By Alex Byanyiko
A friend launched his book recently and a couple of photographers were there taking pictures. It’s always a joy for me to see creative minds doing their thing. However, by the time my friend began to share some of these pictures the following day on his Facebook page, I was appalled. Most of the pictures were terrible, to say the least – some were not creatively composed, even reddish that my eyes felt misty looking at them. Knowing full well that my friend should be catching his breath after such a magnificent effort of organizing the event (he was still busy around trying to ensure that everything was going on well even during the event. And I could see the stress that crept on his face), I could not help myself. I sent him a Whatsapp message that morning complaining about the pictures and suggested that the pictures be edited or reedited. He took my criticism in good faith and said he would reach out to the photographer(s). I felt better and emphasized the need for him to only post pictures that were pleasant to look at and that enhanced the story creatively and effectively of his book launch.
But while communicating with him, I had earlier reached out to another friend who loves beautiful pictures. I sought his opinion about the pictures, but I was even more appalled by his response. First of all, he thought that my observations were ill timed since the author should be resting from the stress of the book launch, and secondly, that probably the result my friend was getting was because the photographers did free work for him! It’s a pity for any artist to think like that. It is, to say the least, the most unwise thing in the world.
It would have been better if it was a case of inexperience or insufficient skills. It would be unreasonable to condemn the work of someone based on that because we all can only deliver at the level of our competence most of the time. And we all have to start from somewhere. The most important thing is to keep learning.
It’s always a joy to see such things – that as an artist if you keep learning, you’ll keep evolving. But there are a few creative people who really don’t understand their role apart from the fact that it is a means of some income for them. It’s a job, they erroneously think. And, I think such people hardly have any business being here. Because a real artist should be more interested in the quality of his work, than the amount of money he gets for it. Because your work, once delivered, becomes the basis on which you’re going to be judged. Nobody cares whether you were paid for the work or not.
Secondly, you’re involved in creating the history of whoever hires or gets you to film, photograph or write their story. 50 years or more from now, such work should be a source of joy for you, just as it should be for your client. If you do a bad job because you are offering a free or cheap service, would you be proud of such work when you look at it tomorrow?
Make no mistake about it. I’m not saying that money is not important. It is, because, without the ability to pay your bills and live comfortably, you would hardly have enough concentration to create signature pieces of artwork. Even if you do, you could hardly sustain that pursuit.
However, the first thing that an artist should be obsessed with is the quality of their work at all times. While we are all learners, let it be a priority that we deliver at the very best of our abilities at all times, as we keep striving to be better. I have also made the mistake of taking much less money than I should for certain work and ended up almost killing myself, trying hard to deliver something that I would not be ashamed of after delivery. It is a very stressful and stupid thing to do. If we cannot take the pains of delivering to the best of our abilities, even for free work, it is better we don’t even accept to do it. Because once such work is delivered, it becomes the basis other clients will use to judge when deciding who to hire.
So, here is the crux of my argument – there is no such thing as free or cheap work on the part of the creator. There can be on the part of the client, but for the creator, your work has a higher, deeper and much more significant prize (notice the use of prize here, not price) beyond the ability or what your current client can afford. You may create something for a client that may only afford to pay you ten thousand naira, or maybe not even paying you a penny, but that work can earn you a client that can pay you ten million naira tomorrow, or even more. Now that, and much more is the way you should look at the price of your work. If you know that you will not be able to deliver to your satisfaction at a certain amount or free, please don’t accept to do that job. Simply express yourself respectfully and walk away.
Let me share some personal experiences with you – when I was still working at the Nigerian Television Authority, Abuja (NTA), I was supporting a friend and colleague who was producing a drama programme, Tales By Moonlight. Most of the time I wrote, directed and edited the programme, but I was not the producer. I did that passionately and with joy in spite of the stress involved to the extent, some of my colleagues wondered what a ‘foolish person I was, working for someone else to take the glory. I was too passionate about drama production to bother about their opinion. But two years after I had resigned from NTA, a senior colleague who was still serving there recommended me for a scriptwriting job that earned me a fee almost the size of my annual income while at NTA, and I was paid upfront, even before I began the writing! Why would someone pay me that kind of money even before I began the work?
Another instance was my contributions to some online magazines where I have some of my short stories and series of articles published without getting paid. A friend who also said he was a writer (because to date I haven’t yet seen any of his writings, brilliant and articulate as he sounded) once approached me. After commending my writings, asked how much I was being paid by those online magazines. When I said, ‘nothing’, he said, ‘God forbid’ that he would never write for free again because those magazines were making some money off my contributions. I told him that I was too passionate about sharing my thoughts through writing, and not to keep waiting for who would pay me to do so. Besides, it was only by writing and sharing my writings that I could get the attention of someone who would pay me money to do it. Not up to two years after we had had that conversation, I received a call from a highly accomplished, respected and influential person who said he had been following my writings and that he would like me to write his biography! I’m not sure there are many of these young minds who would understand what this means, but there you have it. The same writings that were like nobody really cared about have opened doors of opportunities for me.
Just before the 2019 general elections, I approached a brother to one of my uncles whose traditional wedding I had filmed and produced in a documentary format. It was a week-long effort because he was marrying an American woman who came from the US with her large family and it was a series of activities before the traditional wedding day. I filmed from the day they had arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, all the way to his mother’s village at Kuzhipi and back to Karu for various beautiful traditional rites. If I was to charge for that work, it would have been nothing less than two million naira, but I told him to give me just a hundred and fifty thousand naira, plus buying a canon 17 – 55 mm f2.8 lens for me to use which cost him another hundred and fifty thousand naira at that time, and then a 2 terabytes hard drive.
After producing the documentary, he told me that his American in-laws commended the work and praised me for my tireless efforts, having seen how I was running around all day for all those days filming. So, when I approached him just before the 2019 general elections and suggested that I wanted to produce a documentary covering all the projects that our Honourable member of the National House of Assembly had done, he did not hesitate in buying the idea (in fact, he and two of his other brothers, all based in the US, were considering partnering with me in my production business). Again, the value of that documentary, if I was to charge professionally, should be three point five million and I drafted a budget showing such professional price to him, but requested for only three hundred and fifty thousand naira just for basic logistics.
I had scheduled the shoot for five days initially, but we ended up shooting for seven days. I had to request fifty thousand naira extra from him again.
I spent two weeks on the edit, because of the large file size – one hundred and seventy-seven GB of 1080p footage for a twenty-five minutes documentary. I was completely stressed up working under intense pressure because we wanted the documentary to be ready before the primary election.
Sadly, after the whole work, the documentary didn’t even get to be aired on TV apart from the upload on YouTube. I was devastated, to say the least, but the work remains relevant for my portfolio. I can confidently pitch for a ten-million-naira documentary production from anyone at any level because I have that one to show (and of course my skills and knowledge are way above that now).
If I had done a shabby job because I didn’t make any money from that production, I would not have it as a reference point today.
So, as an artist, each time you’re working for someone, free or cheap, ensure that you put in your very best because you never can tell who sees that job and what greater opportunities it can bring your way. If, however, you know that you’ll not be able to deliver good work for free or cheap because of the time and energy you need to invest in producing something you can be proud of at that moment, as I earlier said, simply walk away. Nobody will appreciate you for doing poor-quality work because you did it for free or cheap.
However, the work you do for cheap or for free, if done to the best of your ability, can open unimaginable doors of opportunities for you. Never perform below your true competence just because you’re working for free or for cheap. The value of your work is always beyond the capacity or budget of your current client. Truly, art is priceless.
Byanyiko, a filmmaker, screenwriter writer, cinematographer and writer, writes from Abuja