Finding Work After Film School

The Truth: Work after Film School

Max Marois — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:52:05 +0000

On the first day of school, I remember what someone told my classmates and me; “You’ll get out with as much as you put in.” That person was David Hauka, at the time Head of Department of the film program at VFS. Little did I know that this simple, but so brilliant, line would change my life the way it did.

Having spent most of my time during this year at school, doing 50-85 hours a week on study, research, networking, I understood that I had made the choice to sacrifice a part of my social life and to devote all my time to what it took me so long to get to. Now that I’ve had time to reflect on this choice and I find that I’ve gained so much more than I expected I would. Not only did I succeed at school, I managed to develop friendships with classmates, teachers and with industry professionals.

Now when I’m on set, I know what everyone else is doing. This is something that is very much missing on professional set and that film school is able to give you. If you know what other people are doing and why, you can make your life and their life easier. People generally think that if you get into film school you’ll get out with a job. While this is true for some people, for 99% of us it isn’t. Film school only prepares you. It gives you the knowledge you need, the rest is always up to you. For me, this is the perfect match. Nothing else in my life has ever felt that right for me and I will keep on working in this industry, and doing my best for myself and my co workers, for as long as I can.

When I look back and I see what many people did during the year and see where they are now, I realize that many of them didn’t realize that this life, of being in the film industry, wasn’t for them. It’s a very difficult and quite painful business most of the time. I’ve gained a lot from film school, and even more than I still haven’t processed yet, but once you’re out there life is different. You don’t have this security that you had when you were in the school. Once you’re out there, there is never a guarantee that you can pay the bills, and that’s something that I only realized a few months before the end of school, when I started to spend more time on set outside of school.

If you’re interested in working in this industry, going into film school or not isn’t the first thing that you need to think of. Ask yourself if you are ready to accept to spend weeks, or even months, without any work in the industry, because sadly this is how is it. Even through we all hear about how “cool” it is to make movies, and it is an amazing experience, you never know if you can have work tomorrow. That’s not something that most people are ready to accept. But if you are one of those people who still wants to go on in this way, I hope you find everything I wrote in this series of article helpful in your decision process.

How I ended up in Film School

Max Marois — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:56:45 +0000

One year ago, I was a young man living in Eastern Canada, wanting to make film, but without any experience, deep knowledge or even any opportunities. I still wanted to make movies, but without any of this I didn’t know how I would ever be able to do so. After looking around and looking at what many other filmmakers did, I decided to look for a film school to teach me what I needed.
It didn’t took long for me to realize that the cost of those schools and their programs was definitely a big issue. Like many other young aspiring filmmakers, I didn’t have the financials mean to pay for an expensive program like UCLA or any other big school.

I started to look smaller, something less expensive but still well situated and with a good program. Being Canadian, it was way better for me to look for schools in Canada and after some looking around, mainly on the internet, I looked at Vancouver as my main option.

Third-largest film production centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York City, Vancouver became a solid choice, but then came my old issue of finding the right school with the right program at the right price. I asked myself, what am I looking for? I want to study film or make them? Do I want a more hands-on experience or do I want to sit back in a classroom and learn from there? I answered those questions and made my choice. I decided to select Vancouver Film School. It fitted all my needs and was working in term of budget for school and for living.

There is no point for me to go into details in how I contacted them, the whole process of applying etc.. since this is different for each of us and this is not why you’re reading this article. However, I can tell you that to solve my financials issue, I had to take a student loan and rely on the very amazing help of my family to make all this happen. With all this, what I ended up with was a decision and a really tight budget.

Few months later I moved there, knowing no one, having to use a new language that I never had spoken on a daily basis before, and to make it much more easier I moved to the opposite side of the country and I remember how “safe” I felt during the first months. For me, this was an all or nothing situation. If you can, don’t ever put yourself in this situation. You never know what can happen.

Then, school started.

Filmmaking: A Career Research Report

Max Marois — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:26:04 +0000

I’ve been quite happily surprised by this article. Some of the information it offers, like the average salary in the industry for producers and directors is around $56,000 dollars, is worth knowing. Even though it seems to be written by someone knew to this industry, it gives you another point of vu on someone’s plan and what he/she believe is important.

Knowing the way other people approach the same career is always a bonus for you. Sadly, this article isn’t long enough. One would have hoped for more information and stats to give a better idea of what is really out there.

Source: Careerplanningtoday.com “Filmmaker: A Career Research Report”

5 Filmmaking Success Tips

Max Marois — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:03:08 +0000

Definitely too short and lacking examples, this articles gives you five tips on how to make it in the film industry, as it likes to say. The reality is that these tips will definitely help you, but mainly on set or in the office when you’re starting. One of the good tips of the article, “The person who fetches coffee today, will control the money tomorrow. So first, make sure the coffee is hot.” is something you should consider doing ons et if you’re a pa for example.

If everyone is could because the weather is terrible, you’ll be seen as an angel when you arrive with that coffee cup. For sure its a good way to get attention to you, which is what you want.

Source: FilmmakingStuff “Rules for Filmmaking Success”