What are some 'simple' jobs that support directing?

R

rc444

Well-known member
Hi everyone,

I've directed a few things before (unpaid). I'm at film school now. I'm weighing up what job would best give me time to be a writer-director. Obviously you need time to actually sit down and write stuff. Working 10 hour days isn't probably going to let you do that! I'm conscious of that.

I've thought about getting work as an editor. That would be fun. I'm just worried I would become so involved in it that, well, it would be years before I could get out of it. I'm a older film student, 28, so without sounding vain, would like to get directing as soon as possible. And I don't just mean narrative stuff.

I'm just looking for a solution: a job in the industry that would pay enough for a roof and give me time to write. Any suggestions?

David
 
I've found government jobs to be nice. Once you become permanent, it's hard for them to can you (just noticed you're not in the U.S., so things may work differently over there). :)

Other than that, why not a job as a commercial director for a local television station or cable company?

Oddly enough, teaching video production has been the worst match yet, in that it's a major time and energy suckage.
 
Video Assist op...

Best seat in the house, should pay nice as a freelancer...

keep your mouth shut, soak it all in....



and as edit as much as you can..

good luck,
cc
 
Editing is good, but only if you freelance and are in a major city, preferably Los Angeles, as on average there is the most high paying work there. A mid level editor in LA will make 400-500 a day easy. I was on staff for a few years, and kept turning down freelance work until I did the math and realized i could make as much money working freelance but work half the hours. With the extra free time I work on my projects. Also, being freelance, you can work like a dog for a few months, then take a couple off to pursue your passion. It takes a while to build up a base of clients, but once you do, and if you're good, you won't lack for work.
 
government jobs are slack man. when i had mine i used to spend half the day writing scripts and watching dvd's, cool website animations, etc. just get a job where you're on a computer, get cool with the gus in IT in case anybody wants to monitor you slacking off, etc. works everytime.

unfortunately, sometimes the more money you make in your dayjob the more time that they expect you to stay and work late or over the weekend if its required, lol.
 
Batutta said:
Editing is good, but only if you freelance and are in a major city, preferably Los Angeles, as on average there is the most high paying work there. A mid level editor in LA will make 400-500 a day easy. I was on staff for a few years, and kept turning down freelance work until I did the math and realized i could make as much money working freelance but work half the hours. With the extra free time I work on my projects. Also, being freelance, you can work like a dog for a few months, then take a couple off to pursue your passion. It takes a while to build up a base of clients, but once you do, and if you're good, you won't lack for work.
Click to expand...

Wow, you definitely must be good. I've posted for editors before and found a lot of very good, experienced editors with their own equipment (not necessary, we have very new FCP equipment and computers) who would do serious editing for $200/day or less even. My editor now, who I try to pay fairly for his level of experience, at least (he takes longer but he is very, very hard working, and relentless at getting the best quality he can), has had a lot of trouble finding freelance editing work and I think his reel is quite good. He's also a heck of a graphic artist and can do Web design; he makes more on Websites and graphic design than editing by far. He just got $500 for two weeks of assistant editing work at about 10 hours a day.

So... I don't know about freelance editing, boy, I wouldn't want to jump into that. Not with the competition I've seen all fighting over a small amount of money going around.
 
Oddly enough and if you don't demand a big income a Security Officer armed or unarmed on a graveyard shift. Sit in your little watch booth with your laptop and write all night long. The silence brings such clarity to your thoughts and ideas that translate well into your writing.
 
lol, I think that sounds like a good job if I had to get a day job, or as the case may be a night job. I actually think I'd choose the 10 p.m. through 6 a.m. shift at one of these condo buildings like the one I live in, because nothing really happens and the guy (who I know well, cool guy) just sits there all night surfing MySpace and talking on AIM. Every once in a while he might have to make a guest sign the guest sheet, which isn't exactly rocket science, and he may have to answer the phone and someone makes a noise complaint, so he calls the unit where the noise came from, again takes maybe 3 minutes.
 
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