Things happen quickly in the industry. At least that's what it seems like so far. Something I've gleaned from reading other people's blogs is that there are hundreds of more qualified people out there than you. And with any position, everybody want's experience candidate but aren't willing to give experience. They just want you to be experienced from the get-go. The only advantage here is that those with experience expect (rightfully so) to be paid. There are TONS of unpaid positions out there for people looking to get their feet wet in the business. Two great places to look are the tv/film related areas of Craigslist and Mandy.com. Mandy is a website that offers low budget filmmakers a place to post crew openings on various projects. Most of them are LA-centric but if your bizarrely reading this blog in another city other than LA, there are some decent opening around the country.
With that as an introduction, I was able to land a position on an indie thriller that starts shooting next week. There was a position of Craigslist advertising for both a 2nd AD (Assistant Director) and 2nd 2nd AD. And it all came together incredibly quick - within a 24 hr period, I had set up an interview, interviewed and accepted the position. I'll be 2nd 2nd AD on the feature shooting from 1/17 to 2/1. It's a payless position but I'll get copy and credit (1st one!) and food during shooting days.
What I'm most excited about is finally getting some experience on a professional set. This will be my first exposure to a full film crew and I'm banking on being able to meet a talented group of people that could lead to future positions.
On a related note, you should really be reading The Anonymous Production Assistant Blog. Whoever it is, he's been working in the PA field for several years and has loads of frank/funny/terrifying/awesome anecdotes about his experience in the business. And job related links galore (Mandy.com came straight from him). So props to him for figuring it out for the rest of us.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Week 3. Ish.
Admittedly, I took the week between Christmas and New Year's off from the job hunt. Both of my roommates had the week off and it seemed as though everyone I know in LA had the week off. As it was, very little jobs were posted on the boards and and everything just slowed to a crawl. That and I spent the 4 days after Christmas in Mammoth, skiing and savoring a little R&R.
That being said, I'm back to the grind of finding employment. A resource I've found that could be tremendously helpful, The Hollywood Reporter (www.thehollywoodreporter.com). And on-line subscription costs about $20 bucks a month (compared to the print version cost of $28 a month). It is essential a digest of all relevant filmmaking-related new and information. In addition, and probably the greatest asset for someone like me, it publishes a list of all the films currently in production (or pre-production) by the major studies. This includes filming start dates, who's attached to the project, where it's being filmed and most fortuitously, the phone number and address for the production office. Boom. Cold calling said numbers begins this.
In addition, I've been receiving daily e-mails from www.entertainmentcareers.net. Nothing significant has come from it to date, but I think it's worthwhile to continue by subscription for the time being. The site is essentially a giant job board for whatever entertainment-related company wants to post jobs. A subscription (which costs 10 bucks a month) gets you a daily e-mail of all the new job postings on the site (some of which are only initially available to members). You can designate which type of posting you want to receive (as in entry-level, film-related, by location, etc) and upload a resume and cover letter so that applying to a job is as easy as clicking a button. While there are a lot of small employers who post, some large studios, such as Lionsgate and Fox, do occasionally post jobs.
More to come.
That being said, I'm back to the grind of finding employment. A resource I've found that could be tremendously helpful, The Hollywood Reporter (www.thehollywoodreporter.com). And on-line subscription costs about $20 bucks a month (compared to the print version cost of $28 a month). It is essential a digest of all relevant filmmaking-related new and information. In addition, and probably the greatest asset for someone like me, it publishes a list of all the films currently in production (or pre-production) by the major studies. This includes filming start dates, who's attached to the project, where it's being filmed and most fortuitously, the phone number and address for the production office. Boom. Cold calling said numbers begins this.
In addition, I've been receiving daily e-mails from www.entertainmentcareers.net. Nothing significant has come from it to date, but I think it's worthwhile to continue by subscription for the time being. The site is essentially a giant job board for whatever entertainment-related company wants to post jobs. A subscription (which costs 10 bucks a month) gets you a daily e-mail of all the new job postings on the site (some of which are only initially available to members). You can designate which type of posting you want to receive (as in entry-level, film-related, by location, etc) and upload a resume and cover letter so that applying to a job is as easy as clicking a button. While there are a lot of small employers who post, some large studios, such as Lionsgate and Fox, do occasionally post jobs.
More to come.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Week 1
Pretend that a significant length of time has elapsed since that introductory post. I've started this blog a week into my job-search but I didn't want to group all of my as-of-yet unsuccessful tactics with my introduction. And oh, how they've been unsuccessful.
Disclaimer: I know I've only been on the ground a week here and that I'm trying to find a job in a high profile industry during a recession in what is probably the most depressed state in the union, competing against people who have been unemployed for months, if not years. I get that much. I'm not that naive that I would expect to find a job a week after having moved somewhere.
That being said, it would be nice to get a phone call. To date, my job search has revolved around what I'm qualified for. Believe it or not, the film industry seems to have a slew of entry-level openings for people with business/finance degrees. Paramount, Warner Brothers, Universal, all the major studios have openings almost daily for positions such as "Financial Analyst, Entertainment Analyst, Participations Analyst, etc". Lots of analyzing is needed apparently. Most of them require a degree in finance or accounting (got it), experience in the financial world (got it), basic office skills (got 'em), and some "preferred entertainment experience" (eh, not so much). The downside to approaching the job search in this manner is A) Most of the major studios are owned by parent companies and navigating through their career pages can be tedious and B) I don't really know what I'm looking for. Mostly I'm just making sure I'm qualified for something and hitting "apply". No luck so far.
While it would be nice to have a steady pay-check, benefits and the beginnings of a retirement account, there are other ways to go about finding a job here. The real fun is landing a job as a production assistant. Aside from working in a mail room, it's about as classic of a start as you can get here. The real trick is finding openings. There are a couple of places to find posting about productions needing assistants (As in "Variety" and www.productionweekly.com) but those resources and still no guarantee (obviously) of finding employment.
More to come.
Disclaimer: I know I've only been on the ground a week here and that I'm trying to find a job in a high profile industry during a recession in what is probably the most depressed state in the union, competing against people who have been unemployed for months, if not years. I get that much. I'm not that naive that I would expect to find a job a week after having moved somewhere.
That being said, it would be nice to get a phone call. To date, my job search has revolved around what I'm qualified for. Believe it or not, the film industry seems to have a slew of entry-level openings for people with business/finance degrees. Paramount, Warner Brothers, Universal, all the major studios have openings almost daily for positions such as "Financial Analyst, Entertainment Analyst, Participations Analyst, etc". Lots of analyzing is needed apparently. Most of them require a degree in finance or accounting (got it), experience in the financial world (got it), basic office skills (got 'em), and some "preferred entertainment experience" (eh, not so much). The downside to approaching the job search in this manner is A) Most of the major studios are owned by parent companies and navigating through their career pages can be tedious and B) I don't really know what I'm looking for. Mostly I'm just making sure I'm qualified for something and hitting "apply". No luck so far.
While it would be nice to have a steady pay-check, benefits and the beginnings of a retirement account, there are other ways to go about finding a job here. The real fun is landing a job as a production assistant. Aside from working in a mail room, it's about as classic of a start as you can get here. The real trick is finding openings. There are a couple of places to find posting about productions needing assistants (As in "Variety" and www.productionweekly.com) but those resources and still no guarantee (obviously) of finding employment.
More to come.
Journey to the center of the earth
Well, not really, but close to. I've decided to start this blog in the hopes that when I reach some yet-unspecified point of my career in the future, I can look back and make some semblance of the choices and decisions that led me to that point. If nothing else, maybe it can serve as a guide (or warning) to other would-be denizens of Tinsel Town, hoping to find success in show business.
As a precursor to this entire blog, I want to just give you a heads up to who I am and why I'm doing what I'm doing. I graduated in May of 2010 with a concrete degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship. Prior to my graduation, I held an internship with a financial advisory firm in Chicago. The work was dynamic and my exposure to the industry was as thorough as I could have hoped for. That being said, there was definitely something missing from the experience. I found it difficult to reconcile that at the end of the day, my contribution to industry was that I was making people who already buckets of money, more money. That and the whole "sitting at a desk for 9 hours a day" isn't exactly the most stimulating of activities.
The result of this two year endeavor was that I was left extremely confused about what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing after graduation. I understood that I enjoyed business, but I wanted to be able to apply business skills to an industry that was dynamic and contributed to society in some way.
So why not film? That sounds fun. I had the opportunity my senior year of college to write and produce several short, student productions (link to one of them: http://bit.ly/15s1Ry ) and I figured, why not try to replicate that experience? You know, and get paid for it. It is of utmost importance to me that my work during my life, in some way, improves the lives of other people, if only for a short time. If a person can walk into a theatre, watch a film, and for two hours feel good about themselves, then that's an experience I want to be able to provide. Cheesy as it may be, I have always been the happiest when those around me are happy. I'm hoping that film will provide that outlet for me.
Which brings me to where am I now. Having finished a cathartic stint living under my parent's roof for the past 7 months (and working for a trucking company, without going into details, awesome experience), I have driven 2.5K miles coast-to-coast and am now living in the uber-expansive city of Los Angeles. Am I overwhelmed? Completely. Do I have any idea what I want to do professionally? Not at all. Still.
First and foremost, I'm hoping this blog will follow path to employment. I intend to chronicle the avenues I use looking for jobs and the opportunities I come across. As interesting, industry-related bits present themselves, I'll post them here too. Mostly, I'm just going to play it by ear so just roll with it.
As a precursor to this entire blog, I want to just give you a heads up to who I am and why I'm doing what I'm doing. I graduated in May of 2010 with a concrete degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship. Prior to my graduation, I held an internship with a financial advisory firm in Chicago. The work was dynamic and my exposure to the industry was as thorough as I could have hoped for. That being said, there was definitely something missing from the experience. I found it difficult to reconcile that at the end of the day, my contribution to industry was that I was making people who already buckets of money, more money. That and the whole "sitting at a desk for 9 hours a day" isn't exactly the most stimulating of activities.
The result of this two year endeavor was that I was left extremely confused about what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing after graduation. I understood that I enjoyed business, but I wanted to be able to apply business skills to an industry that was dynamic and contributed to society in some way.
So why not film? That sounds fun. I had the opportunity my senior year of college to write and produce several short, student productions (link to one of them: http://bit.ly/15s1Ry ) and I figured, why not try to replicate that experience? You know, and get paid for it. It is of utmost importance to me that my work during my life, in some way, improves the lives of other people, if only for a short time. If a person can walk into a theatre, watch a film, and for two hours feel good about themselves, then that's an experience I want to be able to provide. Cheesy as it may be, I have always been the happiest when those around me are happy. I'm hoping that film will provide that outlet for me.
Which brings me to where am I now. Having finished a cathartic stint living under my parent's roof for the past 7 months (and working for a trucking company, without going into details, awesome experience), I have driven 2.5K miles coast-to-coast and am now living in the uber-expansive city of Los Angeles. Am I overwhelmed? Completely. Do I have any idea what I want to do professionally? Not at all. Still.
First and foremost, I'm hoping this blog will follow path to employment. I intend to chronicle the avenues I use looking for jobs and the opportunities I come across. As interesting, industry-related bits present themselves, I'll post them here too. Mostly, I'm just going to play it by ear so just roll with it.
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