Best way to go into a film career.

caderobinson

caderobinson

Active member
As I realize there isn't much money in the film industry (at least for beginners) I was wondering what would be the best way to go into it.

What school and what to learn their?

What to do after school?

+K for solid answers
 
Speaking as a someone who currently is in a photo degree, taking some classes is obviously not going to magically make you the next Spielberg. Unless you already have natural talent, incredible drive, and a portfolio and marks to even get in your better to look at a different career...
 
I've been doing a lot of research on that lately and here's my vision of it now (feel free to start from that or not):

Unfortunately from what I've found and heard youll probably have to do a lot of very average contracts with no place for creativity at all (very average promotion videos or even worse), and that whatever the school you're coming out from.

I've talked to a few people that are killing it in the industry and that are now doing the coolest projects (and are free to really use their own creative style) and from what they've told me you gotta keep developping your own style while doing your first average contracts (so for example keep doing some ski videos while doing shitty promotionnal stuff) and if you play your cards right and make a lot of contacts somebody might one day like your personnal style and your personnal projects and thats where the fun starts.

One of my friend was shitted on by awful clients for a long time until some artists found his style dope and now he's gettin paid doing trippy videoclips for various artists in Canada and United-States, here's his latest work that was on MTV:
(pretty dope video to get paid for if you ask me)

 
There can definitely be good money in the industry for beginners. As with any line of work the variables vary greatly. What do you want to do in the long run?
 
First of all, if you want to make money, you need to be where the money is. Los Angeles, Portland, Vancouver, New Orleans, Atlanta, and New York City are good places to start. Majoring in film in college helps, mostly because of the networking.

Then you need to get on set (again, the networking helps to get on set, which in turn helps you increase your network). PA on real shoots as much as you can while you're still in school, and make as many student films as you can. Then try to land a couple solid internships late in your school career.

Get your first internship at a big company where you probably won't have as much hands-on experience and will do more coffee fetching than you'd like, but it will put you in a good environment to observe the politics of a big film company. I think a lot of young people underestimate the political side of the film industry. Understanding politics is key to making money. Then get a second internship at a place you really want to work or with a person you really want to work for. Aim to do this internship right before you graduate. Make yourself invaluable as a camera operator, grip, electrical, coordinator, PA, everything. With a little luck you will roll directly from graduation into a job at this place or with this person.

I've seen this path work for a good number of people.
 
Network, knowing people and making a good impression on them is a really good way to get into any career, there are plenty of naturally talented people who like film who aren't dedicated enough to put in the hard work required to get anywhere. If you really wan't it you'll get it, if you just think it's cool, good luck.
 
Be opportunistic, flexible, eclectic. Try things you might not even want to film - you never know what you'll learn from them (hell, doing headshots for aspiring actors were my first paid gigs with photography regardless of the fact that portraits were never my forte, and I was amazed how fast the connections spread like wildfire.)

One of the best quotes I ever heard from a professor when I was in school was "FOR FUCKS SAKE, FUCK AROUND."

Even if you have a niche that you're particularly successful with, don't ever stagnate yourself. Don't just keep on being "Meet the Beatles". Try out some "Sgt. Pepper" from time to time, even if it's just your own personal work. Keep experimenting, thinking of new ways to tweak what you do.
 
networking networking networking. shake everyones hand. be a nice person. be the shit. fake it till you make it. you never know if the next person you meet could hire you for something. ride the freelance giant.
 
Also, I can't say this enough. ALWAYS. HAVE. A. CONTRACT.

If you're doing solo-stuff, never ever ever ever go into a job without a contract in hand, even if it's your best friend or something. If you don't, you WILL get screwed. Period.
 
This.

Filming/media isn't like business, law, or med. You don't need a degree to be successful
 
You may not need a degree to be successful, but my god does it ever help to get your foot in the door and keep yourself in the room.
 
It seems there's a lot of posts like this right now. "How to get into film? Should I go into film school? Career in film?"

The real, true answer to this question is there's no "best" way to get into a "film career". You need to be more specific! There's many many ways to get into a massive amount of potential careers in film (despite what everyone leads you to believe). Film as a career gets a lot bigger than shooting skiing, where you do the camera work, the sound, the editing, the distribution. If you want to work in larger budget fiction, there's lots of opportunities with unions, depending on the town, for entry level permit positions to grip, rig, do carpentry, etc. If you want to work in documentary, it's best to just find a team, find a great idea and hit the bricks so to say. It worked for Roger Deakins after all.

Basically, film has thousands of careers that are incredibly different. A Key Grip on a big budget feature in Toronto has a very different experience than an Underwater DOP in Indonesia, or a large scale wedding videographer in LA, or a Location Manager in London. All of these are careers that are available, given you can network well, be polite and respectful, learn quickly, and work hard every day you're at it.

 
- Picture what you want to do

- Learn the basics in that field

- Do a test project by yourself

- Learn from it, research the things that you found challenging

- Learn the advanced parts of the field your interested in

- Create more

- Put out a demo reel

- Either get a job as a freelancer or with a company ( ProductionHUB.com/ Indeed.com/ Mandy.com/ Freelancer.com)

- Create opportunities, reach out, do jobs you don't want to do, never be afraid, learn, ask , do, fail, try again.

- Network Network Network.

- Hopefully you run into the person you look up to one day, you walk up to them, introduce yourself, mention you want to work with/for them, and then exchange contacts. Email back the next day. Phone call the day after.

- Join groups/channels/forums on Vimeo - get talking, learn, interact

- Find local meetups, attend or take charge

- The best piece of advice is attending tradeshows & conferences ( NAB, Cine Gear , IBC, PhotoPlus, CES) I attend a conference one a month and the top people at these companies have become family.

- My philosophy is only do shit if you are going to be the fucking best at it. If you'd rather go out drinking or go to some lame friends house to smoke, instead of creating or investing in your knowledge, then fucking quit now and become a teachers aide or some shit.

- It's hard to give the right advice to such a broad audience, but if you are serious about becoming a professional in the fields of all things Film & Television - Connect with me on LinkedIn or Email - BradfordHill@massivematter.com

I work for three different companies, one of them being a company where all I do is connect people & find jobs for people like you.

 
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