Looking for Work in the Film Industry
Today, a fellow Phillips Academy alum contacted me about looking for work in Los Angeles, either in entertainment or in the financial sector. His background is in management, so naturally I got myself worked up about the fevered horde of morons wandering zombie-like through the streets of Beverly Hills, struggling to shoehorn the MBA mentality into the context of creative collaboration.
My hope is that I've helped the man out. Maybe this is fresh insight into the best approach for success in film.
On the other hand, maybe it's just me wishing someone would make a video game where you shoot agents and development execs in the office buildings all along Avenue of the Stars, and where awesome people like Diablo Cody and David Lynch duck for cover in the bloody face of your unstoppable purge. Make it an online multiplayer game. And give them guns, and Starbucks health packs. Go ahead - I'm a sporting man. Call it Crazy Writer Rampage.
Ahem... Ahem! Here's what I wrote:
My hope is that I've helped the man out. Maybe this is fresh insight into the best approach for success in film.
On the other hand, maybe it's just me wishing someone would make a video game where you shoot agents and development execs in the office buildings all along Avenue of the Stars, and where awesome people like Diablo Cody and David Lynch duck for cover in the bloody face of your unstoppable purge. Make it an online multiplayer game. And give them guns, and Starbucks health packs. Go ahead - I'm a sporting man. Call it Crazy Writer Rampage.
Ahem... Ahem! Here's what I wrote:
While the last twenty years have seen some heavy specialization in the subsidiary businesses around film, that's all changing. Our industry has always favored the jack-of-all-trades, but especially now - when recession has created unprecedented demand for film, when the cross-collateralized studios have lost their finance models to their less well-positioned interests - the young upstarts are going to be taking a much bigger marketshare.
People tend to think of entertainment as a business where competent businessmen figure out how to get the so-called artists to work towards market trends with a degree of competence, right? Truth is, that's never been the core of how we work. Just like every good theater director knows non-profits, every good filmmaker knows the market and how they relate to it. Business models that rely on subcontractors are extraneous. All those filmmakers who came through film school thinking they could leave the business to the experts had it backwards. They are victims of an industry culture that wasn't being honest with itself. Don't be fooled.
While it can be handy to hire someone to take care of busy work, the people who have had the cash for that kind of staff, right now, are the same people firing because they were not nimble or focused enough to keep up with the market. Diversified interest has the studios pinned to the mat financially.
Right now is a bad time to be looking for a job in entertainment marketing. At the same time, right now is a fantastic time to be making movies! Supply is the lowest it's been in 20 years, and demand is at an all-time record-breaking high.
See what I mean? If your point of reference is Ma Bell, this business can be a bit counter-intuitive.
I'm not saying there's no work with PR and marketing firms. At the same time, it is swimming upstream in my opinion. It always has been, but this town has been in middle management fever for two decades. There was money flying around, everyone was getting paid, and nobody noticed how crazy things were getting. They're noticing now!
8 Sided Films is my own personal answer to that dilemma. I'm happy to do business with the studios, but my focus is on making movies and putting them in front of audiences. Right now, I have the content, the support, and the exit strategy for two small films, so I'll make my small films, get them seen, and let the rest sort itself out. I'll make a bigger film on the back of my growing relationship with my own audience.
In other words, Tyler Perry has it right. Business-wise, he's no different from George Lucas or Ingmar Bergman. Same overall strategies, different audience.
All that studio madness is fine if they come knocking and want to pay me. But the stage work ethic is what keeps things moving. Everything is for the show, and I don't care what I have to learn. My first two projects have me mastering viral marketing as we speak. Fine. It's all for my cast and crew, and they'll give me as much in return. Secretly, we're all still in high school theater. We've just gotten better at it.
Why do you think Stephen Spielberg is working so hard to buy back his content? Of course he's shrewd. His movies made him that way. He's protecting the show - and he's learned to define the show in financial terms, as well as creative ones.
I hope this perspective gives you a fresh glimpse at what you're getting into. That basic division is how I sort the BS from the real work going on. From Mike Mitchell to David Lynch, the people I've met in this town who are getting stuff done are not "all about the business," nor are they wishy-washy artists. They are active, selfless participants in a creative community, working as a family to fulfill, expand, and challenge their relationship with the audience.
Wow! How's that for a rant? Anyway, the loss of that focus is why so many people are losing their jobs, IMHO. Not so long ago, producers understood this. That changed when companies like GE came into the picture. Right now, this economy, is when they lose the ground they gained through blitzkrieg spending in the 90's and after.
If that's what you're looking for, I believe the film industry can satisfy you in ways you can't even imagine - creatively, financially, socially and even spiritually. If you're looking for something else, you'll find ranks upon ranks of listless, frustrated, jaded middlemen haunting the halls of the major motion picture studios and many of the smaller production houses, distribution companies, agencies, management companies and marketing firms, promising in repetitive unison that film can make you, too, a success.
Strangely, you don't see them on film sets so much!
It’s great to see that you have helped the lad in sorting things out. This is a quality that you usually don’t often find it in many people nowadays, not even women! People have grown to become more self-centered and selfish, let alone self-interested. So nobody cares about what the hell happens to anyone. This quality may help you reach great heights as a worker but not as a human being!
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