How I Make Money as an Adventure Filmmaker
As a photographer and filmmaker that specializes in outdoor adventure content, I think it’s often confusing to others how I earn money. In this article I’m going to walk you through my three primary sources of income as well as my philosophy towards making money to support this lifestyle.
My Filmmaking Background
Before digging in, I do want to emphasize that this career path wasn’t built overnight.
I had my first freelance gig creating a corporate video for Morgan Stanley when I was a freshman in college then began to pursue it more seriously the following year. I began pitching companies to go film for them during spring breaks and long weekends. I even got a chance to film client projects for a month in Costa Rica during a long break between classes. So, when I graduated I felt fortunate to have been given a bit of a head start compared to other people my age.
I began charging more, upgrading my equipment, taking online education courses and investing time into the business aspects of the adventure filmmaking industry to help understand how to serve clients better. Money is something not a lot of people like to talk about but I enjoy learning about it and appreciate when other people in the industry are honest about rates so this is going to be an open look at my finances. I feel like I had to learn a lot of this over time but hopefully by reading this article you’ll be able to get a sense of how it’s done in case you want to pursue a career in this field too.
Here are the three primary ways I make money as a documentary adventure filmmaker and photographer…
1. I get hired directly from a brand or an agency
As a director and camera operator, my name sometimes bounces around to marketing directors at various companies and agencies looking to advertise in the outdoor industry. This can happen in a number of ways - an agency may see a film I completed for Outside Magazine and want to hire me, I may meet a marketing manager at an outdoor industry networking event who is needing video content, I connect with a local athlete who refers me to their sponsor, and/or another filmmaker recommends me for a job they can’t complete because they’re unavailable.
These projects with agencies or companies tend to yield the biggest financial result but they often have very little creative freedom so it’s important to balance with other projects on the side. However, I love doing commercial films and photo campaigns for a number of reasons, most of which has to do with being able to push my technical abilities to the next level by having support in the other areas of the production process. Having the freedom to hire a producer or an audio mixer for example allows me to really focus on the visuals, the part of the process I feel most drawn towards.
What I get paid for brand / agency projects:
My client projects vary in terms of price but I find I am most commonly operating in a $20,000-$50,000 range. With this price range the number of crew will range from just me as a Director/DP to a slightly larger crew where I’ll add a camera assistant, an audio mixer, a producer, and/or a photographer. Occasionally, the $50k+ projects come through which allow me to hire a larger crew but most of the time I’m hired for branded documentary style projects that require a more nimble and lightweight footprint since were often filming in hard to access places.
2. I am hired by a production company to complete a specific role on set.
In this specialty role the process usually goes as follows - A company or agency hires a production company then that production company hires me to fulfill a specific role on set helping bring the visuals to life. There’s a lot of different roles on a film set but I specialize as a cinematographer, also known as the camera operator. My job is to take the creative direction from the director and operate the camera to execute the visuals.
I’m not handling the sound equipment, I’m not making decisions about what the talent is wearing, nor am I involved in the editing process after the day of filming is done. Since I’m only thinking through one thing, as is everybody else involved on the project, the result tends to be typically more polished than if I were to do every role myself. There’s a saying in the industry that goes “cheap, fast, and high-quality - but you can only pick two.” Fast and high-quality is the world I like to live in.
What I Get Paid as a Cinematographer:
As opposed to charging on a per project basis like I do with an agency or brand, the industry often operates in terms of day rates when it comes to cinematography contract work. If I’m being paid to work on set here’s what I typically charge per day:
Director - $3,000
Cinematographer - $1,500
Stills Photographer - $2,000
Keep in mind that as a cinematographer, I rarely work more than a few days a month since I tend to focus my time on the projects where I’m acting as the production company and am hired directly from a brand/agency. Although I love supporting other directors in this industry, I’m not spending 20+ days on set each month so I typically make anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 per month on this aspect of my business.
3. I pitch companies on a passion project
Since I first started filmmaking and photography, passion projects have been the lifeblood of my business. Some of my favorite memories in life have been completing various films where money isn’t driving factor. Sometimes it’s not a factor at all. I’ve completed projects that have resulted in me losing money but I always gain something from it. I like to think of passion projects as a way to not build wealth but a way to build relationships, experience, and/or portfolio pieces. In this industry you need to show the type of work you wanna get hired for and I take that super seriously. Sometimes some of my most “successful” projects actually have made me little to no money at all.
What I Get Paid for Passion Projects
At this stage of my career I do receive various amounts of funding for the projects I pitch to companies. For one film I received a backpack and a pair of sunglasses but no money. For another I received $20,000. Some trips, like a two week long surf expedition to Europe may cost over $5,000 to even make the trip happen. Other projects, such as a film about a skier at the local Boulder ski resort, costs nothing other than my time and a tank of gas to get the job done. So, the profit margin in this aspect of my business is wildly unpredictable which is why it’s important to balance with other revenue streams.
The Other Sources of Income
Filmmaking and photography is a pretty broad industry and there’s a few other ways I make money on the side to balance out the highs and lows of the freelance lifestyle. I occasionally sell prints, I rent out my camera gear, and perform music at local coffeeshops. It doesn’t bring in a whole ton each month, typically anywhere from $200-$400 but it’s important for me to have more passive or alternative sources of income to diversify where I’m earning from, just in case something changes and I’m no longer able to work on set or pitch passion projects.
It’s Not About the Money
Sure, I wrote an entire blog post outlining how I make money but this is not why I pursued this career path. In fact, I actually didn’t really realize this was a viable career path until I was already thrown into it since nobody told me the financial aspect of it.
All I saw before working in this industry was the travel influencer lifestyle on Instagram, something I didn’t necessarily aspire to because I enjoy having a home base, a balanced community and taking financial risks is just not something I’m comfortable with. It took me some time to understand how the money rolls in so hopefully this gives you some insight into how it can be done. Since all of this information was all unknown to me when I started, maybe this will help clarify some of the business development that isn’t often discussed in the industry.
My money goals
In my first year of full-time filmmaking my biggest goal was to make enough money to pay for rent and food, knowing that I would simply be happy. I’ve found that when I’m happy, healthy and grounded I’ve actually brought in the most amount of money. I set out to make $15k that first year but because I was working in an industry and with people I felt really aligned with - I brought in $57,000/yr. Every year, I only feel like I’m growing happier and my income always increases as a result.
I invest in a SEP-IRA, a brokerage account and max out a ROTH-IRA. I save aggressively in areas that don’t make me happy and spend generously in areas that do. However, I’m not happier when I make more money. I’m happier when I work with kind people, when I share interesting stories, when I’m more connected with my friends/family and when I get to pursue my outdoor and musical passions. Money is not my driving factor, but I do believe it is important to talk about.
What Success Means to Me…
I’m convinced that my success going forward isn’t going to be because I earn more money. It’s about being well-rounded. The more knowledgeable I become about the environment (yes, like studying from books again), the better I can share those stories. The more empathic I can be (yes, like going to therapy and thinking through how to be a better person), the more I can connect with the people I work with. The more active I can be (yes, like taking a couple hours a day to move my body outdoors), the more capable I will be to follow athletes along on their adventures. There’s still a lot of ways I want to grow to make better documentaries and live a more fulfilled life, and almost none of them revolve around making more money.
Connect with Roo
Roo is a commercial/documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Boulder, Colorado but travels all around the world for his filmmaking career. He has produced films for Outside Magazine in Ireland, camera operated for Netflix in the Rocky Mountain West, photographed among indigenous communities in Peru and Ecuador, directed videos with professional climbers in Mexico and has received notable recognition in his hometown of Orcas Island in Washington State for his work telling uplifting stories in the outdoor space.