To Live and Work in LA

Billy Pilgrim

Billy Pilgrim

Stye in my eye
Last week, when I was trying to get some sleep before work, I was lying in my bed, freaking the **** out. I was thinking about how much I hate the script I just wrote. I thought about being stuck in this town, in my shitty day job, living with my mom, I thought I might get sucked further down into the comfort of my current living situation. My parents have never asked me to leave. I still run errands and do things for them when I’m not working. My mom keeps telling me how proud she is that I’m working a day job.

I always thought my parents supported my dreams, and I think they do, but I realized that they never regularly tell me how proud they are that I made a feature film. They told me, maybe, when I screened it in town. But they don’t remind me every day how proud they are the way they do now that I have a regular job. This isn’t a complain about my parents. I understand, they’re afraid for me. They’re worried I’ll be homeless, like my biological father was before he died. They want to protect me from a terrible life.

But it’s dragging me further away from doing what I really want to do. I know the only way I can really have a career in film is to just pack up, move to LA and take as many jobs on as many projects as I can. I'll hate myself for the rest of my life if I don't at least try. But I’m terrified of the notion. I’ve never been on my own here, let alone in LA, in that competitive film community, with the uncertainty of whether or not I’ll make rent with the low pay I get from working on low budget horror film. I know it’s what I need to do, but I wish someone would tell me it’s do-able.

I'm hoping some people here can share their experiences.
 
I spent 8 months in LA this year, living with a friend who'd been there for 20 years. The truth about LA is that you set your own pace, and the city is completely apathetic. LA doesn't care if you make 50 movies or if you get a day job just to survive and wake up 40 years later and you've never set foot on a production there. The only benefit to living in LA is that things are happening all around you, so once you get to know a lot of people, you can do a lot of free work. In 8 months, I worked on two productions: the feature that I'd flown out there specifically to work on before deciding just to stay and sleep in my friend's car, and a micro film he directed just before I decided to move back.

I'm not trying to discourage you from moving to Los Angeles. A lot of people will fall on each side of that fence, and ultimately, you won't know until you try. But whether you move to LA or stay with your parents, you have to realize that it's YOU that makes it happen, regardless of where you are. The reason I didn't do well in LA is because I'm introverted and don't like parties or working on s..tty movies, both of which I was offered plenty of. But if you can commit to being the driving force in your career, to taking EVERY DAMN OPPORTUNITY that comes your way, then LA is the best place to be, mate.

I moved back home because I'm developing two scripts set here in Michigan, where it's easier to shoot on a dime (in LA, it's easier to find crew and talent, but harder to secure permits, etc.).

Whatever you decide to do, don't freak out about it or get depressed. Just commit to a solid, steady path and keep working. Find something each day that you can do to get you closer to your goal, whether that's finding local productions to get involved with, or writing another page or two of a script, or setting a date for your next production.

-JMT
 
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..."No matter where you go, no matter what you do... if you want it, give everything else up for it."

Words to live for!

Being terrified is not a good reason not to do something! Fear is a great motivator. And lazy?? 90 percent of folks are just lazy...are you the other ten %?

Just for the sake of argument, lets say you're failing at your dream right where you are. So, you're failing. Whats wrong with at least going to L.A. and giving it all you got? if you're failing now, there's only one way: up!
 
you will never know unless you take a chance. 90% of successful people take a risk, a chance, they just do it. All or nothing, sure some people fail. It's the ones that keep trying that achieve success. If you feel in your heart and soul that LA is the place for you, then save up head out for a few weeks, check it out, network a bit, then go from there. You may get out there and hate it. or you may love it. New york city is another place with stuff happening. might be worth looking into as well.
 
I wondered about this myself and read there are a lot of pros of moving to LA(THE "community", film industry HQ etc) but there are also a lot of cons.

It's much easier to make a film in the small city you live in currently than it is in Hollywood simply because no one in LA is star struck to hear an indie film shoot is happening in their neighborhood. Your small city neighbors and businesses will be much more accommodating to helping their neighbor with his film than weary LA folk
 
I am thinking about doing this too once I am done with business school. I plan on doing A LOT of research(food,place to live, job,film school) before I make the move from Ohio to LA(if I do it). I am also thinking about NYC too. NYC is a lot closer and I have been there before its amazing.
 
If you want to continue making more shorts and features it's not necessary to move to LA. In fact living in LA might make your job as a low budget filmmaker more difficult. If you want a career in the film industry doing a specific trade, then you pretty much have to move to LA or NY, at least to gain experience and get established.
 
I probably should have been more clear, but my goal is to really establish a day job in the industry (thinking of focusing on editing while making my little micro budget features on the side). I'd like do writing too, but I don't if that will happen.
 
FWIW, though, my editor friend works full time as a video editor at an ad agency, and he went to college and is very good at what he does. If you're talented and dedicated to editing as a career, I'm assuming you can probably bypass college, but a degree would certainly make it easier to get a job like his, where degrees are almost always a requirement.
 
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