I haven’t been in the International Cinematographers Guild very long compared to others. But looking back it seems that as soon as I joined the union I heard about the 30 years 60 thousand hour benchmark.
The term means that you have to work 60,000 hours and have a least 30 years to be able to retire with full IASTE pension. You also have to be past 60 years old but that is another tangent that I did not go down in this video!
Now, 60,000 hours seems like a lot of hours but if you do the math over 30 years that is only about 40 hours a week, not bad aye? But then when you realize we work 70+ hours a week and you still have to hit the 30-year mark to qualify for full pension. It’s then when you realize what a grand trek you have in front of you.
When I first heard of 30 years and 60,000 hours to retire I began to think about the 10,000-hour rule that Malcolm Gladwell popularized and how I could become a master in 6 different areas of my life in the same time it took to qualify for a full union pension. Why would I want to work 60,000 hours? How much am I giving up by being at work 70+ hours a week?
Hollywood is a world that many people dream about working in. That was me when I was 19 years old stocking shelves back at Trader Joe’s. But I got extremely lucky and I got a foot in the door at a very early age. This allowed me to get an early glimpse of what my life would be if I continue down this path. All the places I could go or not go because I was too busy working.
I still consider myself so young with so far to go, but I feel privileged to feel “awake” in my life. There are no white clouds in my eyes, there is no more fantasy, and yet in the same breath, I am beyond grateful to be here. In my life, I know that I want to spend a majority of it with a camera in my hands, but I also know I have no plans to work in Hollywood for 60,000 hours.
Because of my plan to never hit a pension, this means I am going to have to restrict myself financially and invest in other options so that I don’t need to qualify for a pension. Both of the above I have been doing for the past 4 years since I first joined the International Cinematographers Guild. I haven’t spoken publicly much about how I use my money in the past because I have never felt like I had done enough to speak. But now I feel that I have done enough that I am ready to share.
I’m a fan of speaking after doing as opposed to speaking about what I hope to get done. The latter is much too intimidating for me!
Over 4 years ago, I made a video called “I Make $CENSORED a Year”. I’ve come a long way from that point of being that broke kid who needs a haircut but I never want to forget that that was indeed once me.
This will be the last video from the 2018 archive. Next week will be a little more recent!
Thanks for your time.
I Make $CENSORED a Year
Some of my favorite shots for this project:
