My Perspective on Writing Funding Applications
Passion projects are the lifeblood of creativity. They are vital for your development, they fuel your love of the work, and they lead to some amazing collaborations. For us, a simple idea often turns into a big, beautiful plan, exploring new visual directions in animation, virtual production or film, often in collaboration with artists like classical composers or actors. Of course, when you are running a business, doing big things for free just is not feasible. While writing funding applications can feel like a laborious job, far removed from the actual fun stuff, I've learned that all the details required are actually vital to a project's success. It’s advice someone once gave me: everything you need to jot down and work out is essential to making that silly whim in your head a reality.
The Secret to Sustaining Creativity
The biggest lesson I've learned is not to make it a time-sensitive ordeal. Give yourself space and time. Rushing will only put pressure on you and ultimately make something that is supposed to be experimental or interesting more stressful than it needs to be.
I'm currently working on a funding application for a personal project. It’s a very slow process, but we meet once a week with a little bit of homework for each of us. This has kept our enthusiasm going for over a year. You might think weekly meetings for an application would just fizzle out, but they have been incredibly buoyant. Another great thing about this approach is that it has not become a chore or impacted my regular work life.
I was taught a huge lesson about this during a paid job tender. A colleague of mine would immediately go to the numbers and the methodical, "boring" stuff first. They pointed out that if you get all the tedious parts, the budget, the timeline, the research, worked out first, you will actually understand the parameters in which your creative idea can flourish. This prevents that awful situation where you have to scale back a wonderful idea because it is too expensive.
So we meet weekly, we chip away, and another unexpected surprise is that when you have time, new ideas and opportunities present themselves. This has become my new approach to funding passion projects and exciting collaborations.
Key Takeaways for Creative Projects
Embrace the details. All the so called "boring" details of a funding application are vital to a project's success.
Don't rush the process. Give yourself plenty of time to work on the application to reduce stress and allow the project to develop fully.
Get the practical stuff done first. By figuring out the budget and timeline early on, you can understand the creative boundaries of the project.
Break it down into manageable chunks. Regular, short meetings can help you chip away at the work without it feeling like a chore.
When following these steps, you may be surprised to find that the process was both thorough and enjoyable, allowing your beautiful idea all the time and space it needs to flourish. What I have learned is that every passion project I have taken on has allowed me to experience new media, new ways of working, and exciting collaborations. Ultimately, they have led to new business opportunities, proving they are so worth continuing.
