated by anyone who holds the title. To answer your specific questions as best I can though: Q) How do you get the job? A) No idea. Sorry, but genuinely no-one would offer me a creative position at any level and most academic institutions rejected my applications without interview. I just made stuff on my own dime until people paid attention and then invented a role for myself. I could make some educated guesses but there are far better people to ask than me. Q) What kind of resume should I have to be hired in somewhere as a creative director? A) No idea. I have never managed to get a job via CV/ resume in any industry. Again I could guess, but based on my personal track record, I would probably guess wrong. Q) Is it better to start low somewhere and do the whole corporate ladder thing? A) No idea. I decided quite young that all businesses were "bloody stupid discriminatory Ponzi schemes" and only made any headway when I abandoned them wholesale in favour of making my own thing. My way is by far the path of most resistance, the least likely to succeed and seems to piss just about everybody off and I only started from a place of ignorance and desperation. Your mileage may vary. Q) What aspects of a project do you actually control? A) Varies depending on the project. Early RQG: literally all of it. Early MAG: literally all of it except Jonny's monologues (we collabed on the macro story with each of us having a power of veto). Protocol: Mostly its about writing extensive feedback on other people's work these days. Only the writing is specifically hands on for me. Q) How stressful is it? A) For me? Insanely. Even with all my many privileges, it's wrecked my health, my personal relationships and my general faith in humanity. That may however, be because I am a very nerospicy bunny who only got ahead by pathological overwork. I would absolutely have worked my way up a pre-made structure if I could have found one that didn't seem to hate my guts.

Reading Tumblr, I’ve suddenly learned something fascinating:

the entire creative industry has been quietly reduced to artists and illustrators only.

Everything else, apparently, doesn’t count:

UX/UI, product design, game design and production, narrative design, prototyping, concept work, marketing, fashion, industrial design, research, copywriting — all politely pushed off the table.

Because someone from one art studio says “we don’t use AI” and confidently concludes that no one in the creative industry does.

Funny thing is, my actual experience in product design and IT tells a very different story.

But sure.

If you loudly declare “we, the artists”, the rest of the industry magically disappears.

“Language AI helps companies save money in translation services” – it allows companies to eliminate positions or salary bonuses that would otherwise be given to professional translators or multilingual employees.

“AI saved me money by making these simple lines of code for me” – AI took a gig away from a freelance programmer trying to get started or a uni student trying to make a few bucks on the side to help keep them in ramen.

“We saved money in the budget by using AI to edit and narrate our commercial” – employment taken away from professional editors and voice actors who spent years honing their skills and learning their craft.

At the core of it, even if we put aside the fact that generative AI is built on stolen content (which we shouldn’t), even if we put aside the fact that it’s incredibly bad for the environment (which we shouldn’t), and even if we put aside the fact that it’s slowly rewiring the public perception of what counts as good quality content (which. we. shouldn’t), the truth of the matter is that to be fully comfortable with the use and widespread adoption of AI is to be fully comfortable with taking away from the livelihoods of your fellow human beings, human beings who have put in the time, effort and money to become proficient in their areas of work. At the risk of sounding like a 19th-century factory worker opposing the Industrial Revolution, I don’t think that that’s something we should be okay with.

For citizens of the United Kingdom (Scotland, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland)

I've created a petition to the UK Government to place a Ban on Generative AI and review how to best regulate other AI/Machine Learning tools. Generative AI is being used to steal from artists hard work and is proving to be horrible for our environment.

While it may seem hopeless to stop this rise of Generative AI, it isn't! I was surprised to see that there weren't already pre-existing petitions for this, so I made one myself. I know it's a long way to go to stop Generative AI and protect our planet, but it's a start!

If you're seeing this and you're a British/UK citizen, you can sign this!

— “It doesn’t matter where you start. It just matters that you start.”

An interview for anyone feeling lost in life…

I sat and watched this entire talk tonight because I have no idea what I want to do with my future.