In this week’s presentations, we looked at the importance of running a business properly to be successful. For the week’s activity, we were asked to think about the following three areas in relation to our own practice:

• A Mission Statement
• The Product
• The Market

The following is a summary of my own business:

• A Mission Statement

Your Story on Film – my mission statement from the last seven years as a professional filmmaker, which has now also become my statement for my new photography business – R J Jones Photography. It is just that, your own story on film. Through visual imagery, I tell the story of your project, work, event or issue with the aim of building up your profile and reaching a wide audience.

• The Product

Through the use of mixed visual media, I aim to promote and showcase project (largely public sector, NHS and charity led), event, festival, activities and personal stories in a way that connects with the viewer. Seeking to inspire through such work, I follow the 1950’s free cinema mantra:

• No film can be too personal.
• The image speaks. Sound amplifies and comments.
• Size is irrelevant. Perfection is not an aim.
• An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude.

  Co-founded by Lindsay Anderson with Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lorenza Mazzetti in the mid-1950s –

• see the following film for more info site.

  I choose this as I feel that modern media is very much over saturated in its approach and the very style of image making is being lost to the digital movement. 

• The Market

Most of my work revolves around public sector or publicly funded projects or events. Often this means producing work that is used for monitoring or evaluation purposes. I work within the comedy and music industry often and look to provide the artists with a portfolio of images and film that they can use to gain further bookings.

I also cover wildlife and conservation issues, the latter led to a high profile campaign in support of the Devon Beavers involving Chris Packham – a link to the film can be seen here

This film formed part of a fundraising campaign to bring in £100k to support the conservation project. The film was very successful in helping to raise the money and proved to me the effectiveness of such campaigns when video/stills images are used.

For the photography, my focus is much the same in terms of market, but with the addition of a will to move into commercial and marketing work. This includes developing my work around architecture, editorial and press media.

Within architecture, I have been looking into linking with estate agencies and similar companies to produce profiles of work for use within advertising. Within editorial, I have been exploring links to transportation, aviation and farming as a way to boost my business opportunities.

 

---

 

References:

A History of Free Cinema – Available here