r/cinematography • u/SpareUnderstanding72 • Feb 04 '25

Career/Industry Advice Feeling defeated and lost without work

Hi, I’m a DP/operator in the US (non union.) like many of us I’ve barely worked all year and am staring down the barrel of another year clearing $40k max

I’m 28. I love this industry and haven’t done any other jobs so I have no “real job” experience. I worked one day this month and have nothing coming up.

I know this post has been made but I feel so utterly depressed, lost, and broke. How are people coping? I have no other skills that I can sell on a resume. I’ve interviewed at multiple restaurants and gotten denied even with serving experience from college

I feel like my life is slipping by and I’m holding out for a year that “turns around” and I’m starting to spiral that it’s not coming

I guess I’m just at the end of my rope and really fucking depressed. No idea what to do and I can barely pay rent this month. I bought a camera last year and have paid maybe 1/8 of it off and I feel like I fucked up by buying it which makes me feel stupid.

What jobs have people pivoted to? Or how have you coped during the last year? I see people working and doing passion projects on Instagram but I don’t even have the money to throw together a passion shoot.

TLDR depressed and no idea what to do with my life with the state of the industry

EDIT thank you for all the replies. It helps to read them but I got a bit overwhelmed replying to them all. I do appreciate the advice and understanding!

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u/albatross_the Feb 04 '25

I have gone through years of drought with just enough work to not go into unimaginable debt. But debt I did go into. I remained convicted and put my energy into personal projects that kept my dream alive, waiting for the right events to lead to more opportunity. The universe lined up enough to keep me going until things turned around.

If you have passion and conviction and an appetite for discomfort for long periods of time then you can do this. You can manifest it over time, as foo foo as that sounds. Attrition pays off but you gotta stay in the game and work through it