Foot in The Door

I get resumes on a regular basis from people wanting to break into the film industry, and it makes me sad that I can't do more to help people get their foot in the door. But the nature of my end of the business (no pun intended) is that we do most of our work abroad, and it is seriously cost-prohibitive to send an inexperienced person all that distance.

It can be very tricky to get started, but persistence pays off. Find ways to interject yourself into film shoots or professional production environments. The easiest way to get this done is to sit down with the decision maker and make a sound, impassioned plea. My advice is to offer your services for free, whatever they may be. If you truly want to learn, then being given the privilege of being in that environment should be enough pay for you. Yeah, yeah... you need to earn a living. Well guess what-- this is a dream job for many people, so suck it up and get your foot in the door before you start looking to get paid by the man.

My first gig in the business came when the film City Slickers decided to rent a room on my college campus for their editorial staff. One of the conditions of the rental was that students be allowed to observe the process unobtrusively. If you know anything about the editing, it can be very tedious to watch if you aren't involved in the process. Students came, sat for about five minutes, grew bored, and then moved on. I was fortunate however to be sitting there when a joke by Billy Crystal that had not been funny suddenly came to life when the editor (O. Nicholas Brown) combined the reaction of the other person with it. It wasn't funny to see Billy say the joke, it was funny to see the actress responding to it. I was hooked.

I started finding my way to the edit suite for every free moment I had between classes. After a few days, I was becoming a familiar face to the edit team. On the third day they introduced themselves to me and offered to let me make a splice in the film. Man was I nervous! A few days later, they offered me a job as reward for my clear interest and passion for learning. To be clear... I was not helping out in the hopes of getting a job. I never expected or saw that opportunity coming!

Most everyone on the set was very accommodating to me. On many occasions I quietly stood about two feet from the director (Ron Underwood) and Oscar-winning Cinematographer Dean Semler and got to be privy to all of the discussions and creative choices. They respected both my interest and more importantly my quiet discretion. I was a fly on the wall... totally inconspicuous until someone showed interest in me, which I rewarded with unbridled enthusiasm. Sound cheesy? It's not. People want to help nice people with passion.

As I wrap this little diatribe up, it is worth noting that there were interns in other departments on City Slickers that had negative experiences. I was told stories of electricians outright telling interns that they would not be teaching anything to the upstarts out of fear of having their next job stolen out from under them. Again, all you can do is have the right attitude, even in the face of adversity.