This is a series of interviews with people who work from home and share their great (and not so great) experiences. If you would like to get featured, please fill out the short questionnaire here.
What’s your name and where are you from? Where do you live currently?
My name is Ferran Masip, I’m originally from Barcelona… And after some 15 years abroad, having paid rent in 4 continents, traveled more than I ever thought I would, I am once again based in Barcelona (or trying to).
What is it you do?
Huh, that’s a tough one!
I do, and have done, lots of stuff, things that are not related to each other, meaning, I don’t have a clear profile to portray…
For the sake of this conversation, I’ll focus on my main passion, and where I’ve put most of my hopes and effort for the last several years: Nomasdf Productions.
So, yeah, I’d say that I am a filmmaker. I started this little baby beast about 8 years ago, as a one-man-band filmmaker. With time, I have been lucky enough to meet extremely capable professionals who happen to be amazing people, built a flexible team, and we have, and still are, trying to make it grow, and more than anything, trying to make it something that we can enjoy, that we can collectively be proud of!
How long have you been working remotely?
For some 10 years now, more or less intensely, on and off.
Are you employed or a freelancer? If employed, what is your arrangement and how did you convince your boss?
Currently, I have an “employed” part-time job, and then freelance.
I have the best and worst of both worlds, really. It was pretty easy to arrange a nice deal with the people whom I am working with at the moment. They came looking for me, and not the other way around; they already knew what I do and how I did it, so we both adapted to each other’s needs. I feel very fortunate in that sense!
Any project you want to share?
Nomasdf Productions in itself is the project, I guess! There’s a few, within it, that I love.
This is part of a bigger project for Thwaites Marine… Early days, long shooting days, but finishing the day surfing in the amazing Australian coast was an amazing reward.
Or doing something like this, more on the artistic side, and being able to see your own work happening in front of your eyes at Barcelona’s Liceu, one of the most renown Opera Houses in Europe…
There’s, well, a lot of projects that I’d love to show, to share, that I’m proud of… Again, that’s why we throw so much energy into it, it is because it just makes sense (to us), at the end of the day, to be proud, or at least, content, with what you create.
If there is such a thing, how does a normal workday look for you?
I’d have to pass on this one. They are all different. It can be eternal email replying. It can be doing and re-doing and fighting for budgets. It can be getting all crazed up on all the preproduction processes, or even worse, production. It can be out, just shooting (whatever it is, wherever it happens to be)… Or back at the editing room, cutting here and pasting there, color correcting, and so on… Or, more often than not, just a mix of it all.
All just parts of the videomaking process, obvious for the ones in the business, hectic and quite insane for outsiders.
Can you think of a time you were really happy to be working remotely?
Yeah, that Australia example is a good one. It was just a few months ago, so I guess that’s why that one comes to mind easily. Over there, we also shoot a couple of music videos for an amazing guy. Filming in the middle of Dorrigo Rainforest, and wrapping up with cold beers and the sunset and surf and whatnot… Usually, it isn’t like that – definitely not! But when it is, yeah, that’s happiness at work!
What’s your biggest achievement/ milestone regarding remote work?
Being able to pull it off. It is hard, man. Life goes on, you keep getting old, and so on. Responsibilities come to you, and there’s that thing, there, at the background, telling you “hey, you have to settle”, “hey, you really need some security”, and so on. So, as years pass by, you find ways and models to reconcile both worlds, to try and be at peace, to make sense of it all… As it happens with remote work, as it happens with everything in life, I guess…
What is your biggest struggle with working remotely?
The “low seasons”. It always is. And I think it’s the same for everyone who’s been out there long enough. You have high tides, and everything seems amazing, “you are going to make it!”. But low tides happen as well. It’s just a matter of having the muscle and the attitude to keep going, to sweat them away – if you can. They are just tides. They come and go. The good ones, and the bad ones too.
What do you do to deal with it?
Try to keep my feet on the ground. Always keep some savings, always be realistic with everything. Nothing is for free, nothing is easy, and if you are not “the son of”, or have a “godfather”, or loaded, things are, and will be hard. Knowing that, accepting it, and always having the choice – in terms of wanting to be in the game, or not, which is legit both ways – gives you a certain peace of mind. To first have a safety nest (which you have to have worked for) and then jumping, that helps.
How does working remotely affect your stress levels?
Depends. Sometimes it does not, but sometimes, it fucks you up. As I said, at least in my case, it is a constant push and pull between life priorities. I’m Ok with things as they are now. The day I am not, I’ll go for a different lifestyle. I guess, at the end of the day, it is as easy as that. In other words, mindset is 80% of it.
Was there a specific reason why you wanted to work remotely?
It was a cause and a consequence at the same time. I always loved traveling, which, by itself, already goes a bit linked with remote work. Then, video production, sometimes allows, sometimes requires, remote working. So I am not sure if I wanted to, or if it just naturally happened.
What’s the most important skill that helped you make it?
Who said I made it? I’m still out there, trying to!
I’m not sure if I will ever “make it”, I’m not sure what that means, at least for me. Also, there’s a part of me that is even a bit scared of that, of “making it”, whatever it means… As then, it’d “be done”, and I’d have to turn to the next page.
But I guess that the previous answers already show a bit of what I mean: a clear and nice-built mindset, clear but flexible ideas and thoughts about it, and adaptability. I would have never imagined what I ended up doing a year ago, two, four, six years ago, if asked early on. If I wasn’t flexible back in the day, I would have missed a lot of opportunities or would have not envisioned many others.
Are there any essential apps or tools you use daily?
Leaving aside all video-related tools, I’d say everything that has to do with direct or indirect communication. It’s me here in this interview, but to be fair, it’s all the team. So, communication… that is extremely key in that sense.
Apart from your computer, what’s the most important item in your office?
If there’s no rental going on – and more often than not, it is – I’d say my own video gear. I have a bit of a gear-fetish, as many in the trade do. My most basic, raw setup for proper projects would include an editing laptop, currently at least a Sony A7Sii as a main camera (our eyes on the new BMPCC 4K, though), a couple of Canon SL lenses (plus probably a fix 50mm), some rig & tripods & such, some gimbal, maybe the DJI Mavic Air we throw around here and there sometimes, some basic sound gear, some basic lighting gear… All thrown in a case, always coming with us.
