My Odyssey Plan = Ethan Mitchell

When it comes to my future, happiness, satisfaction, and a healthy family comes to mind. When it comes to planning my future though, I have always had a tough time deciding and figuring out which path I want to take to get to that point in my life. Through a lot of contemplating and reassessments on my situation I have worked out three possible Odyssey plans for my future, ordered by my most favorable future to least favourable.

'''Odyssey Plan 1 – Media Director and Family man''' Ever since I entered my high school (Wexford Collegiate School for The Arts) I have always been intrigued by the stories and contributions to the media made by my teachers. One of them even being the assistant to a media director as a young age before perusing his teacher profession. My teacher told me is one of the best ways to gain experience and to pursue a director’s position is to be there assistant and work for them till you gain enough recognition and skills to pursue your own work. After graduating university of Toronto, with my BA in Economic and Marketing I would seek out find any of the top 10 major companies (Apple, Nike, Microsoft) looking for an media assistant for their marketing team. From there I would build a reputation by releasing and finally running marketing campaigns for company as their Media directors. Having that position would be ideal for me as the job would require constant traveling all over the world which has always been a goal of mine. Finally, I would like to settle down in nice house on the beaches of Toronto being close to downtown area for work but also having a beautiful home for my family. The challenges I might face will be looking for the right company and opportunity to build my reputation in the industry but I believe with my expertise I will be able to overcome these difficulties.

'''Odyssey Plan 2 - Music Video Director and a Downtown Lifestyle  Music has always been a big part of my life. Since I was I kid, my dad would play me a massive array of different songs, spanning over all different genres and artists. Most of them being anything from the Bees Gees to Daft Punk and even early Kanye West. As a child (due to the absence of YouTube at the time) I would imagine music videos and stories for these songs in my head as me and my dad drove through the downtown lights after my weekly swimming classes.

Once I graduate University of Toronto with and Arts degree in Cinema and Cinematography I would plan to use my connections from school and friends who are in the industry to find some production work. Very much like my first odyssey plan, I would focus on finding a mentor such as Director X or the Daniels Brothers or high profile music video directors to learn and work for. Once gaining enough of a reputation I would work toward producing videos for high name profiles and eventually get in a position into helping new Toronto artists gain recognition, like what Director X did to drake in his early career. Traveling the world would still be a factor still relevant to my life as the profession would require a lot of traveling, depending on the location of the production. Finally, since being a music video director requires you to be present and close to the studios located downtown, purchasing a nice condominium downtown in the city of Toronto would just be perfect for me as I love this city and my home. Obviously with this plan competition will be the greatest factor in this situation as almost everybody with a passion for music these days are actively going for a profession like this. But with my experience and my already established expertise in film making, my skills will be the most important contributor to my success in this field.

'''Odyssey Plan 3 – Photographer and Small Business Owner ''' 4 years ago, would be the first time is would finally get my hands on my first DSLR cropped sensor camera and it was glorious. The Canon t3i was a fat rebel series camera that I would use on mostly vacations and parties with friends, but it wasn’t till my cousin gave me a beautiful 50mm Sigma arts lens that I would truly fall in love with photography. Capturing moments in their best visual form has always been something I have found incredibly special to me no matter whether I’m shooting wedding photography, cityscape, and portrait photography. Since I already do photography on the side, I wouldn’t find it as hard to make it my full-time job as I already have covered most of my start up fees and expenses. Though after graduating from University with my Commerce degree, I would immediately write a business plan for my photography business, and would to launch my photography company with a team of other close photographers I know personally. My company would tackle wedding photography as the average pay for wedding contract can be $1000 - $3665 depending on negations and days spent at the venue. Wedding photography would be my baseline for growing the company as eventually I would like to hold classes for beginner photographers in Toronto while also allowing beginners to work with expansive glass. Combining these two ideas I would then use my specialties in cinema to transition the company from photography to a media arts cooperation that would specialize in all fields of digital arts from animation, graphic design, photography, and trailer cinema. With the funds that I would save up from building the company I would eventually love to live close to the design district of Toronto as I would plan to keep my company’s location close to home. Of Couse hardships, such as handling a new business and competition would again be a huge contributing factor to the difficulties in this plan. Also this plan would take much of my time and effort as running a company does naturally, but I believe with my very clear understanding of how wedding photography works in Toronto and knowing the assembly of a good team, success is very achievable.