Art of Business

The interviewee is Oscar H. Guerrero, a family member (my cousin) who is involved in different fields within the entertainment industry such as art, performance, actor, comedian and photographer. Unless he is working on a production, he is mostly working as a freelancer, which means that there is no set salary and his income has to be negotiated. One of the most frequent situations he encounters is that most negotiations he encounters are based on positional bargaining. 

When the contending party has a set position, it is sometimes hard, but not impossible to get what you want. According to my cousin, what they all need is a “bone to follow” (personal communication, October 3, 2015). Freelancers are in constant competition between other freelancers seeking to get the same job. Once the contesting party grabs the bone, you have to add some sprinkles, which are extra services or goodies that you will provide. After that, getting what you want is relatively simple; it’s not impossible to change someone’s mind, but it takes hard work to create a reputation, knowledge and great interpersonal skills.

After speaking with him for a while, he depicted two of the most important aspects in deal-making and negotiation in which he has participated in and they are to find the “middle ground,” but never at the cost of your vision and passion (personal communication, October 3, 2015). Those terms are considered mutual benefit and objective criteria. Everyone has his or her own objectives in business. In the case of my future company, the event producers will want high quality coverage of the event and I will want to not only to have exclusivity and access, but to also have fun capturing moments. He said that it is imperative that both parties’ objectives are identified early during the deal-making process so the process can run smoother, but more importantly, both can benefit from the deal. 

Let Money Fly

There used to be a time within the entertainment business where a picture, a painting or a song was enough to fill the hearts and souls of the public; money was second to passion. However, because of the times we live in, the entertainment industry is driven by money. The decision whether a movie or event is established is determined by how much income will it generate for the producers and the performers in the event, but money itself is not the only factor the way the entertainment industry is seen. In the article Does Capitalism Destroy Culture? by Michael Matheson Miller, a critique of capitalism, states that “Capitalism has profound effects on culture and it is a mistake to think that that the market economy is neutral or that markets left to their own devices will work everything out for the best.” (Miller, 2013). The economy is not the only one to blame for this, but many leaders within the industry care about the finances. 

Because of this, entrepreneurs like myself that wish to tap into a “virgin” industry have to understand not only how the entertainment industry work, but also how to evaluate the company’s finances to meet our needs and what others are willing to pay for the services provided. The RPA industry is going to become one of the biggest markets in different industries and will have a significant influence within the entertainment industry. Not only will it provide producers, directors and artists to follow their passions with freedom that was limited to heavy equipment and large aircraft, but it will also provide feasible solutions for different applications. The operating costs of an RPA are fractions of having a crew to operate helicopters, aircrafts and heavy equipment and the earning potential is only limited to the capabilities of the operator. According to Ben Wolfgang, editor for the Washington Times, “Private-sector drones — also called unmanned aerial systems or UAVs — will create more than 70,000 jobs within three years and will pump more than $82 billion into the U.S. economy by 2025” (Wolfgang, 2013). What is good for RPA enthusiasts like myself is that a significant portion of those $82 billion dollars will come from the entertainment industry.

In the near future, RPA's will be capturing moments, laughs and dreams from the ground up.

Pursuit of Happyness

One important factor for the success in the entertainment industry is the mindset a person has when practicing his or her trade whether it is an artist, producer, designer, etc. In the industry, hardships must be endured if one is to become successful because of its competitive environment; one must be resilient, un-willing to give up and motivated to do their best every time. 

Tony Robbins, a life coach who specializes in behavior and reasoning, had the chance to participate as a speaker in Ted where he made his presentation on “Why we do what we do.” In his presentation, Robbins discussed his theory on why people do what they do. One of the points he made in which I could relate the most was that our destiny and destination is mapped by what he calls the “internal drive;” our decisions are based on rationality, but mostly influenced by emotions. 

Most artists have come from nothing and worked their way to the top. They were not brought up with luxurious lives, but with financial struggles, family and mental problems. Their most important accomplishment was not reaching their artistic accomplishments, but to grow as a person and overcome their adversities. 

In Robbins’ presentation, he identifies two key aspects in order to be successful and most importantly filled and those are to find one’s target and create a map. In order to attain ones dream or vision, one must first identify what that is whether it is money, pleasure or family. Once the target is identified, the mapping begins by planning how it will be achieved whether it is by attaining a degree, getting an instructor or any other manner of achieving it.

The most important factor in a person’s life is the completion of a person’s pursuit of happiness. In the entertainment industry, emotions and mindset are necessary to accomplish it because it is rare when an opportunity is given, almost every time it is earned through hard work and dedication.

“I believe that the invisible force of internal drive, activated, is the most important thing. I'm here because I believe emotion is the force of life. All of us here have great minds. . . We all know how to think. With our minds we can rationalize anything. We can make anything happen.”- Tony Robbins

From Ground Up

What if you could have a camera filming in the ground and moments later have that same camera take to the sky and provide aerial imagery?

A couple of years ago, in order to be able to acquire great footage from different angles would require a ground crew and an aerial crew to take aerial footage. In some instances you need a still camera, a rolling camera attached to a vehicle or rail cart, attached on a crane and have a flight crew of a helicopter and/or airplane, which its costs can be extremely high.

What was unthinkable in the past decades is now at hand. However, that is not entirely so in the United States and that is because of the legislative hold the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other government agencies have on the integration of Remote Piloted Aircrafts (RPA) into the National Airspace (NAS). Unlike the United States, European countries have more flexible regulations to the use of RPA’s and one of the companies that started using 4K technology on RPA’s is Spider UAS Operations Ltd, which is homed in England. The flexibility and quality of image of their platforms and the footage they are able to acquire is almost priceless and the company is going to be an example for future companies.

In the meantime, some agencies in the United States are providing limited authorization to allow certain individuals to conduct flights. Many companies and organizations are looking towards the use of RPA’s and some of them are beginning to create awards for their imagery and footage such as the New York City Drone Film Festival (NYCDFF). The awardees and participants are RPA enthusiasts and professionals who are taking imagery and footage to a different level. The NYCDFF is one of the new organizations that are motivating RPA pilots, companies and individuals to get involved into the RPA industry.

RPA- The Eye in The Sky

There have been many significant moments and changes in history, and one of the most influencing changes that the U.S.A. will face in the upcoming years is the implementation of Remote Piloted Aircrafts (RPA) more commonly known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) into the National Airspace (NAS). The implementation of RPA’s into the NAS has been a conflicting topic in which federal agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the government in the local and federal level have not been able to reach an understanding to allow the public use of RPA’s in the NAS. The FAA developed the “Integration of Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) Roadmap” as a means to lay the foundation for the completion of the implementation.

The implementation of RPA’s into the NAS will bring different advantages to many industries including the entertainment industry. The use of RPA’s will allow the access and ease to accomplish tasks that currently require high costs to conduct or operate. Some examples include the use of RPA’s for news channels to provide live coverage without the need of a helicopter and its crew saving thousands of dollars, other are RPA’s as a means of acquiring photo or video material for music events, sports events and so much more. One of the industries within entertainment that started the use of RPA’s is the movie industry where they used the RPA to capture live footage for the director instead of using a helicopter or a fast-moving car beside the actor recording the action.

RPA’s are the future and the entertainment industry will reap their benefits because of their ease of use and the low cost required to operate them. Initial cost will be high, but it ill be worth every penny.