How to break into the film industry

Getting into the film industry is largely about connections. You need to get people on the inside to validate you and bring you in with them.

It's likely that you won't start off as a director/DP. You'd probably be doing bitch work. Even operating a boom requires a certain level of skill (and strength).

One of the biggest reasons to go to film school if you're serious about this is getting connections. If you go somewhere with a good program, the professors most likely were/are in the industry and they can set you up with internships, another key to success in any field.

Now keep in mind, I haven't even gotten accepted into school yet (find out December 15th, wish me luck). This is information I've gathered from talking to people who have gone through the process of diving into the film industry. From current film students, to Hawk Ostby, the screenwriter for Iron Man, Cowboys and Aliens, Children of Men and many other Hollywood films. Everyone always says the same thing, it's about connections.

On that note, I'd be interested to see some of your work.

School can help but I wouldn't rely on that to get you into the film industry.  It's all about networking and getting in the right line of sight.  Or being extremely talented and getting lucky every once and awhile.

Unfortunately there are alot of people in the film industry as well with less talent than you'd expect.  It's a fighting game.  Most people I know from school and work usually go the route of getting projects funded for a small production, shortfilm/indie film route and entering it in a ton of festivals. 

You'd be amazed at the people who show up to those.  James Franko(sp) was at the Telluride film festival this year.  Alot of it comes down to budget as well.  If you can afford a camera it certainly helps offset the costs of expensive daily rentals.  For a cinema quality camera your probably looking at 500 at minimum daily for a full rig (not including lights and sound). 

My best advice and obviously most of the work I've gotten has been ski (film) industry related to this point, but I did work in film while in school in LA for 6 months, and all that got me there was a good work ethic.  I chased jobs and somehow did the right things to land them.  I don't go by what other people do.  I do what I feel is right and it seems to work.

What I do is I make an inquiry about opportunities.  I'm a huge face to face person (alot in LA are as well).  Rather than just emailing or calling about what there job/hiring situation is I'd rather say when can I come introduce myself?  And when I introduce myself I leave a resume/CV/Cover letter and some form of work. 

Reel's help but thats a whole different area.  If you want to be a DP you'll need one, if your looking to work in other areas you'll need some training.  A good place to start, as crummy as it sounds a PA (Production Assistant).  This is how I got my foot in the door, I'd work 2 weekend days as I was in school 5 days a week.  I'd really do whatever was needed on set, getting coffee, helping with lighting, making calls to rental houses...etc.  For this you'll make anywhere from $250-$400 a day in my experience. 

I'd start by finding some PA work and just seeing how things work on set.  Learn the ropes, make some contacts and start marketing yourself.  It only takes one right conversation to get your wheels going.  I'm a big believer in you create your own opportunities.  School is good in ways, it teaches you basics in principles, but I've also learned 50x more outside school, can give you some contacts.  But three of my professors told me this "school for film is a gimmick, if you want to work in this industry all you need to do is learn the principles and rules" which you can learn for about $50 in books at barnes and noble.  The advantage to school is you don't have to rent the equipment to practice. 

I found that what I chased after would often work out for me.  If you push hard enough and give yourself more opportunities to succeed you'll get places.  I didn't like the inconsistent amount of work so I preferred to come back to CO and do other things here, but to each there own.

This.

wow guys this is really helpful, some great insight and ill defiantly take these opinions into consideration, 1 more question though. did you guys actually learn anything really important from school? cause i dont see the point in going if its not important at all.

There are some general rules and principles I learned.  I could've learned them by reading books outside of school though...

I don't want to deter anyone from school.  It's for some people, it's not for others.

i agree with what everyone has said about connections, you have to put your work out there and hope someone out there likes it/you , it may be slow at first but i always look at it like it can only get better from here, so every gig i get im super excited about it even if its not something i particularly like, and from my experience most of the stuff you get paidd to film you won't necessarily like, but its important you keep your head up and do your best on it because likely someone will see it and it will help you get more jobs

hey do you think you can reccomend some schools that i should take a look at? im in canada right now so you may not know canadian schools at all but anything in the US can help aswell. any opinion counts i guess

I forgot to talk about that. I received my bachelors in photography. At that time I wanted to do photo and video but I didn't want to spend double the amount of time in school. So I picked photography and went with it. I learned a lot - lighting, grip, proper ways to do things, etc. I never went to film school so I can't give you advice about that. I'm sure you would get a lot of get info, and experience and of course meet a lot of good contacts. So that way when you are done with film school you could go right into working. It seems like as of right now, if you were to start in production rather then school you need to make your own connections. On Craigslist I found a USC film student would was in need of a graffer. Granted its not paid but I sure I will meet a bunch of other contacts that may be able to help me out. Also, I will be able to put this on my resume as more work.

From my understanding Toronto is the place to be for Canadian film work.  Not sure of schools there. 

I went the odd route in film school.  I started at Western State College in Colorado and it didn't really offer what I wanted from a school.  I took a year off and went to LA Film School/Califonia Design College (a shared program between VFX and Cinematography).  CDC disbanded and joined the Art Institutes, this is when Ieft.  LA film school is great but its expensive, no degree, but insanely comprehensive and involved for a year straight.  You won't have time to work.

I've heard of some in NY but am unfamiliar with them.  I've known a couple of people who have gone to Bozeman and really liked it.  Not sure of the name of the school there either. 

For film schools in Canada, look into Humber, Concordia, and Vancouver Film School.

Not very much money in the action sports industry... if you really wanna "make it big" in the film industry, you have to go outside of the ski industry.

Not to say that film school is absolutely worthless, but with all the information available in books and on the internet, and considering the price of film school, you're better off putting that money towards a more practical degree.

Or a camera/equipment....

My college costs - 70K plus, luckily my good grades and low family income, and military service(GI bill) covered my college costs.

My camera/equipment costs the last two-three years - less than half that, learned more and made money back on all investments. 

well, 70k is an awful lot of money thats for sure. good thing Canadian universities are almost always way lower than that so i dont think money will be a problem, i've looked at OCAD in toronto which is a leading arts school in canada, but i would like to go out to BC at some point just to be where all the amazing skiing is.

As others have warned you.  Skiing is a great thing.  It's fun to do, but your going to have to work extra hard to find paying work.  It's been a up hill battle for me the last 4-5 years.  I still don't have the most consistent work. 

I do some commercial work/graphics to make ends meet.  I have some plans and intend on shooting some narrative material here before to long once my camera arrives.  Commercial work is where you can make a killing and have consistent work. 

I agree with that, working with PBP or matchstick would be really where i wanted to end up, like who wouldn't want to? BUT, in saying that i also understand that that is very unlikely and i would be fine working in any type of film really. but of course my dream is to make a big budget ski movie eventually. that would be soo cool, to work with pros and everything, id love that.

everyone would!  The only way you'll get there is making it happen.  Get out there shoot as much as you can. 

Not to burst your bubble, but I always felt it would be awful to "end up" working there. When you're young it could be great, but not even production companies are immune from general half-baked ski industry asshattery. Being at the "top" doesn't in itself guarantee you from being just as broke as any other ski bum.

I'll just start off by saying I'm a sophomore film production major at Loyola Marymount University in LA. It's definitely fun, but I'm not here because I think a film degree is necessary. I'm here because I wanted to go to college no matter what, and I just figured film would be fun to study since it's what I'm into. I've learned some (particularly about narrative work, which I'd never really done before), but I've also wondered if I should switch to a more normal major. I don't really care so I doubt I will, but I've been tossing around the idea.


To answer your questions:
1. No, a degree is not necessary. Many of the most successful filmmakers/photographers don't have degrees. However, it can't do any harm, it only helps. It's definitely a bonus, and could be a big bonus for real (as in feature film) production companies. But for a ski movie production company, it helps but is obviously not a requirement. If you have talent and can handle yourself/business in a reasonable way, you can make it.

Which leads me to your next question:

2. As everybody has said, it's all about connections and who you know. Network, network, network.
Here's how it happened for me: In 12th grade, my friends and I premiered our first ski film Hello. Our local shop in Spokane (Sports Creel) is tight with PBP (Cody Carter is from the area), so they asked Johnny D if he could call me after the premiere to congratulate me, since they knew I'd always looked up to PBP's stuff. I got the call, and I kept Johnny's number, just in case. Once I came down to LA for school the following year, I gave Johnny a call on the off chance I could get some sort of internship. I did, and I went in one or two times a week to help out with odd jobs and occasionally do some editing. I got to do cooler and cooler stuff, and then at the end of the year I was able to get an editing job over the summer.

So the moral of my story is that it isn't necessarily that hard if you know the right people. But meeting those people can sometimes take a lot of luck/effort. And once you get any info or way of contacting them, do it, and push for an in with them. As other people have said, make the opportunities happen. Don't wait for them to happen to you, because they most likely won't.

As the smart ones have said in the post above connections are pretty much everything and depending on what market you want to get into a college degree can be very beneficial.  I have and International Business / Finance degree from College and finally gave up that dream when I realized sitting in a cubical all day wasn't very fun.  I started my own production company and having the business knowledge has helped me immensely with my operations.  My advice is getting a  flexible degree that you can use for a lot of things and keep on filming and freelancing your work through college.  It has helped me quite a bit and I will have something to fall back on in case the filming doesn't work for some reason.

OP: You and I are in the same boat my friend..

it sucks, Im really confused about what i wanna do when i finish highschool, but i do want to follow this dream.

Thanks for the insight man! you seem to know what your talking about ad thats pretty awesome that you got to work with PBP, thanks for the help.

Helpful shit right here, threads.

to be used at a later date /threads