Why I Can't Travel The World For Free

I have been an adventure addict my whole life. In fact, I have withdraws, even, if I have nothing to do. I love being busy. I love having a schedule that always keeps me doing something. Filmmaking has played a big role in that for me because I am always thinking about what I can do next. And I guess that’s why I love documentary filmmaking so much is because I love the adventure and unknown of what can become. A filmmaker I look up to significantly, Casey Neistat, posted an article about traveling the world and having a company sponsor it. Deep down, I always wanted to believe it could happen, and it does. But it doesn’t happen in the way that most people think and the way I once used to think it did. For me to once have thought this way is lunatic. For someone to think that they can have this huge dream of having a company pay him or her to travel is something that some would consider crazy. I used to think this way, and after reading Casey’s article, it hit me. It’s a wonderful dream to have, it truly is, but something like this just doesn’t happen. It takes times upon time to develop your craft as a filmmaker and only then do companies start to hire you. Even if they hire you, it doesn’t mean traveling the world for them is something you will do. That’s why I am so in love with documentary filmmaking I guess. The possibility to travel all over the world increases because of where you have to capture stories. It’s not easy to become a documentarian, but that’s what makes it excited and worth the adventure. Something Casey said that I will not forget is this: 

“Do the work first. Create the following and the audience first. Prove your value first. Demonstrate your understanding of an industry first. Do all that then and only then maybe will a company have the confidence in you to provide the freedom and creative latitude for you to do what you want that will ultimately benefit them and their bottom line. It took me 14 years to understand this.”

 For me, I need to stop worrying about trying to get picked up by all these big companies and media houses and just work. I need to create the work I want to create and make people come to me. If there is one thing I have learned from experience, it’s not making yourself look cheap and like a beggar. No one likes a beggar.

Read Casey's article here: https://medium.com/@CaseyNeistat/how-to-travel-the-world-and-get-companies-to-pay-for-it-25aac0bdfd35#.fl0u4bjxa