for all of the professionals

[Egg Born Son]

What subjects are you good at? Which subjects do you enjoy? What are your interests outside of school?

Don't stress too much about working out what you are going to do for the rest of your life. There's really no such thing as a career for life anymore. You will probably have had at least 3 careers by the time you're 30 and quite likely none of them will be what you studied for. I work in the distribution side of tv as a technician, working on the equipment that feeds the broadcast tower, live satellite transmissions and the cable tv network from end to end for my state. It wasn't the job I applied for (I work for a phone company who happens to also own the tv distribution network in my state) and I've had close to 30 jobs in the last 20 years in just about every field. Funnily enough all the jobs I chased after were disappointing and all the ones I fell into by accident were the good ones.

The good news in terms of creative work like filmmaking and writing is that all life experience can be brought to bear. Each job will teach you something about the world. And filmmaking is so all-encompassing that pretty much anything you do will give you skills you can bring to your filmmaking. An office job will teach you business skills that will help organisation and pre-production, a sales job will help with marketing and distribution. A technical job will bring a familiarity with tools, logical troubleshooting and reading technical sheets. Service professions will expose you to a wide variety of people and develop your social skills. No job you do will be wasted.

You can't go wrong with a trade. Electrician will probably be the most useful if you want to do something that will directly help with film industry ambitions. Carpentry, metalwork useful too. With a trade in your back pocket you'll always be able to find work and have a good chance of working for yourself one day.

[Victor Nhat Nguyen]

Stay in school and get as much advanced learning as you can!

This board is full of posts from "filmmakers" that lack basic business skills needed to be successful.
How many threads have you seen titled... How much should I charge for?

Good Luck!

Dave

When you say stay in school, do you mean stay in school for film or stay in school for another career? And to tell you the truth I haven't seen one thread with that title

[Victor Nhat Nguyen]

What subjects are you good at? Which subjects do you enjoy? What are your interests outside of school?

Don't stress too much about working out what you are going to do for the rest of your life. There's really no such thing as a career for life anymore. You will probably have had at least 3 careers by the time you're 30 and quite likely none of them will be what you studied for. I work in the distribution side of tv as a technician, working on the equipment that feeds the broadcast tower, live satellite transmissions and the cable tv network from end to end for my state. It wasn't the job I applied for (I work for a phone company who happens to also own the tv distribution network in my state) and I've had close to 30 jobs in the last 20 years in just about every field. Funnily enough all the jobs I chased after were disappointing and all the ones I fell into by accident were the good ones.

The good news in terms of creative work like filmmaking and writing is that all life experience can be brought to bear. Each job will teach you something about the world. And filmmaking is so all-encompassing that pretty much anything you do will give you skills you can bring to your filmmaking. An office job will teach you business skills that will help organisation and pre-production, a sales job will help with marketing and distribution. A technical job will bring a familiarity with tools, logical troubleshooting and reading technical sheets. Service professions will expose you to a wide variety of people and develop your social skills. No job you do will be wasted.

You can't go wrong with a trade. Electrician will probably be the most useful if you want to do something that will directly help with film industry ambitions. Carpentry, metalwork useful too. With a trade in your back pocket you'll always be able to find work and have a good chance of working for yourself one day.

that's what I'm thinking, I really don't think nursing will be useful to me whenever I start my freelancing/film career. But nursing is very reliable to get a job and it pays well for gear. Electrician sounds nice because I'm about to start investing in some lights and I have no idea if it's going to blow up my house or not.

[David W. Jones]

When you say stay in school, do you mean stay in school for film or stay in school for another career? And to tell you the truth I haven't seen one thread with that title

Not film!
A business degree will go a long way in any field, but my niece just graduated nursing and was hired by a hospital making good money.

Try doing a search for... What to charge, or how much to charge.

[Agrafagr]

nothing else needs

[NBside]

I agree...a business degree would be clutch.
That way, whenever/if ever you decide to go into business for yourself, you will have the knowledge and the experience to run a successful business. Not only will you learn how to manage a business, but you will learn a lot about finance, marketing, sales, and dealing with people. All of those skills are vital for anyone trying to run an independent business relating to film or production (or any business at all for that matter).
I dont mean to sound gushy here, but don't be afraid to follow your dreams. I mean, of course... be smart, and be safe, and make sure that when it all comes down to it, you're taken care of. You can pay rent, groceries, and the bills.. but dont be afraid to get out there and do whatever you can in your spare time to make that dream of being a filmmaker a reality.

At your age, I know your early life decisions are often heavily influenced by your parents. Hell, we all went through it. I was very fortunate when I was your age, to have parents that truly wanted me to follow my dreams and chose a career path that made me happy. That support and belief from them made me much more confident and satisfied when pursuing my career path. Just like with any career you choose (maybe with the exception of healthcare) you will always struggle when you're first starting out...but I can honestly say, that had my parents not been as supportive as they were, I might never have had the man beans to get out there and pursue the career I always wanted.

Like I said...think of a career path that will not only help you get that stable 9-5 job after school, to pay the bills and play it safe, but also choose something where your experience and education will help you in the long run to being able to turn your passion into a career.

Good luck!

[JoeJITSU]

Go for your Degree!!
I graduated in Electrical Engineering. I worked a while for Fujitsu, Qualcomm and Sony but really got burnt out. I then went through a investigations course for century college, I ended up with a friend who hired me in Loss Prevention. At this time in 1995 I just started taking Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Classes....In 2003 I was a District Investigator for Home Depot. I then stopped and started teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu....I got injured with a back injury with 2 tears and 3 knee surgeries, Dr's said that I shouldn't go back to my passion. All this time, I have been doing Videography since 1989 with my Dad...He passed away and I turned to my next passion........Videography. Now it is our family business again and it is quite successful. We are the Exclusive videographers for the Jackson Family and have done many other gigs with such names as, Metta World Peace, Mike Posner, Academy Award Winner Leon Gast, Manny Pacquiao, Big Sean, P Diddy, Kelly Rowland and many Directors as well. The Moral of this story is... Go to school and do what you love...You have a whole lifetime ahead of you that will put you through "the crossroads"....Later on in life you will do something you truly love. Peace

[Victor Nhat Nguyen]

degree in what Joe? filmmaking?

[ernesttx]

Hey Victor,
My passion started out with animation, computers and video when I was a teenager, circa 1985. I grew up making films with my cousins and an 8mm camera. Then, when computers came into being in the 80's and early 90's, I was hammering away on my Amiga making short animation clips. I knew what I wanted to do early on, but the technology wasn't there. I was good with computers; so, I had that to rely on my entire career; but, I never lost my dream.

When I got out of the army (as a way to explore the world), I went to The Academy of Radio and Television Broadcasting in Phoenix and after graduating, landed a job in the "video business". My first job was duplicating VHS tapes part-time. But, hard work and determination finally made me a videographer and editor there. During the next 3 years, I used Betamax cameras, Avid's first non-linear editor and Sony just came out with their first DV camera, circa 1995-96. The internet was just starting out. I could see the future of computers and video merging and knew that the time had come to set out on my own.

So, during the time in between then and now, I taught myself film techniques, acquired equipment, learned different software programs and honed my skills. I also worked a myriad of different jobs; but, they all related to video and computers. I did this in order to have my resume reflect a history of industry related jobs. I also found out what it was that I enjoyed doing with video. It was editing. It was putting all the pieces together and making something out of nothing. Animation is a big thing for me, too, as I love to draw.
Currently, I still work a 40 hour job (with computers and databases) but I enjoy doing video work with other people. Right now, with the advent of technology, the tech side of video is not so much of an obstacle as it once was. The creative side would come from within you as you find out what aspects of video you enjoy. However, as many have pointed out above, there are people skills, business skills and professional skills that you will need to develop along the way.

I'm in Austin, TX. If you like, drop me a line at ernesttx at yahoo dot com. I'm always up for chatting about film and video. Chao.

[Chris Adler]

Did you ever tell us what your dream is?