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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
