So you want to be the next David Fincher. Or Diablo Cody. You’ve graduated from film school. You’ve learned the basics of your craft and you are rearing to go. So how do you get your first job in the film industry?

The first thing you need to do is put your feet solidly on the ground and face reality. Unlike most other art forms, the one you’ve chosen more often than not depends on other people’s money. Lots and lots of other people’s money. Money which is not doled out lightly. And almost never to someone just out of film school, hot reel or not. 

Stories like that of Sylvester Stallone, who wrote a great screenplay, a screenplay so good he was able to bully the Studio into letting him star in it and launch a career, have become so rare in the industry today as to be declared extinct. 

In today’s film and TV business, you have to prove yourself first before you get that chance. Do not despair. This blog is your guide on how to do that.

Have An Open Mind

First, let’s take a step back to that film school. Film School is the last safe, no harm-no foul opportunity you’ll ever get. Please do not waste it. Use it! Open your ideas up to the judgment of your peers and instructors. Volunteer to help on as many shoots as you can handle. Take every opportunity to network, to prove yourself not only creative but valuable to your peers. Try as many crew positions as possible. Who knows? You might fall in love with gaffing, editing, building film sets, or even acting. Try them all. You’ll never know if you don’t try.

Which brings me to my next point. As a guest for a class I taught, I had the head lawyer for NETFLIX come in.  A graduate of Film School himself, he kindly took the time to do some research for us. He found that at any given time, there are 350,000 jobs in the film and television business. That’s an astonishing number!

Many of those jobs you didn’t even know existed or have never heard of. Besides the big ones, the Holy Grails – Directing, Writing, Producing, Editing, Shooting, Acting, there are hundreds of other positions. And more often than not, it’s these entry level jobs that will get your foot in the door and start you on your way. Even more important, they may expose you to something you fall passionately in love with. 

Again, I’ve had a couple of dozen prominent industry people as guests for my classes. Talent Agents. Entertainment Attorneys. Former heads of Cable behemoths. TV Showrunners. Editor/Directors for series television. All of these high rollers have one thing in common. They all graduated from film school thinking they wanted to be directors. And they all, once exposed to these other career paths, fell in love, changed course and made huge careers for themselves. You can do that too.

How? First of all, as I’ve said before, don’t waste your time while in Film School. It’s an opportunity you won’t get again. Use Film School to learn your craft, network, build friendships and alliances that will stand with you well into the future. 

Build a strong reel. Hone your spec script until it becomes undeniable. Arm yourselves with the essential tools that demonstrate to everyone you meet that you are serious enough about this to put in the work.

Location, Location, Location

Then? You aren’t going to like this but – move to Los Angeles. For better or worse, Los Angeles is the center of the film and TV production universe. And that’s not going to change any time soon. 

Get your foot in the door. There are literally hundreds of production companies in Los Angeles and also hundreds of film and TV shoots going on at any time. Get yourself involved in one of them. 

Check companies’ and especially Studio and Network websites for intern positions. If you’re a person of color, a member of the LGBTQ community, if you have a disability, comb those same websites for specific opportunities for members of those groups and apply. 

Failing that, buy a production company guide and start calling companies. Ask if they have internships. Tell them you are willing to do anything. Buy a production guide or look online and find out what’s shooting. Find out who’s hiring and throw yourself in front of them. 

Again, tell them you’ll work in any department, do any job. You’ll even work for free if you have to. (Most likely, you won’t have to.)

Check with the talent agencies. My agent, for instance, got a job in the mailroom of an agency right out of film school. He took the job because he wanted to get his foot in the door and needed to survive while he chased his dream of being a director.

Exposure to the high-flying world of talent agents caused him to fall in love and switch paths. Now he’s one of the top Agents in his field. I know hundreds of stories like this. Big DPs who started rolling cables and getting coffee for the gaffers. Big time editors who started re-winding film reels as an assistant to the assistant.

When you get one of these jobs, be the first one there in the morning and the last to leave at night. Let everyone know there is no job too small for you, that you’ll do anything to help them accomplish what they are about. 

Men and women who present themselves like that get talked about. Get passed from production to production. They also rise up the food chain. And in the process, they expose themselves to other aspects of production they might not have thought about. Something they might discover they not only have an affinity for but also fall in love with.

Network

Go to screenings when invited. Mingle with your peers. Help each other out. You never know who working beside you will hit the big time ahead of you. All of these things come back when you want to get someone to look at your reel or read your script. 

Meanwhile, don’t lose sight of your dream. Keep working on that script. Keep sharpening your eye as a shooter. Take every chance you get to get your hands on material that needs to be cut. Keep learning. Keep moving forward. Eventually, an agent will hear about you. 

When you start to meet agents or begin getting meetings, remember that the person sitting on the other side of the desk is not just there to further your ambition. They have a boss they are responsible to. Or a network or Studio. Remember that you ask them to put their job on the line by pushing your project because of what it will cost the Studio or network to produce. 

Make damned sure that you are asking the right people. Research the kinds of shows they’ve done. Find out what’s done well for them. Look into who their preferred demographic is. So when you walk in the door with your project, you are in the right place.

Finally, do anything you can to let people know who you are. Send your script to the Sundance Writer’s Program. Send your short film to festivals. Use the tools you already have to make short films. It doesn’t just take talent to work in the film industry. 

It takes persistence. Stamina. Empathy for the people on the other side of the desk. It takes hard work, dedication and passion. 

Get Started

But the first thing you have to do is get started. So put your pride in your back pocket, lower your head and attack full-tilt boogie. Remember, 350,000 jobs at any given time. One of those jobs will be your ticket in. What you do after that? That’s up to you. 

Good luck! Don’t give up! 

If you are serious about a career in the film industry San Francisco Film School offers multiple degree and certificate programs to get you started!