Think athlete! Practice! Face problems! Some thoughts on creative survival

Veteran creative business consultant Monica Davidson talks about the practical management of ideas in a plague year.

‘I do tend to be annoyingly optimistic at the best of times,’ says Monica Davidson, when I interrupt her planning for a webinar through Screen NSW. She has been a journalist, a musician and a filmmaker both as a freelancer and through her own production company. Needing to diversify, she became a pioneering teacher of creative business methods in 1994.

She built Creative + Business in 2008 in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, and feels as if she is right back in that disaster as COVID-19 ravages the sector. All the advice across the screen world at the moment comes from the same playbook, but  the Davidson edge is based on her understanding of the creative process.

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David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.