Lincoln Hall - Filmmaker
Let's Talk
What do you do?
I'm a filmmaker
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? What are 3-5 things you love to do on your days off or 3-5 quirky things about you?
Dance to 80s rock music in the privacy of my home...
Laugh loudly at a ridiculous comedy sketch or show...
Breathe fresh air in nature...
Play a game of cards (it's always a good time for a game of cards)...
Is this your whole income or do you have other side hustles?
Teaching
What are 3-4 events or realisations that led you into filmmaking?
Being given a video camera as a ten year old...
Watching endless films and finding inspiration...
Finding people with similar interests through theatre jobs, and developing skills with them before/after theatre work...
Can you describe a working day for you?
Varies... On average the morning is correspondence, assembling teams or locking in ideas... I will usually teach at some point... Evenings will often be spent writing or editing a film project, or being a sounding board for other writers, composers or post-production people... If it's a shoot day, then this all changes to basically ten hours on set.
If you don't work regular 9-5 hours, what are your hours and how does this impact your lifestyle?
Generally I would work eight to ten hours a day, but these are spread out anywhere between the hours of 7am and 11pm. It means my lifestyle is flexible, but does effect regular eating and sleeping rhythms. This is something I'm reassessing right now.
What are the perks of your job?
Working with many talented and generous people and creative ideas...
Freedom of scheduling...
Seeing a project through to the end and having something tangible...
What are some of the challenges you encounter?
It can feel like an unstable and unfeasible career path, and therefore there can be a clash between the practical pressure to find the next project and the creative desire to be fully-immersed in the current project.
What are 3 of the pitfalls you often see artists making?
Turning creative work into a chore so that they lose the joy of it...
Allowing self-doubt to cripple them so that they give up before it's even begun...
Listening to too many, or the wrong, opinions...
Can you share any tips that have really helped you?
Trust your instincts...
Do something now...
Laugh every day...
Learn another language...
Talk to your parents...
What advice would you give to someone who says they're feeling overwhelmed trying to self-manage their creative career and that they want to find a simpler way to do business?
Build a community. Talk to people who are already doing it themselves. We're stronger together, and sharing experiences with others can help make us feel less alone and less overwhelmed...
Keep all your receipts and document every time you earn money or spend money on work-related things. Being thorough on a daily small-scale will make finances less daunting later on...
Philosophical Musings
Why do you work in the arts?
It allows me to express myself, to discuss ideas with people, to share in others experiences beyond the limits of my own, to see, learn, feel more life.
How do you balance business and creativity in your life?
I dedicate time to different tasks and stick to a schedule. I also like getting the things I don't enjoy doing out of the way first, while blasting out music from my favourite album.
What do you think it means to live a creative life?
I've gone to the dictionary for this one... It means filling your days with your imagination, with original ideas, and the actualisation of those things, so that something new appears from nothing. To live a creative life means to bring something into existence that wasn't there before, and to do this on a regular basis.