Phone call asking for work - and how not to get a job.

[paulears]

I got a phone call this morning, while I was driving and my hands free failed to pick up properly - so I pulled into a lay-by, and looked at the phone. A local number - not even a mobile. I rarely work locally, so called it and a youngish voice explained he was looking for a job and thought that as he was experienced in what we do, he'd give us a call. He told me he had plenty of experience, so having somebody in the phone can be handy. I asked him if he'd done X, no. Y? No. Z? No - so I asked him what kind of cameras he was familiar with? DSLRs. We don't use these at all - and a quick look at the web site would soon show the kinds of things we use and do. I know little about DSLRs, apart from what tend to make them tricky for our main area of work - as in 60 minutes continuous running time. Don't some of these only record for about 12 minutes or so - I asked, expecting him to talk hacks and suchlike, but no. He had no clue. What do you edit on? He said he had to check, and it was cyber DVD? So by this time, and a wasted ten minutes, I started to lose patience. We started on sound - again, totally clueless. I asked how old he was? 16! So what experience did he have? A week shadowing a photographer. I'm usually really good with students and young people, but his cluelessness and inability to understand he actually had no experience just wound me up. I told him to go to college for two years, then do university and come back and ask when he really knew what he was talking about. Perhaps it was the 8.30 in the morning phone call, on the way to a job, or just his total lack of understanding about how to even get more experience.

grumpy old man mode off!

 

[joey46]

poor kid but the good news is, you just sent a young man to college +1

 

[maranfilms]

Paul, you may have scarred that poor kid for life, lol. A week, well, that's a week longer than many that buy a 5d and are now calling themselves cinematographers Kidding aside, How about having him intern, this way you can mold him to how you work. Although he does sound a bit arrogant, by saying he's experienced. Probably better to move on.

 

[groveChuck]

OTOH, he had the bollocks to cold call you...

 

[joey46]

have him intern for you and film the process then post here

 

[Noel Evans]

Wow, you guys are very polite. After 30 seconds all he would have heard was beep beep beep...

 

[David Jimerson]

A week, well, that's a week longer than many that buy a 5d and are now calling themselves cinematographers

Or, more ridiculously, "DPs."

 

[Gord.T]

(apart from him trying to BS you...)

If you had/have a studio you could invite him/her in for a day (shoot) to watch. Even bring his parents. [if he was interested in the subject then that might be cool.]

[Guilt trip] Maybe someday you all can do something nice for a kid if they ask (with parents permission) and take him/her on a shoot to get an idea of what you do. Maybe even let them try a few shots. [/Guilt trip]

 

[Gord.T]

OTOH, he had the bollocks to cold call you...

Yeah. LOL. So, he didn't have Tarantinos or Speilbergs number handy. He's a kid. Ofcourse he'd call. I would have too. (But yeah, I'd not try to BS if I were him.)

 

[David G. Smith]

Wow paulears... I am amazed that at 8:30 in the AM you could have been that nice to somebody like that... I think that if I had received the call, two minutes in the conversation would have turned to me expressing my opinion of the morality and personal choices of his mother and the lack of difference between his linage and the evolution of the common garden slug. Then again... I ain't much of a morning person.

 

[OldCorpse]

Paul, Paul, Paul - what the heck is going on?! How in the world did the kid get your number? Your private number is restricted to family and very close friends. At your work, you have an assistant or screener or voicemail. If someone at work needs you - your boss or co-worker - they call and you hear a special "work call" ring. If somebody wants to hire you or your company, they call the work number and you either get connected by someone at work, or it goes to voicemail. Nobody from the public can call you. Very strange.

 

[homestar_kevin]

you were really polite to keep the conversation going that long.

 

[Victor Nhat Nguyen]

So just wondering... do cold calls actually work?

 

[Josh Bass]

In my experience its a numbers game. A very depressing, disheartening numbers game. You may call a hundred+ people and get one or two interested in talking to you further or none at all. Also knowing WHO to call is not always easy to figure out. I dont do it any more myself.

 

[dreoftheblue]

One time someone told me I couldn't enter into a particular career.... 2 years later and I'm now utilizing said career to begin funding my film hobby.



More recently, someone told me I couldn't cure a disease....

 

[Eric Boellner]

Not really getting the vibe of the responses in this topic. I get why that call would be frustrating, and it's certainly not anyone's job to mentor this kid or show him the ropes, but there seems to be a lot of disdain for some kid who thinks he knows more than he does about an industry he wants to be involved in. That sounds like a pretty normal 16-year old "aspiring filmmaker" to me. S--t, when I was 16, I remember emailing the production company behind a movie I'd liked, pitching them my idea and asking for $7mil and to let me direct it. I laugh at myself now, but without the friends I made over the internet who had the patience to look past my enormous lack of self-awareness and knowledge about the film industry, I'd have gotten nowhere.

Again, I'm not trying to call anyone out, or say this kid's education and career are anyone's responsibility but his own, but it's like no-one here remembers being young, stupid, and ballsy enough to reach for things you can't grasp yet.

-EMB

 

[DBP]

Again, I'm not trying to call anyone out, or say this kid's education and career are anyone's responsibility but his own, but it's like no-one here remembers being young, stupid, and ballsy enough to reach for things you can't grasp yet.

-EMB

This. I'm a little late to the party on this thread, but I want to chime in. I'm 29 now, but I still vivdly remember being 18-22 and looking for work in the industry. I didn't know enough to even realize how little I knew, but it's nerveracking to cold call and put yourself out there.

Some were nice and some blew me off like you and the rest of the people in thread sound like they would do. I know that you don't have to hand the kid everything on a silver platter, but would it kill you to be halfway nice and throw him a bone? You can steer him in the right direction without having an attitude about it.

 

[Alpha Beta Omega]

Eager to learn youngsters can be a good thing but to often they have no idea what it takes to get a foot in the door.

 

[Paul F]

.....
Some were nice and some blew me off like you and the rest of the people in thread sound like they would do. I know that you don't have to hand the kid everything on a silver platter, but would it kill you to be halfway nice and throw him a bone? You can steer him in the right direction without having an attitude about it.

Paul went out of his way to listen to the caller. But the caller brought nothing to the table. Most anyone will help someone that is helping themselves. If someone shows me they have done some research, have a true desire, have made some effort to know something about what they are calling about, I will help. But if you call me and show me you have done nothing except call me in hopes of a job, I quickly lose patience.

 

[Eric Boellner]

Eager to learn youngsters can be a good thing but to often they have no idea what it takes to get a foot in the door.

And I respect Paul for telling the kid what it takes: go to college, work hard, etc. What I don't get is all the "Man, I wouldn't have even done that!" responses. Like everyone here had their s--t together and the world figured out at 16.

-EMB