We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bruno Falcon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bruno, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

This is actually a relatively new awareness for me. I was speaking to friend and fellow freelancer about burnout and the challenge of being a self employed creative. He asked me if I would ever consider moving back over to full time work, and I replied that as tempting as the benefits look, I don’t think I could ever give up the flexibility and control. I really do love my job, I’m just burning out on my work. Realizing the difference has been a big help in clarifying what I want to make for myself, and the types of new projects and clients I’m pursuing. Remembering the saying “one for the meal and one for the reel,” as a way of balancing out the need to pay my bills and keep my current clients engaged, and finding projects that are fulfilling, still might pay some money, but are more for me than for the invoice.

Bruno, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Falcon Films came out of my childhood. My parents are both in the film and theater spaces, so while other kids were getting jobs waiting tables or working retail, I was training as a stagehand, production assistant, junior editor, and copy writer. I pivoted away when I went to college, but meandered back into a degree in philosophy, and when I graduated I realized my practical knowledge was all in media. It was meant to be stop-over for a couple years while I figured out what I wanted, and it became a real passion. I’m a problem solver and creative thinker, so whether it’s drafting scripts and production plans, on set, in the edit, or helping to tie organizational structure and IT to creative work, I’m a thought partner to my clients.
A dear friend and collaborator gave me the nickname “Swiss-army Jesus” for my ability to come into a project or a room and take on whatever role needed to make things happen, constructing a sound booth out of curtains and light stands, working together edits in the car during a location change, talking through script updates over the phone while troubleshooting a media server. It’s not a thing I call myself, but thinking about that description always makes me smile, and rings true so long as it doesn’t feel to boastful.
My work ranges from podcasts of all types, educational content from small non-profits to corporate leadership training, political media both campaign and policy, and documentary productions. I love working in narrative, improvised, and other theatrical projects, though that work has mostly been for myself.
Right now, the project I’m proudest of is my work on the podcast Crossing the Line, as documentary series focused on people and families around the country wrestling with access to abortion in a post Roe world. The bravery, compassion, anger, and hope of our subjects and storytellers on that show inspire me regularly, and are a reminder of how important storytelling is, especially in times of uncertainty.
Every creative project has it’s own unique story, no matter the angle or topic. Whether it’s updates to corporate policy, teaching about history, or a new take on an old story, I’m here to help bring the voice of the team out through the work.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

We live in a world of media. For those of us creating professional pieces, it’s been a bumpy road from the early days of flash animation and YouTube (or heaven forbid if you remember logging and editing on a Beta Deck) to AI and social media. We went from hearing “we don’t have a big budget, but you do this because it’s fun, right?” to “why am I paying you so much when I could do this myself with an iPhone?” With the advent of machine learning and it’s integration into the production pipeline, getting paid for the less visible but more critical skills we bring to the table feels harder and harder. Unions help, as does demystifying budgets and moving past stigmas about sharing rates as freelancers, or advocating for higher pay for folks when you’re in the producer seat. Easier access to grants, quality healthcare, and organized labor would have a huge impact for those of us already in the industry. For the future, though, we need to start planning for the thinning impact AI will have on our talent pipelines, the jobs that used to train up younger talent are already fewer and further between, and as AI tools replace PAs, junior editors, copy editors, junior designers and so many other positions, having people to step in as folks leave the industry will be harder and harder. This means that training programs and a long view approach to intentional hiring and training will be critical for the future of the industry. From the outside view, we need a better media training ecosystem. Young people especially, but our clients and consumers as well, need to understand how media works, what it’s trying to do, and how different choices creators make have meaning and message. It’s wild to me that in a world where film has been around for over a century, and where most of the media we consume is on screen, we aren’t teaching film and video analysis the way we teach reading literature and journalism. There is a lot of hope, as in some ways it’s never been easier to get into this industry or make a project happen, but it has also never seemed harder to rise up through the work and make a living and career, let alone one with meaning.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Coming up in a family of producers and set designers, I had zero understanding of work life balance. My parents both worked insane hours, at times holding their respective businesses together with their teeth and little else. But, they made it work. They taught me when and how to say “no,” that as much as I needed work, that didn’t mean setting aside self respect, and that being an advocate for myself and for the people reporting to or hired by me was just as important as coming in on budget. As it turns out, this looked like not having much of a life outside of the business. Doing this work right for them meant doing it all in. When I entered into my first (and only) full time position with a production company, I did so with the skills they taught me. The lessons I learned there, and the push-back I got from parts of the organization cemented and built on many of the positive lessons they had taught me. But it took truly burning out, bringing the self employed energy and drive to a job that was happy to soak up every hour I would offer, to learn the importance of putting down the project and stepping away for a while. To be fair, this is still something I struggle with, but seeing the positive impact on the work that comes from setting it aside for a moment keeps me working on that balance.

Contact Info:

• Website: falconfilms.io
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bfalcon/
• Other: https://ctlpod.com/ https://chamberdance.org/media/gallery/