Question:
Anyone here currently have / studying for a job in the film industry? I'm interested in getting involved somehow as an occupation (not as an actor, but a camera person / sound engineer / director), but I was wondering just how hard it is to find something to do in the business to make a living. Anyone out there with personal experiance?
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ME!!
I've been making films since Jr. high and I plan to continue until I die.
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So do you plan to study this in college?
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I'm an indie movie maker. I'm currently producing and DP/Technical Directing... Technical Directing is more accurate now that I've trained the othwer two producer/directors to operate the camera... on first DV feature called Invisible Bridges
I am planning on attending Capital University in ohio but will have to widthdraw this semester (maybe year) because the movie is over budget and over schedule and I just don't want to deal with that much I already have an Associate of Arts degree from Columbus State Community College... but that causes more harm than good on a resume (transferred well though) but the main thing is that there were some really good classes there mainly in video art and history.
I would say in a standard career that a college degree is critical along with awsome internships. If you want to go film then you have to get a film major... not a communications major... you might be able to eek by with a film minor (which is what I will try) but moving making is highly competitive in all aspects and everyone will lie to you about everything for no good reason... I think it makes life fun One of the other producers on the project is trying to get into Ohio Universitys film program but they won't accept her Communications degree from Ohio State she has to get a film undergrad and have a portfolio with prior directorial credit (one of the goals of this movie)
The important thing about college is assuring that they place you in your first good job after graduation...and good internships before you graduate...
About making a living as an indie... well... I'm trying to figure that my myself. the problem is that the industry is in a rapid state of change (as far as the industry is concerned - it's painfully slow in human terms) even the use of film is being challenged in some regards for example the Discovery Channel forbids the use of certain formats... such as super8, 16mm, I think super16, and JVC's 19MBs HDV format... the reasons for it is that they all look like crap when on a viewers screen... but for different reasons... film has to be scanned to Digital intermediates (DI) and converted to 1080i or 720p depending on network which is basically a 2k scan... then it's compressed enough to fit through the limited bandwidth of the satallite/cable system and then projected on HDTV's and LCDTV's that have a 30ms response time ... ie suck badly... CRT's have 1ms or less response time... the big problem they ran into is the very thing that makes film special... random grain... video folks call it high frequency noise... ie really small things that move really fast... it will turn a compressed movie into visual mud on a slow TV...which _all_ HDTVs and LCDTVs are.
indie wise all this stuff is expensive... renting an HD camera can run $1500 A DAY an thy routinely cost above $80,000 used... the "according to discovery channel unacceptable JVC cameras" are around $6000... a super16 film camera that can work with sound (cystal sync) is about $6000 also but runs $35 a minute for footage... so equipment eats up a lot of money.
I think it would be wise to take a hint from the still photography folks and prepare yourself for real digital film... which is still under development...
You also have to realize that a large chunk of the industry is scammers or grossly incompetent people. generally if they arn't nice people or talk themselve up alot the best choice is to run to the nearest exit...because if they talk themselves up beyond their abilites then they will do the same with your abilities... and when others see you can't perform at the level the other guy was saying you could then it's you that takes the hit... and when thing go wrong they tend to go wrong badly... my group is keenly aware that we don't know what we're doing
as far as scammers go... you have to trust the person and not the name... for example Telluride IndieFest was reciently disclosed as a scam where Telluride Film Festival is one of the top festivals... most people will just say Telluride when they referr to the authentic one. People do this all the time with production company names and imdb.com apparenly has a problem with people assigning themselves credit (as uncredited) on movies they took no part in.
To sum up... finding stuff to do is easy... earning a living is a bit harder. The advice I was given was basically do what the pros do and you will be a pro. meaning if broadcasters buy HD then don't hang around shooting DV or if distributers want 35mm with name actors then you shoot 35mm with name actors.
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Cool man, thanks for all the information - that was really helpful.
I'm still doing some research and stuff on it, so I guess I'll just keep looking into it.
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i am a Motion Picture Machinist a.k.a. Projectionist a.k.a. Motion Picture Entertainment Supervisor of Maintaining Specified Equalization of Theatrical Masterpieces......yeah, i ran the movie machines at a local theatre.
does this count?