Why Most Passion Projects Fail And How To Change That w/ Patrick Moreau of Stillmotion

Most of us didn’t get into filmmaking in the first place to take on clients and run businesses. When we picked up a camera for the first time and were captivated by what we could do with it, it was because we ourselves had something to say. Our own story to share.

The deeper into the world of film we dove however, the more we realized that it seems all but impossible to bring our passion projects to life in a sustainable way. Sure, we could invest thousands of hours and vast amounts of money to complete a project, but most of us will never see enough return on that investment to justify ever undertaking another one.

This sucks. For all of us.

Patrick Moreau is racking up his Studio Sherpas frequent flyer miles and returning to the podcast to share how he and his team are bringing their new original content series The Remarkable Ones to life.

Patrick knows a thing or two about heartbreak and failure when it comes to creating original content and putting it out there. His feature documentary Stand With Me - despite touching deeply pretty much everyone who viewed it - was a commercial failure for the team and made them question whether there was a way to create original content that they were passionate about in a sustainable way.

Today Patrick shares what they learned from the failure of their last project, and what they’re doing differently this time to make the most of the series.

Do you have a passion project that you’ve released or are wanting to create? What are the biggest obstacles in your way? 

In this episode:

- The 80/20 rule applied to content production, and how most of us get it backwards
- How a project can be incredibly powerful and moving to viewers, but still be a failure
- How The Creative Bias keeps us from making the most of our creations
- The specific budget and scheduling details behind The Remarkable Ones

Quotes:

“If you keep the dream, and you always say ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ then the dream can never die. Actually putting the skin in the game and going out there and doing it is the moment you can truly fail. And that causes so much paralysis for so many people.” [28:43] 

Links:

Stillmotion
Story & Heart
The Remarkable Ones
Stand With Me

Smart Passive Income w/ Pat Flynn
Jim Carrey Commencement Speech

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