High Quality, Low Budget, by Q. Reyes – Artistic Warfare #28

June 28, 2009 Q. Reyes 0 Comments

There truly are two kinds of people in the world: The “Negative Don’t Doers” and the “Positive Doers”. I consider myself to be part of the latter. I feel lucky and fortunate to make my living creating and producing TV shows. Of course, you might have never heard of the programs, but my bills get paid doing what I love to do, and that means the world to me.

As part of the “Doers”, I create and develop an average of two shows per month, and I have hard drives full of productions. In the past, on average, I’ve sold about two shows per year. So the math says that out of every twenty-four ideas, two of them get picked up.

The level of elaboration on each concept and development varies, and most of the product I’ve created, no one has even seen yet. There will be a time when I’ll have the opportunity to showcase my portfolio to the right studio, and I’ll be working forever on stuff already created.

Yet, the real point of this article is to create awareness to an open market that is very much unexplored. Most people trying to make it in television dream of getting to ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX. These are the Networks ruled by Union scales and residuals. Get a hit on one of these Networks and you’re set.

Luckily, Disney, Viacom and G.E do not solely own television. There’s a lot more out there than meets the eye. Cable TV has become a huge market competing against the biggest Networks, and yes, a lot of these cable channels are still owned by Viacom and the gang, but not all of them. There are a few independent factions out there looking to still compete with the big boys.

I’ve occupied a lot of my time within the young bilingual-targeted channels, and have been trying to make a mark in this yet-to-be-conquered demographic. The bilingual demographic is as huge as it’s varied. There is no one cookie-cutter operation that can embrace the entire demographic, and in actuality, young English-speaking Latinos are watching more American-based programming than bilingual programming targeted towards them.

I consider myself to work within science, into understanding the patterns of young bilingual English-dominant Latinos. Even their description is long winded, and this is part of the problem.

However, once you have the awareness that these outlets exist, you must understand that the sub-prime TV network world operates by producing high quality product under a low overhead and budget. Times have changed, and technology has made it possible for a middle school kid to create the same graphics and animations that the big Networks can produce – in half the time, and without a budget.
The days of big machinery, and the latest, fastest computers are gone. You don’t need much to create anything nowadays, and the magic of TV productions is not magical anymore. Taking months to develop a project and thousands of dollars to produce are so nineteen-nineties.

The new age tells us that only the strongest, fastest and cheapest survive. These days all you need is technology and talent, and nothing else. The Internet, which has become a huge competing factor, has made it possible for a kid in front of his webcam in his bedroom to get more hits than a professionally produced TV program. That’s the reason that the older leg of the “good ‘ole TV” days either needs to embrace the changing television production climate, or become irrelevant in no time whatsoever.

Before you needed big cameras and expensive editing equipment in order to produce television. Before you needed the ability and skill to make graphics and to superimpose those graphics within the program. Nowadays, you don’t need all of that. You can create more interesting content with your webcam than you could with a live studio audience.

It’s all about the content. If you can create engaging content, in a reliable, fast and inexpensive way, then you’re on your way to the new future of television. This is something that newspapers never saw coming. They thought that because they had big-time, well-known writers, that people would continue buying their newspapers. They were wrong. People are now reading blogs from unknown people, that even though might not have Harvard-like grammar, they tend to be naked and to the point.

Now, how can you produce quality TV shows on a low budget? Simple. Just do it. If you wait for approval, funding, financing, money, opportunity, help or anything else that keeps everyone waiting to follow their gut instincts, then you will continue waiting. The world will keep moving with or without you.

Malcolm Gladwell in his latest book “Outliers” explains that to become good at something we must engage in at least 10,000 hours of practice. So if you’re a truck driver and you do that for 10,000 hours, then you’d most likely become a good truck driver. That’s why I’m working on getting my 10,000 hours in writing, 10,000 in producing, 10,ooo in directing and 10,000 in editing. One has to become a master of his craft, but understanding that there are many sub-crafts within a craft. We have to work on them all.

So my point of this all, is that if you’re a writer, then write. Don’t wait for someone to buy your story. If you’re a cartoonist, then draw. A painter, then paint. A producer, produce. Michael Jackson (R.I.P) would repeat one dance move, eight hours every day for weeks. Kobe Bryant shoots uncountable baskets before games. Tiger Woods works out seven days a week. As artist, we must bring that same intensity into our art.

Right now, this moment, this minute, you can create high-quality product without the need for money, or a budget, or financing. If you are a true artist first, the money will follow, and if it doesn’t follow is because you haven’t giving your all to your art.

You must believe that you’re great, and not worry about approval. Let people catch up to your genius. You can’t force the Negative Don’t Doers bring you down to their level. You must remain positive, even though it will seem all everyone around you does it tell you reason after reason why what you’re working on won’t ever work. Just smile at those people politely, and realize how ignorant negativity could be.

Q. is an honorary member of Honorary Members of Associations. Q. is also on Twitter, and you may choose to follow him and he’ll follow you back @qreyes Q. also enjoys long walks on the beach, and the occasional wet burrito (red sauce).