Field Productions: Filip Christensen Profile

[This series of profiles on The Business of Fun will be followed by short video interviews. The goal is to allow you to get advice directly from those already living their dream. The Business of Fun will ask five standard questions to each interviewee. We’ll also ask each of them three of the best questions submitted by fans. “Like” us on Facebook and submit your questions for Filip today.]

We chose Filip Christensen for The Business of Fun’s first in-depth profile because his natural progression from hobby to passion to successful career is the personification of our core message. Through single-minded dedication to his craft, he has built a successful production company from the ground up. Field Productions now represents Norway in the global filmmaking scene. Christensen spends his winters on the road filming from helicopters in the world’s most beautiful and unique locations with some of the world’s best skiers. His movies have won stacks of awards. His Web and TV series reach millions of viewers. And he and his crew just made the step into a plush production space in downtown Oslo.

“There’s No Reason You Can’t Start”

Instagram founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, discuss the process of starting their company that just sold to Face Book for 1 Billion dollars.

Do Work

Ira Glass, the man behind This American Life on NPR, talks about closing the creativity gap.

Atmosphere

When I grow up, I wanted a job making art
Picture that, how many years old?
Young enough to mix up love with career goals

People

“To be inspired in your work is probably the most important thing. To be surrounded by people and places that make you want to work creatively and do your best is really the essence of what everyone is searching for in their jobs and their careers.”

“We can look at the financial rewards of building boards which are limited. The real wealth comes in the people that you work with.”

“I get to meet people from all over the world. This business has brought me friendships that I’ve developed with people from all over the world. I feel like my purpose here, in my life is to touch other people. I can’t think of any other career where I’d be in contact with the broad spectrum of people that I get to call my friends. They’re all surfers but they come from all walks of life and nationalities.”

Eric Arakawa and Chris Burkard are both experts in their crafts and make beautiful product. Though shaping and photography are somewhat distant disciplines the keys to living a creative life are the same whether you’re producing surfboards or photographs. Surrounding yourself with inspirational, hard working, interesting, people that you enjoy spending time with is the best way to stay inspired, get good feedback, and generally have fun and be satisfied in your work.

Let My People Go Surfing, Yvon Chouinard

We recently picked up Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard and immediately knew we had to share it here. The book is full of inspirational messages and examples of following your passions, committing to a cause, and always striving to build something that brings more good than harm into the world. The entire book is spot on to the message we preach as The Business of Fun. Chouinard has found his way to a sustainable, fulfilling, balanced life based around doing what makes him feel most alive. Read up.

“I’ve always avoided thinking of myself as a businessman. I was a climber, a surfer, a kayaker, a skier, and a blacksmith. We simply enjoyed making good tools and functional clothes that we, and our friends, wanted.”

“One of my favorite sayings about entrepreneurship is: If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing.” Since I had never wanted to be a businessman, I needed a few good reasons to be one. One thing I did not want to change, even if we got serious: Work had to be enjoyable on a daily basis. We all had to come to work on the balls of our feet and go up the stairs two steps at a time. We needed to be surrounded by friends who could dress whatever way they wanted, even be barefoot. We all needed to have flextime to surf the waves when they were good, or ski the powder after a big snowstorm or stay home and take care of a sick child. We needed to blur that distinction between work and play and family.”

Want to be a pro athlete?

The title of this post should actually just be “Want to do what you want?” because all the advice is completely applicable whether you’re thing is DJing, classical piano, motion graphics, or accounting.

There is all the obvious advice that applies to anything you’re doing. Look through the below links with advice from surf, snowboard and ski industry team managers and you’ll see the words “work ethic”, “attitude”, “passion”, “personality”, “communication” repeated continuously. These are the obvious things that you should be good at no matter what you’re trying to do: Be nice, return emails, be passionate about what you’re doing, work hard.

However, a slightly less obvious theme cropped up…

Just do your thing. Click below to see full post on what that really means and how to make it a reality.

Best Places to Work

If one of these companies is your idea of The Business of Fun, check and see if they’re hiring. If they’re not schedule a visit anyway just to see what they’re all about and if it seems as good in person as on paper. If it does try to meet someone there and talk to them about what they do. If you have skills they need, there is always a chance that even if they’re not looking for someone right now they might give you a good idea of someone else to go talk to.  Or maybe a position will open up down the road and you’ll already have a connection. Or maybe you just find out that you don’t have the skills required but at least you know what to go work on.

Side note/gratuitous claim: It feels pretty good looking through the list and realizing that The Public Works is right on par if not better in almost all categories.

Inspiration is for Amateurs

“Inspiration and work ethic ride right next to each other. Not every day of your life you’re going to wake up and the clouds are going to part and the rays from heaven are going to come down and you’re going to write a song about it. Sometimes you just get in there and force yourself to work and maybe something good will come out of it.” -Jack White

“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lighting to strike you in the brain, you’re not going to make an awful lot of work” -Chuck Close

Work Life Balance – Nigel Marsh

“If you don’t design your life someone else will do it for you and you might just not like their idea of balance.”

Although Nigel doesn’t go into too much instruction on exactly how to find your own work life balance (presumably both because his time is limited and he’d like you to invest in his book) he does a good job stressing the importance of finding balance in your life.

However, this discussion is based much around the assumption that the work is something dreadful and the balance must be struck outside of working hours. The Business of Fun strongly supports finding a balance that works for you but contends that since we all spend a huge chuck of our life working (whatever that means for you) finding work that is fulfilling and contributes to the balance is essential.

Denver Event at Battery621

The Business of Fun just wrapped another event in Denver, Colorado’s premier creative collective Battery621. We filled the house, saw solid feedback from both panelists and attendees, and netted a 9 News segment.

“A great evening and a pleasure to get to meet everyone and share our stories. As I said before, it’s pretty easy to talk about something you’re passionate and excited about. The Business of Fun is definitely on to something,” said panelist and CMH Heli-Skiing (the world’s biggest heli ski opperation) Area Manager Steve Chambers.

Preston Strout, Co-Owner of High Cascade Snowboard Camp and the moderator of the event, was an amazing addition to the program. Not only does he have his own interesting perspective and story of his own journey but he has a stage presence and sense of humor that kept the discussion engaging and entertaining.

The event started with each panelist introducing themselves with a video of what they do (embedded below). The videos ranged from Chris Davenport’s emotional exhalations from the top of the world’s tallest peak to a slideshow of Kristin Rust’s philanthropic travels through the world to Steve Nilsen’s work in the fun-packed world of PBR.

The themes for the night were: Finding your path, sacrifice, and work/life balance. The discussion took an organic path (guided expertly by Preston) through those themes as well as touching on valuable points along the way such as how to remember names or find value in seemly menial tasks or jobs throughout your life.

After the audience had a chance to engage in an open discussion with the panel the event culminated with drinks and socializing.

Video Coverage of the event as well as a full version of the whole panel discussion coming soon.

9 News Coverage at Battery621

The Dark Side of the Lens

“I never set out to be anything in particular, only to live creatively and push the scope of my experience through adventure and through passion.”

Breathtaking cinematography, haunting audio, and engaging story telling. I get the tingles every time I watch this and I’m probably on my 20+ viewing. Go full screen with this one.

“I never want to take this for granted so I try to keep motivations simple, real, positive.

If I only scrape a living, at least it’s a living worth scraping. If there’s no future in it at least it’s a present worth remembering.

For fires of happiness and waves of gratitude for everything that brought us to that point on earth at that moment in time to do something worth remembering with a photograph or a scar.”

I feel genuinely lucky to hand on heart say I love doing what I do. And though I’ll never be a rich man, if I live long enough, I’ll certainly have a tale or two for the nephews. And I dig the thought of that.”

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

This post is a little late as we all received the sad news last week but I just re-watched Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencement speech again and couldn’t help being struck by how relevant it was to the mission statement of The Business of Fun.

If you don’t have time to watch the whole speech or read the full transcript, here are a few other standout quotes.

“You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

It is interesting that Jobs changed this passage from the prepared speech and added the Robert Frost reference.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

The Business of Fun Family

The Business of Fun family is an ever-growing network of the most successful people working in action sports, music, and art today. Every person in the family has their own stories to share and wisdom to impart and are excited about the opportunity to help people find their paths.

We’ve brought world class profession athletes, magazine editors and photo editors, marketing managers, company owners, product engineers and designers, agency account managers, writers, photographers, cinematographers, freelancers, company devotees, graphic designers, etc. etc… some of the biggest names and the biggest brands in action sports, art, and entertainment to candidly share experiences and advice.

The Events

“I thought The Business of Fun was such an awesome idea and it really did give some great insight into these industries. I really liked the combination of video and personal interaction…and of course the free shwag!” – Nicole Didero

“It definitely inspired creativity and you all shared some great advice.” –Kristin WIlmann

“Great vibe. Interesting perspectives on the panel. Engaged audience.” –Chuck Sullivan

“I would highly recommend the program and saw that it was extremely well received by students at CSU.” –Renne Welch

The Business of Fun events have consisted of 5 to 10 people and an attendance of 100-200 students. We do our best to make each panel a wide variety of different perspectives and variations of “living the dream”.

The events usually start out with each panelist introducing themselves and then a moderator steering a discussion to what we feel most benefits the students. The discussions discussions vary dependent on the panel and the audience but themes of sacrifice, networking, brand building, and passion are common threads. After about an hour of talking from the panel the event opens for questions from the audience and then into an open forum where attendees can talk one on one with the panelists.

We’re hoping that the next step in the evolution of The Business of Fun is a larger national tour but stay tuned for potential events in your area. If you think we should come to your school or town don’t hesitate to let us know. Feel free to suggest panelists you’d like to meet as well.