Disclaimer: The views expressed by our interviewees are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of GradSimple. We only edit these responses for clarity. All opinions remain those of the interviewee.
- Year Of Graduation: 2024
- College/University: Chapman University
- Major: Broadcast Journalism and Documentary Filmmaking
Table of Contents
What do you do for a living, or how are you supporting yourself right now? Can you share what a typical day in your life/at work looks like?
I’m an independent contractor, also known as a freelancer. If anyone else is in the same boat, stick to “independent contractor” because it sounds better and less like you’re living in your parents’ basement.
A typical day for me starts with checking my calendar, scheduling events and meetings, and sending out emails to gauge interest from past or potential clients. I’ll throw my hat in the ring regularly just to stay relevant. If I get responses, I follow up and keep the conversation going.
Right now, I’m doing freelance content creation and administrative work for a company in Bellingham, Washington. I’m billing hourly and just trying to bring in some extra income. That said, I’m not making a ton of money. If someone says they’re rolling in money as a freelancer, they’re either exaggerating or they’re working incredibly hard, and you should aim to be like them.
I actually have a promotional content shoot coming up in a few days. Today, I’ll be working on my shot list. For a 4-5 hour shoot, I’ll usually have about two pages outlining exactly what I plan to capture, along with explanations. This helps with client communication and makes it easier to walk them through my plan when we connect beforehand.
My job is to film their entire in-house production process and turn it into deliverables. The company creates repair kits for brands like Gear Aid, Arc’teryx, Patagonia, The North Face, and Outdoor Research. I’ll be creating two shorter videos around 45 seconds to a minute each, and one longer video around two and a half to three minutes. After the shoot, I’ll handle all the post-production, editing, and final delivery to the client so they can show how their product is made and where their investment is going.
Are you happy with where you are in your career, around two years out of school?
When I was fresh out of school, I had a more naive perspective on getting jobs. It’s kind of similar to getting internships, but also a lot more difficult because the commitments are higher. Very quickly, I decided I wanted to stick with contract-based employment. Whether that was the right decision or not is still up in the air.
I do think there are benefits to it, but if you’re not highly self-motivated, you’re going to crash and burn and run out of money quickly, which is exactly what happened to me. I ended up moving back home, and there’s absolutely no shame in that. I’m actually having a great time living at home and saving money.
That said, taxes are another challenge with freelancing and are not fun to deal with. Recently, especially after going through tax season, I’ve started to see a lot of value in salaried employment. If you’re not someone who can consistently stay on top of things, communicate well, constantly reach out to new people, and stay disciplined every day, freelancing can be really tough.
Do you see yourself continuing to freelance, or do you want to try and find a full-time role?
I don’t think I’ll be freelancing forever. I hope not, mainly because of the time commitment and the mental strain it puts on you day to day. You’re almost always thinking about work, even in your personal time, and that’s not how I function best as a person.
In a year, or even six months, if I’m not in a place where I’m getting consistent, reliable freelance work, then I would ideally already have found a job. Not necessarily something that aligns exactly with what I majored in, but something I’m interested in and know I can be good at, with a position I can grow into and succeed in over time.
So I’d give freelancing about a six-month window. If by three months in, I’m not gaining any real traction, I would want to have already identified four, five, or six companies that match my values and that I’d actually be excited to work for. You also have to think about how a job affects your future opportunities. It’s not just about whether it looks good on your resume. It’s about whether it helps you move into the kinds of roles you actually want later on. If you leave that job, is it going to help you get another one in a similar field?
For me personally, I do think I’ll eventually look for a full-time role. It’s a bit ironic because freelancing seems more flexible on paper. You set your own schedule and bill your own hours. But if you’re not working for a week, that’s a lot of lost time and income.
You could be out hiking, seeing friends, or going out on a Friday night, which is great and something everyone should be able to enjoy. But I think it’s actually easier to have that kind of balance with a full-time job where you can clock out at 5:00 and truly be done for the day.
Do you have any feelings of regret towards the undergraduate major you picked?
I do have partial regret. I enjoy what I do, and I’m very thankful I was able to get this degree. But the challenge is how niche it is on paper. When you look at people who go into trades or something like nursing, those are specialized careers with clearer paths. My major is specialized too, but the niche is much smaller and less utilized, which makes it harder to find work.
I don’t feel like I chose the wrong thing, but I wish I had paired it with something broader. I should have doubled it up with something more widely applicable. The first thing that comes to mind is doing a double major or a minor in something like finance or business. I think if I had done something in entrepreneurship or the business realm alongside my degree, I’d be in a better position right now, especially when it comes to managing money and staying organized.
Do you think AI is impacting your role and/or industry, or will start impacting it in a meaningful way?
As a contract-based filmmaker and editor, I’ve only seen upsides to AI. Personally, I don’t think people should be as worried as they are. This might be a controversial take, but I think it’s a bit naive to assume your job is just going to be taken over, especially in a field like mine.
We’re in a similar moment to when the internet first came out. People thought professions like accounting would disappear because individuals could just do everything themselves. But that didn’t really happen. The tools changed, but the need for professionals didn’t go away.
Also, AI can actually hurt credibility if it’s overused. When AI is obviously used in ads or product videos, it can take away from the authenticity. That’s why I think it’s pushing companies to continue working with contractors like me rather than replacing them entirely.
If I need to make a shot list, for example, instead of spending an hour writing everything from scratch, I can input a prompt with details like the scenario, camera, focal length, lighting, and settings. In about 20 seconds, I get a solid draft that I can refine into something client-ready.
The same goes for pitch work. I created a pitch deck for a production company and used AI to generate reference images based on the tone and descriptions of each film. Those visuals helped producers actually see what they were investing in. All four films from that pitch ended up getting sold. Without AI, it would have been left up to imagination, and not everyone can visualize things clearly.
On the editing side, AI removes a lot of the tedious work. Many programs like Photoshop, Premiere, and DaVinci Resolve have built-in AI tools. In DaVinci, for example, I can take a shaky shot, apply auto-stabilization, and it looks like it was filmed on a tripod. It’s not about replacing creativity; it’s just for enhancing workflow and saving time on repetitive tasks.
What’s your biggest struggle right now?
My biggest struggle is consistent income. When I do get paid, it’s good, but it’s not steady. For example, I have two jobs lined up next week. One is with Microsoft, which honestly won’t pay that much, but the other one could cover a full month’s rent on its own.
So it’s really the inconsistency that’s difficult. There’s an obvious solution to fixing that, but it comes down to whether you can push through the procrastination and lack of motivation to actually do it.
How do you define being a successful person?
The way I think a lot of people define being successful is obviously having a lot of money. I also think that’s a really important aspect of being successful. But honestly, I mean, as long as you’re able to do what you’re happy doing, and still be able to put food on your table, I think that’s more indicative of success than some Instagram poser posting his McLaren.
I think a lot of people, especially young men, are wrapped up in that whole manosphere thing. But, dude, everyone finds success in a variety of ways. Personally, I find success in being able to have time in the day to go to the gym, get work done, and make money doing something I’m excited to do.
If we traveled three years into the future of your life, what do you want to achieve? What would you hope has changed?
Stability is front and center in my mind. If I’m not more stable by 27, then man, I’ve got to get my sh*t figured out. I don’t see myself doing freelance work for the next three years. The only caveat to that is if I am still doing freelance, then I’m doing significantly better than I would be in a stable job, financially speaking.
But realistically, I think I would find a lot more comfort in a full-time position at that point in my life. I see myself working a job that I actually connect with on a personal level, where I’m genuinely interested in the work they do and the product(s) they create. And I’m making enough money every month to sustain myself and pay bills.
I’d want to be using my degree in some capacity, whether that’s in a creative role at a company or just applying the skills I learned in a meaningful way. If that’s not the case, then I’d still be doing film work in my free time.
What’s the biggest lesson or piece of advice you wish you’d known earlier?
If you’re in film and you’re in LA, get the hell out. Period. That is a dead city. If you can even manage to find a job, you’re getting paid day rates of like $60 to $100. Gas isn’t comped. The jobs are few and far between. You won’t hear back from most of these companies or production crews. And just in terms of the film scene in LA, you’ve probably heard already, but things are moving out of Hollywood. Even the Oscars are shifting out of Hollywood into downtown LA. Hollywood is dead. Don’t waste your time there. Tax incentives in Southern California aren’t what they used to be, natural disaster risk is higher, and there are way cheaper places in the US to shoot. Go to Texas. Go to Seattle. Go to Atlanta. Go to Nashville. Don’t go to Los Angeles.
LA is a dog-eat-dog environment, especially in film. If you’re not the biggest dog, you’re going to get bitten. I came home to Seattle, and with how big the tech industry is here, within like two or three months, I found more work in one month than I did in a year and a half in LA.
Also, know your worth. Set your rates and be confident in that number because, like, financially, for me at least, your rate should be pretty much non-negotiable. Think about it like a carpenter. Someone commissions a carpenter to make a live-edge wooden table for $2,000. You’re not going to walk up to that guy and be like, “Hey man, this $2,000 table is beautiful, you clearly put like 80 hours into it, it looks amazing…but I don’t know, I could get something kind of similar from IKEA, so how about I give you $1,500 instead?”
I’m not saying what I make is the live-edge table of your dreams, but the point still stands. What you’re selling isn’t just the product: it’s the quality, the time, the experience, everything that went into making it.
Connect With Owen:
- LinkedIn: @OwenLivengood
- Website: https://www.owenlivengood.com/
- Instagram: @Owen.Livengood
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