Is Motion Design for Masochists in the Long Run?

Any career can turn someone bitter. I don’t think that it takes much over a period of time to go from wide-eyes enthusiasm to the dark cloud that follows you around like in cartoons. I’m sure looking at statistics, one profession might have more disgruntled workers over another. Remember that correlation is not causation, yet it still begs the question. Are some industries such as motion design churn out masochists?

Many of us can point to days where it has felt that way. In his graduation film, Freelance Motion Design Dev Joshi unfolds why he thinks that motion design makes a masochists of us all. He makes some very good points. [Thanks to Andrew Embury for passing along the vid]

I would imagine that it is easy for anyone in a profession that relies heavily on creativity, to feel like they have to suffer for the sake of the art. It’s easy to feel like one is needed to give birth to the other. Many of us rise to the challenge of working harder (not smarter), working longer hours. Many of us will inevitably sacrifice something simply for that little extra polish in a piece. It could be money, time, a social life, a marriage or the bare basics of food or sleep. Everyone wants to do good work.

With a new career, perhaps masochistic tendencies don’t start out right away, but they certainly do come at you fast. Over the years of teaching, I can’t count the number of times a newly minted student has hidden under the confines of a basement for months on end to create a “new demo reel” rather than getting out there, gripping hands, showing teeth and making the connections to find work.

Then, when some of us fly from the nest, soaring on our own into freelance, quickly find that most potential clients start out by saying more often than not: “We don’t have a lot of money for this.” Sometimes it even comes before a “Hello, nice to meet you”.

Even still, after a while you would love to hear “There’s not a lot of dough for this project”. That is because we all get to a point where you would love to hear that someone has budgeted any money at all. We all heard cases for working for free in exchange for exposure or other fabricated opportunities.

It really is hard to stay positive, but Dev Joshi does make a case for drudging on by saying: “If you’re a professional, remember the bad times. If you’re a student, expect the worst.”