Years ago, I came out to Hollywood barely knowing anyone, barely knowing anything. You can learn from what I did right and what I did wrong. I had one classmate here. He got me a job managing a movie theater while I looked for work in the film and TV business. That\u2019s one lesson: have some way to earn money while you look for the job you want.<\/p>\n
Lesson two is don\u2019t do what I did and know hardly a soul \u2013 make some friends where you want to work, whether it\u2019s Los Angeles or New York or New Orleans. If you don\u2019t live there, you have the internet. Join groups, meet people on Facebook or Twitter who are already there. You want to have a base of friends and associates you can depend on for help if you need it. More importantly, make friends in the film and TV business. Even the big names tweet and have fan sites on Facebook \u2013 become one of their followers. But it\u2019s even better if you can meet people face to face.<\/p>\n
One way to do that is to intern. But at most of the companies I\u2019ve worked, interns answered phones, made copies and filed. Not really a way to break into the business. The mentor-extern programs at places like the Film Connection\u2019s Film Institute will place you with people in the industry doing what you want to do. So that\u2019s a good way to make a connection.<\/p>\n
Lesson number three is: don\u2019t do what I did and not know anything. In a mentor program, you can learn some skills. But however you have to do it, teach yourself something useful. Here\u2019s the big secret about making it in show business: you have to have something that the studios and companies want. That could be a screenplay, it could be a show idea (and make sure your ideas and scripts are registered with the Writers Guild and with the copyright office before you start sending them out). Or it could just be a skill. I always tell interns that the one job that\u2019s always needed is a good editor. If you can learn how to edit on Final Cut\u00a0 Pro and Avid, you won\u2019t ever be out of work. Even if that\u2019s not your final goal, you will meet tons of interesting and important people who need your services. Editors have later made it as directors (like David Lean) or producers or even show-runners on TV series.<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t stand the dark, tiny editing suites, then find another useful skill \u2013 camera, sound, lighting \u2013 any of those jobs will get you close to the action. Sure, you\u2019ll get pigeon-holed in that one position, but it\u2019s a start. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I talked my way into a meeting with a big TV producer who had several series on the air. He said to me \u201cWhat do you want to do?\u201d Loaded question. I said the wrong thing:\u00a0\u201cAnything.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0He didn\u2019t help me. If I\u2019d told him I wanted to be an assistant editor or a second assistant camera-person, that would have given him something very specific and I think he\u2019d have made some calls on my behalf. Whatever you do, if you get the chance, don\u2019t say you\u2019ll do anything. But don\u2019t say you want to direct or produce. Everyone wants to direct or produce. Have a specific starting position in mind and go for that. Once you\u2019re in, it\u2019s up to you to find a way to climb the ladder to success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"featured-post":[659],"resource-category":[],"reference-category":[343],"class_list":["post-23973","reference-library","type-reference-library","status-publish","hentry","reference-category-film-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-library\/23973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-library"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reference-library"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"featured-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-post?post=23973"},{"taxonomy":"resource-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-category?post=23973"},{"taxonomy":"reference-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-category?post=23973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}