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

Alright, Matthew thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I have recently been able to get by as a full-time creative, and that came from really a lot of planning and being forced into a sink or swim situation. I worked in academia and then for a tech start up; doing creative work on the side for around a decade. When I got laid off it was actually around my birthday., my grandmother invited me over and told me straight up: “If you’re not going to go for it now, you should just pack up and leave Los Angeles.” That was the fire I needed to take a big risk and go creative freelance full-time.

It was not easy, it’s still not easy, but something about a “frog in boiling water” best describes my attitude now. My biggest milestone during this time was my first month I managed to make enough for all my bills, food, gas and even a little fun all with money I earned freelancing. One thing I had to do to get there was revamp my social media. That meant revamping my image online, it meant my personal opinions on films, politics, the news and everything else had to be muted a bit, and that I had to point people towards my work.

My own business network when I started was not going to be enough to keep my head above water. I had to dig in deep and get out there. Networking events, more time on movie sets, driving out of the city and sleeping in my car so I wouldn’t need to spend gas to travel back and forth between sets. I had to do all that just to make enough to get my rent paid and keep food on the table. It was rarely easy, and every single day I was at a calculator figuring out how much I had to make in order to get into the black.

When the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes happened I definitely took a hit, while not currently enrolled in the guild work dried up almost instantly. I was on the strike lines supporting the guild I one day hope to join. When I wasn’t on the lines though I was working on SAG approved short films, selling anything not strapped to the ground and of course working odd jobs like dog walking, clearing out weeds from gardens, cleaning out garages for people, whatever it took. And let me tell you I was relieved when the strikes ended. The moment they did I went back to work; getting jobs line producing, assistant directing, script supervising and even writing/directing projects.

I don’t think I could have sped up the process though, I needed nearly a decade of working, building trust, learning skills and getting efficient at multiple aspects of film and theatre to get where I am now. The patience of waiting to accumulate those relationships and skills is what truly allowed me to work. In fact half of my jobs I’d wager come from word of mouth, someone is satisfied with the work I’ve done for them and they recommend me to another. In 2023 I directed a short film and a feature film. The short film I got because a friend I had worked with decided they wanted to trust me with a top level position in a project they cared deeply about. The feature I booked because a friend tossed my hat in the ring of someone looking for a director, he saw my previous work and decided to take a chance on me. Every job leads to the next one and I try my best to treat every job with that level of care. To summarize, the journey is the destination, or something like that.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

After graduating from Pepperdine University with a degree in Media Production I did what every young aspiring filmmaker does…apply to every studio and production house hoping to get a job. I of course got nowhere, I think I maybe got an interview with Iron Claw Studios who I had looked up due to their work with the Summer Olympics promo packages. I was desperate for work of any kind, and ended up working the graveyard shift at my alma mater as a public safety officer. I was grateful for the work; it was a disciplined job. I had to learn call signs, rigid procedure, crowd control, and how to speak with authority. All of these were skills that would come in handy as a filmmaker. Plus, when things were super quiet and I was working in the guard booth I could sometimes sneak a few pages of scriptwriting.

After almost exactly a year at that job I was called to work in the communications and media department of Pepperdine. There I eventually worked my way up to becoming the media facilities manager; where I did everything from camera rental, engineering, instruction on editing software, server management and basic maintenance. However, the true pivot for me was running the operational budget of the film/tv/radio department. While not a skim budget it certainly wasn’t hefty and so I had to be judicious with every dollar spent. Learning budget sheets, money management and accounting on the fly seeped into my creative pursuits. I learned how to maximize a budget, make a dollar stretch and how to report all that information to people in suits; who would not hesitate to fire me if I messed up a single line item. This led to me gaining many skills in line producing and unit production management.

Eventually I left Pepperdine to be the head of content at Brackit LLC an online game app that was part of a tech start up. During this time I really started to put myself out there as a filmmaker and line producer. I began a gradual rebrand. I didn’t want to be known as the wannabe filmmaker and playwright just hoping someone would look my way. I WAS a filmmaker and an award-winning creative. The time to be timid was over, I knew if I didn’t put my nose to the grindstone I was going to wake up one day past the point of no return, with an eternal weight of regret.

From there I started getting more work as a director, assistant director, script supervisor and line producer. I sort of gained a reputation for being able to shoot low budget projects quickly, professionally and at a quality that made them look like they had fivefold of the budget I had been given. Thanks to my friend Conrad Flynn my hat got thrown into the ring to direct a horror feature. I had just come off of writing and directing a horror short film called “Bloody, Bloody Coda” starring Jenya Lano. I was looking to do way more in the genre of horror (I still am) and so I leaped at the chance to direct “A Killer High School Reunion.” A fun and subversive script written by Rufus Dorsey. He liked my vision and I gave him and the team the confidence we could shoot a feature film in 7 days with only a $30,000 budget. We did it, thanks to my amazing crew and uber talented cast. In fact not only did we finish on time but we finished with $40 to spare. Being my own line producer on that project meant I knew how every dollar was being spent, and I knew how to position our film for success. There wasn’t a wasted moment on set, yet it all felt like an odd kind of summer camp. Even though it was actually a miserably cold and wet January.

After that, work started rolling in. Being able to provide people with preliminary budgets, paperwork, contracts, strategies, was invaluable for many indie productions. They needed someone who wanted to do “the boring stuff” and get a project actually off the ground logistically. For me, budgeting, planning and management is fun. I think it’s comforting to know how things are being handled, and that they’re being handled correctly. Of course my first love is directing/writing but I want to pay the bills. Working a spreadsheet isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, and thank goodness it isn’t. It gives me something that people reach out to me for, and for that I am incredibly grateful.

I would say something that sets me apart from many other people providing similar services is I’ve pretty much worked every position on set before. I understand the departments because I have been the boots on the ground. As an assistant director I have NEVER had a project go overtime. As a director I have always stayed on budget no matter how meager. And as a line producer I see a number on a page and it isn’t just a statistic or a function. I know what these expenses actually mean. And from years of working that circuit I know people in just about every area of the country that I can call up and haggle for a good quote. I wish I could say I planned all this, but to be honest this is the result of years of resourcefulness brought on by a need to create. A need to survive, a desire to thrive.

I’d want potential clients to know that I get just as excited about helping someone else’s work get made as I do my own. Helping someone make their production better because of my organization, advice, strategy or simply because I showed them how much it actually was going to cost to make their epic indie film is so gratifying. I’m professional, I work fast and I try to treat every project like it’s the most important thing in the world; because to that production team it is.

I’m proud that I’ve been able to do so much since striking out on my own and taking bigger risks. It’s a far cry from memorizing acronyms and call signs as I locked up buildings at 2am. Buildings that would literally be opened back up again at 6am. That being said, if not for those years I wouldn’t be able to do even half of what I’ve done now. So I trust the process.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me it’s the communal storytelling aspect of it all. I’ve done a lot of film, but I’ve also done quite a bit of live theatre. There is something magical about hearing people react to your work. Whether they like it, love it or hate it I find it to be worth every high and low to see people engaging with your work. I still to this day get goosebumps when I hold auditions and hear actors read my words, I hope I never love that sense of surreal wonder. Despite my desire to get my work out there, I must admit I’m more about the journey than the destination. By the time I have a production out there to the public I’m already typically at work on two other projects. I have to continually strive for the next goal. I have too many ideas, too many artistic conversations I want to have with the world, and I am eager at all times to get their reactions to my next piece.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

In December of 2018 I took account of how many theatre plays I had seen that year, it was 96. I promised myself in 2019 I would see at least 100. The next year I attended 110 theatre shows. If you want people to see you, you have to be seen. Most social media networking is done offline. You have to attend film festivals, theatre shows, work on sets, hit up cafes, libraries, bars and work the room. Or at least talk to someone. Very few people on social media can just launch into a network with complete anonymity. If you want a social media circle that will support you, get you work, and expand your network your most valuable time will be spent offline making sure you find people who actually care about what you post online. There’s no exact science and I know that everyone has different comfort levels with social interactions (I mean I still wear my mask indoors), different bodies, locations, etc. But still you have to do something! Maybe it’s watching retro movies and tweeting about them, maybe it’s something that is so niche that your audience is small; but dedicated. Whatever it is I think some folks don’t realize most of the the heavy lifting for online presence is done typically without a wifi connection.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.matthewsrobinson.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinsonishyde_
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinsonishyde

Image Credits
Bobby Chi Photography, Matt Kamimura, Keith Goulette, Ngozi Assata