Step One: Get Real

Over the years I’ve interviewed over a thousand entry level job candidates. When I ask what they want to ultimately do in the entertainment industry, the vast majority of them give me one of three answers: film producer, film/TV writer, or director.

Now I know some of those job candidates are just giving those answers because those are the positions college media programs focus on. Maybe in reality they have something less high-profile in mind. Maybe they have no idea and don’t want to say that. Many of these candidates are confident that these are positions they’re destined for. When I ask about what they’d shot, what they were working on, how many sample scripts they’ve written, or anything else about the actual “doing” of those jobs, I often get vague answers that involve not having the time, or questions about how someone gets hired for those positions.

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Usually I am vague at this point. The reality is that nobody is going to hire them to do those things unless they have proven they can do them on a professional level. There is nothing a new grad can have on their resume that will get them the position of producer, director or writer. More importantly, if someone says that they want to be a producer, director, or writer and they haven’t produced, directed, or written anything outside of the school environment (which is a whole other world), how do they know those jobs are for them?

Don’t take this the wrong way, but although they may look and sound very glamorous, most of the time one is actually doing these jobs (as opposed to celebrating the fruits of the labor afterwards), they are not the slightest bit glamorous.

Producing a film is a long painful slog. You put together key elements (money, talent, source material, crew), which is no small chore on its own, and then watch them suddenly and repeatedly fall away. Losing financing or having a star bail is par for the course on most film projects. The job is often about picking up the remaining pieces and trying to glue new pieces in with them.

Directing involves much stress and juggling and personality management and answering many questions, sometimes at 3am after several days with no sleep. Think hard about how that would be.

Writing is…well…writing; often alone in a room for the hourly equivalent of years, or with some writing partner who you may or may not like and who, best case scenario, will take half of every payout you get for a project.

Here’s the “Getting Real” part: If this all sounds good to you, go for it. You might have the right stuff (and enough of the right stuff for the length of time required) to make it. If you are hesitant, have no fear. There are plenty of other jobs related to those jobs that use similar skills. What you don’t want to do is focus on the idea of a job for too long so it distracts you from finding something you will truly love.

Success Secret: The people who have the biggest success are the ones who find a path that is tied to their passions, talent, and skills, commit to it in a no-matter-what way, and make it happen on their own. Whether it is a ladder-climbing job, such as being the President of Production at a Film Studio or a no-ladder job such as directing episodic television, those who get there got there because they locked in and would not be denied. Period.

Step Two: Do Your Homework

If you really want to be one of the big three above, besides actually doing those jobs, you need to know how other people got to be in those jobs and work your way through the industry in a manner that gets you in the same position. You need to answer the question, “What is the path to film producer, director, or TV/film writer really like?”

There are profiles of actual film producers, as well as film and TV directors, and writers on Your Industry Insider and many other places on the internet. Start with the Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild, or Writers Guild websites. Try Googling  the names of producers, directors, and writers whose work you admire. You may find the first step on your path is a job you can get right now.

If you are not after one of the big three, research your personal target position and discover how the people who are successful in those areas got there. Again, you can start with Your Industry Insider (of course) and branch out to professional organizations serving those positions, people whose work you admire, and even just plain old Googling the job title. A search for “Film Development Executive” or “Costume Designer” or “TV Network Programming Executive” will get you started.

If you thought you wanted to be one of the big three but are rethinking that or just plain aren’t sure what you want to do, make it your business to find out as much as you can about areas in the entertainment industry that use your skills, passions, and talents. For instance, if you thought you wanted to be a film producer because you are bossy, like to connect people, and like to get things done but the pace of getting a film produced sounds torturous, find out more about other kinds of producers. Commercial producer, TV producer, promo producer, web series producer, and transmedia producer are just some of the other kinds.

Success Secret: Do your research face-to-face. If there is a position you are interested in, find someone doing it and ask them for ten minutes of their time to ask about what they do and how they got there. Make it clear that you simply want an informational interview. If you don’t hear back from the first person you approach, try other people in that position until you find someone who has the time to talk. You will definitely know more than you did going in and who knows, you might end up with a mentor or even an “in” to your chosen area of the industry.

Step Three: Embrace Your Class

The people coming out of school with you now are your peers; the ones who went to your school and those from other schools who are entering the industry at the same time. Yes, they are equally unemployed and powerless, but as you move into the business and get your first job, so will they. As you move up, so will they. Some will move up faster than you and be able to give you a hand up, some will move slower and you might be able to help them. The roles could reverse, even more than once. You will tip each other off about jobs, help each other strategize goals, celebrate wins, and recover from setbacks. Before you know it (in about 10 years), you will all have fancy titles or screen credits, and then (in about 20 years) you will be the top of the industry heap.

Success secret: Whenever you have the opportunity to help one of your peers, do it. Whether it’s passing along word about a job, getting their script seen at the company you work for, or volunteering to PA on their film. Establishing yourself as a resource and someone who will help others reach their goals only makes you more valuable as part of their network. This will pay dividends throughout your career.

Step Four: Know What You Don’t Know

When I came out of college, personal computers were just starting to be widely used. It would be several years before the internet came into vogue. Technology was developing more rapidly than ever before. The same is true today. No one knows what will appear in the next 5 years (or even 5 months). Stay open and be prepared to be surprised. You may find yourself working soon in a medium that doesn’t even exist as you read this, or in an area that applies new technology to traditional media and turns it on its head.

Success secret: Pay attention to current trends and to what is coming down the pike in technology. Spend at least some of your time thinking about how you might be able to do better what you do now, or innovate a current technology or way of doing something, or merge a new technology and trend. The ones who adapt to new ways of doing things are usually successful, but for the ones who create those new ways of doing things…the sky is the limit for them.

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One of the most common questions I get from students and recent grads is whether they have to move to Los Angeles in order to work in the entertainment industry.

“Of course not,” I say. “The entertainment industry is all over the place.”

“What about if I want to be a…?” they ask, with their dream position in the … of the question.  My answer varies depending upon the position, their level of ambition, and various personal factors they weigh into the question.

It’s often not an easy answer, and it can seem very “now or never” to a young person trying to get the “right” start. But each person’s path is different.

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For some, part of the allure of being in entertainment industry is living in Los Angeles, or it’s just a given that that’s where they’ll be. Chris Markus & Steve McFeely, the writing team behind THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, CAPTAIN AMERICA, YOU KILL ME, and PAIN & GAIN, moved to L.A. right out of grad school, got day jobs, and began collaborating on scripts.

Game Show Writer/Producer Ryan Hopak moved to Los Angeles as a new graduate to build his career. UTA Talent Agent and Business Affairs Executive Mike Rubi applied to (and was accepted in) the UTA Mailroom Trainee Program right out of law school. Editor Eric McCormick, Animation Studio President and Creative Director Chris Hamilton, Actor Eric Lange (“Weeds,”  “Victorious”), and Universal Pictures’ President, Film Music & Publishing, Mike Knobloch also started out in L.A.

Others make the move in their own time or when an opportunity presents itself. When I graduated from college, Los Angeles (or what I thought Los Angeles was) was so “not me” that I hightailed it from the East Coast, where I’d grown up and gone to college, to Minneapolis. I got into the industry there and moved to L.A. exactly a year later with a well-paying freelance job and a free place to live lined up through people I met working on movies in Minneapolis.

Studio Programming Executive Andrew Paskoff came to Los Angeles with a year of commercial production experience and got hired by a top TV production company immediately upon arrival. Costume Designer Lou Eyrich (“Nip/Tuck,” “Glee,” “American Horror Story”) spent several years working on movies in Minneapolis and touring with musicians such as Prince and Bette Midler before making the big L.A. move, eventually becoming a frequent collaborator with writer-director-producer Ryan Murphy. Actor Nick Searcy (“Justified”) drove a limo in New York for several years while trying to break in, only to have his golden opportunity come after he’d moved back to his native North Carolina. He moved to Los Angeles with a prominent movie credit under his belt and good representation to help him get on his feet.

And some have great entertainment industry careers and never make the move to Los Angeles. After many years as a theatrical producer in Austin, Writer-Director-Producer Jason Neulander saw his dream of launching his play, “The Intergalactic Nemesis”, in New York fall apart with the economic downturn of a few years ago, only to launch it in his hometown, have it go big and begin touring, and then land on Broadway. He’s still touring, with a trilogy of hit plays, still calling Austin his home. Former Discovery Communications CEO Judith McHale moved from New York to Washington, DC many years ago to be near her ailing father. She took a position in the legal department of a then-small cable channel and over the years,  moved up the latter, eventually to the top spot, helping grow it into the global media powerhouse it is today.  Not even a brief stop in Los Angeles on her resume.

The bottom line for the “where” of your entertainment career is that it really isn’t about there being an objective “best” or even “better” place to launch (or have) it. It’s a personal decision with different factors weighing in and different timelines. Some people try L.A. and like it. Others try it and don’t like it and go someplace else. Or, like me, they shun it, say they could never live in Los Angeles and then, two years into reluctantly living in L.A. because of work opportunities, realize they couldn’t live anyplace else.

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I love short films. I love how you can become totally immersed in a story and connected to a character in a film that might only be a few minutes long.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people who think that, since the film is a short, it will cost less and be less challenging to produce than a feature. After shooting my second short film this past summer, I can say from experience that although making a short might not be as difficult as making a feature, making a good short film is hard. Deceptively hard.

Last year, I was entering my second year as a graduate M.F.A student in Film Production at Boston University. At the end of the program each M.F.A. directing candidate must make a thesis film. This film can be no longer than 28 minutes, and can be either a narrative or a documentary. The school allows students to check out camera, lighting, and sound equipment to use for their film, but the student is responsible for finding and acquiring everything else needed for production.

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My thesis film was a short entitled Dear Santa, which I wrote, directed, produced, and cast. The story focuses on Ann Dunham an energetic and free-spirited girl who loves hockey, dance class, and video games. When Ann asks Santa Claus to turn her into a boy for Christmas, her request throws her conservative mother into a tailspin. Dear Santa is a lighthearted look at the complicated, funny, and sometimes dysfunctional ties that bind a family together.

The film presented several production challenges. We had a very large cast: seven principal cast members, 24 dancers, and over 75 extras, all of whom had to be costumed and fed each day. The film was set at Christmas, but due to time issues we had to shoot in July. We needed 6 locations, one of which was a hockey rink. Making this film proved to be an incredibly challenging but rewarding experience.

During the twelve-day shoot I learned a lot of lessons. Here are a few of the most helpful, as well as some tips I picked up along the way, which might help make shooting your next low budget short a little easier.

1. A Hot Meal Goes A Long Way

On Dear Santa, I wasn’t able to pay anyone, but I always made sure that there was plenty of food and drink on set all day. In the morning, I always had coffee, bagels, and yogurt. For lunch I provided sandwiches, salads, chips, and fruit.  There was a hot meal for dinner every day. For me, this food was a way that I could show the respect and appreciation I had for how hard everyone was working.

Tip: Before you start shooting, check in with your cast and crew about any foods that they are either allergic to or don’t care for. There is nothing worse than being on set and realizing that you don’t have anything an actor or crewmember can eat.

2. The Importance of Collaboration

Before I went to film school at Boston University, I spent ten years in New York working in theater as a director and assistant director. Working in the theater, I really came to understand how important collaboration is. As a director, the theater taught me that two of my most important jobs were to clearly articulate to everyone what my vision was, and to make sure that everyone understood that I valued their opinions.

I’ve brought that sensibility with me into my film work, and I’ve found that it is just as vital in film as it is in the theater. When I’m working on a project, I go out of my way to make sure that everyone knows that their opinions matter. The more people feel that they have some ownership of the film, the more invested they will be in the project.

Tip: The director/DP relationship is one of the most important on any film. I’ve been on sets where the only communication that occurs between the director and the DP is when the director barks out what lens they want to use. I don’t understand this. I’ve been lucky. The DP on my first two films, Kate Brown, and I have a very similar style, both in terms of shooting and storytelling. When we discuss the shooting of a particular scene, we talk as much about the emotion that a particular character is feeling as we do about what lens to use. Talk to your DP about story and character. It will get their imagination firing, and it will lead to exciting possibilities.

3. The Tricky Task of Media Management

How many hard drives should I buy? Should I do a back up in the field or wait until we wrap for the day? Should I erase the memory cards as I use them, or should I buy enough so that I don’t have to erase until the film is completed? These are just a few of the key decisions we had to make during the pre-production phase on Dear Santa. 

My first film was shot on 16mm film, and there was something reassuring about knowing that no matter what I had the film negative as a backup. Dear Santa was shot using the SONY F3, and we used the SxS adapter to enable us to shoot using 32GB SD cards. I was able to search out sales and find good deals on the SD cards, but I was still on a budget, and faced an important choice. I could use a card, dump the footage onto a drive, erase the card, and then re-use that card, or I could only use a card once and then keep it for archival purposes until the film was completed. I chose the latter option.

For me, the idea of having only hard drives as our main storage and backup system felt a little too dicey. Instead, I opted for having two back ups. We had all the footage on the main 1 TB hard drive we used for editing, a second 1 TB drive we used as a backup, and all of the original SD cards. Hard drives can malfunction, and after working so hard and spending so much money during production, not having two different types of media backups felt like a risk that I didn’t want to take.

Tip: Look into using photographic slide books for storing your SD cards. These books, which come with plastic sheets that hold 20 slides per page, are great. An SD card is about the same size as a slide, and the cards fit perfectly into the slots. This was a great tool to help us keep our media organized.

4. Everything Flows From the Story

When you’re on set either directing or producing a movie, you have to make a lot of decisions very quickly. These decisions will have a huge impact on how your movie will ultimately look. Knowing this can make each decision a difficult one to make.  A professor of mine at BU once told me a story about the director Elia Kazaan. He said that everyday before Kazaan went to the set all he would do to prepare is tell himself the story, over and over again. This really struck me. It reminded me that the story always has to be the most important thing. If the amazing crane shot that you have spent weeks preparing for doesn’t serve the story, then it isn’t going to be effective and you may end up cutting it. When I was making Dear Santa I tried to make every decision, whether it was about performance, costuming, lighting, or lenses, based on what would best serve the story.

Tip: While you’re in pre-production go through the script and write down one sentence for each scene that describes what the major dramatic event is for that scene. Shooting scenes out of order in film can be confusing. Writing down this one simple sentence can help you as a storyteller keep in mind where a particular scene fits into the larger overall story.

5. Have Fun

Movies are hard to make, and the fact that you are actually making yours at all is already a major accomplishment. Enjoy the process. Share your excitement with everyone else. Your excitement and passion can be infectious, and it will help motivate people to work hard and be committed to your project. It is easy when you’re making a film to be caught up in the stress of the moment, but, if you can, try to step back at least once a day and look around you. You are getting to make your movie, and that is really cool.

Tip: Don’t talk about the movie during meal breaks. Let yourself and everyone else decompress. Meal breaks can be a great time for the cast and crew to bond.

For more information about Maura and her films, visit ourwayout.org.

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This is a guest post from Rab Berry, who graduated from Boston University last May. In it, he examines a well worn piece of advice and finds that in spite of it’s simplicity, it really is a key to buidling an entertainment career.

Like most recent college graduates looking to work in the film industry, I’ve been inundated with advice. I have a tidbit for everything: Where to live in Los Angeles, the best places to seek entry level jobs, how long it takes to “make it,” why I should have thought about stable work as an accountant or dentist rather than filmmaking… All that good stuff.

Amid this maelstrom of guidance, one maxim for navigating the film industry stands out for me. Ironically, it’s so obvious that I almost discounted it completely. After all, I’ve heard variations of it since I was old enough to comprehend words: Be nice to people.

This blindingly simple advice has proved its validity to me without question. A few months ago, I volunteered as a production assistant on a low-budget action film and got my first taste of life on set. Prior to shooting, I’d thought about how I would make the most of the experience. I wanted to learn how a professional production works, get some experience, and maybe even network a little. How would I accomplish all that? At the time, I had no idea.

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I arrived on location intending to work hard and interact with other people. As I watched everyone else show up, and realized they already knew each other, I began to retreat into my social shell. Great, I thought, I get to be that awkward guy standing just outside conversation circles or sitting around by myself during down time. Nevertheless, I tried making conversation and putting myself out there to be friendly anyway.

I quickly realized that the departments of the crew had a clique-like quality to them. The art department people generally fraternized amongst themselves, as did the camera guys and the grip team, etcetera. PAs weren’t expected to assist with these specialized aspects of production, but I went out of my way let them know when I was free to help and as a result worked with most of the crew.

At first, I was treated like a bit of an outsider, albeit a helpful one. But as I got to know people and developed a good reputation, I was allowed to do more complex work. I went from moving chairs to moving cameras and expensive equipment. Instead of standing around to block off a set, the grip guys would pull me aside if they needed another set of hands for lighting. My PA experience was greatly enriched by doing a little bit of everything and making friends with people other than my fellow PAs.  By the end of the production, I was asked to work as a shuttle van driver, a paid position, because I had a good working relationship with the line producer.

Even when you’re working at the bottom of the totem pole, you learn very quickly how much better it is to be working with nice people when you’re spending 14 to 17 hours together on set. The general morale gets brought down when anyone is taking their stress out on other people, potentially setting off a chain reaction of irritability that consumes the whole crew. Then everybody smolders with hours left to go on set, the work takes longer because people are pissed off, and what felt like work before becomes outright drudgery.

But this experience in particular sums up the importance of just being a decent human being in this industry. On the second day of shooting, my job was to sit outside and “fire watch” the trailers at 2 AM- that is, make sure random people don’t start poking around in them or stealing stuff. I struck up a conversation with Scott, one of the Key PAs, and we ended up talking the rest of the night. I learned he’s an actor with an interest in producing and I explained my interest in screenwriting.

Over the next few days we kicked around ideas for movies we could collaborate on once the shoot was over. A month after the film wrapped, Scott and I had written a feature film and made plans to shoot a short I’d begun writing in college. It turns out Scott is pretty well-connected for someone who moved out here eight months ago- around the same time I did. During one of our writing meetings, I asked him for his networking secret, because I consider myself mediocre at striking up conversations with potential industry contacts. “You’re already doing it”, he replied. “I met a bunch of other PAs [working on the movie] who are writers. I came to you because I like you the best”.

I am by no means suggesting that being nice to people is primarily a way to get ahead in the world. If that’s your primary motivation for human decency, you should take a good, long look at who you are as a person. I’m happy to have met a lot of great people while working on the movie, all of whom have different aspirations and talents, many of whom I would gladly work with again. Being on friendly terms with people, rather than just maintaining professional contact, is simply a better way to live and grow in this industry. Or any other industry you may find yourself in, for that matter.

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On a Google group for Boston University alumni who have moved to Los Angeles to be in the entertainment industry, there was a post last week from a recent grad looking for her first paying entertainment job, an assistant position at an agency, management company, or production company. She’d managed to score 14 interviews but had not landed a job or even, in some cases, a second interview. Though she understood that a first job search was likely to take a little time, she wanted help identifying mistakes she could be making that were costing her the job – or at least getting to the next level of the interview process.

This was my response:

Congratulations on getting that many interviews. You must be a networking superstar and/or your resume is fantastic. As an entry level candidate, it’s tough to get interviews so I applaud you. You must be doing something right.

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As a longtime entertainment hiring executive, I take issue with your conclusion that you’re doing something wrong or that the interview didn’t go well. I have filled entry level and just-above-entry level positions hundreds of times. In every case, I have liked several candidates. Here are just a few reasons that have nothing to do with you why you might not have been called back in/gotten the job:

1) They promoted someone from within the company, such as the receptionist, PA or an asst from another department.

2) They hired the temp who was covering the desk during the search.

3) They hired someone who was interning or had interned for the executive/at the company.

4) They decided not to fill the position and instead, to have two people share an asst.

5) The boss got a referral from a contact and did not meet with the candidates HR came up with.

6) The hiring executive met people they simply thought was a better match for the job. I want to reiterate that this does not mean you did anything wrong. They may have thought you’d be bored on a slow desk. They may have thought you wouldn’t work well with the challenging boss.

This may sound discouraging but it really shouldn’t discourage you. Each time you interview, you grow your network and plant one more seed for employment for this job or the next. I have circled back and hired many candidates I thought were wrong for one position or the boss didn’t choose or that otherwise didn’t work out for the original reason I saw them. MANY.

That said, I did write the following post about things you can (I think MUST) do to make yourself stand out from the average candidate: http://yourindustryinsider.com/2011/03/three-things-you-must-say/

If you haven’t been doing what the post says, add those three things to your interview routine and keep plugging away. You will land something soon.

Jenny

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Years ago, I wanted to hire Andew Paskoff before I’d even met him, before he’d even landed in Los Angeles a few years out of college to work in the industry. I did not get the chance and I lost track of him for a while, but thanks to the wonders of social media, we reconnected and he was kind enough recently to fill me in on his career path (hint: his savvy start was followed by many smart moves) and what he’s up to now. Read on to find out more, including why I wanted to hire him all those years ago.

Current position: I am the Vice President of Original Programming, Non-Scripted/Alternative, for Sony Pictures Television Networks, an international cable networks group at Sony Pictures. I oversee original programming and production for reality shows such as “The Amazing Race,” “Top Model,” and “The Apprentice,” being adapted for our local markets outside the U.S.

Hometown:  Massapequa. Long Island, NY.

College & degree:  I went to the University of Miami, in Coral Gables, Florida. It’s a small school and was even smaller then. I graduated with a degree in Film and Psychology. We all had to double major.

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Did you have an internship while you were there?  I interned at a production company in Coral Gables called Worldwide Production Services, which caters to foreign markets. They do a lot of commercials for the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden.  Because of personal relationships that the owner and my boss (Kim Wolf) had, these companies would come over and set up their production through us and we would shoot the commercials all over Miami and South Florida. Some campaigns would go throughout the United States.

It was really great as a 21 or 22 year-old, being exposed to a film crew.  We shot all of our commercials in 16 mm; sometimes 35 mm film. The internship turned into a full-time job after I graduated. It was a great start doing these wonderful commercials. For about a year and a half, I worked with her, and then I moved to Hollywood in 1996.

What was it that made you want to be in entertainment?  What were you specifically aiming for?  I just grew up in front of the television. I remember going outside and having a social life; but, you know, I just was a TV junkie my whole life. I just always wanted to be in this business. I knew from when I was in high school that I wanted to go to film school and be in entertainment. Everyone is touched by that glamour that we all know doesn’t necessarily exist; but there’s still something exciting about this business. Even though it’s tough and competitive and you’ve got to work hard. I just always wanted to be part of it, and so I went to film school. I knew at some point, even as a 20-something, I was going to have to get out to L.A. and be part of that world. So that’s why I ended up here when I was 23.

Okay, this is where I come into the story briefly. [Note: As a hiring executive at a film production company, I received a lot of resumes though the mail. The vast majority would be very by-the-book. Sometimes people would try to be clever and usually end up looking sloppy. Andrew sent something very simple and funny, a mock newspaper interview about why he was moving to L.A., that made a strong positive impression on me. I had an informational interview with him, but someone else hired him before we had the right position open.]  You know, I have to thank my mother. When I was doing my resume as a 23-year old, she said, “Do something that will make you stand out. Don’t send your resume in a white envelope. Send it in a big, colorful envelope.” So I went out and bought a bunch of colors and I did the newspaper article, to make it stand out as different and creative. The reaction I got from you was really wonderful.

You know, it’s a different world out here. I thought I’d be making movies. Everybody graduates film school thinking they’re going to make movies. That’s a nice, ambitious, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed way to think at 23. And then the reality is you need to make ends meet. My first job when I got here was as a post production assistant at Witt/Thomas Productions. At the time, they were making sitcoms. They were famous for “Golden Girls” and “Soap.”  They did “Herman’s Head” and “It’s a Living” and a few others that were really popular in the ’70s and ’80s. And when I was there, they were making a show called “Pearl” for CBS with Rhea Perlman, “Brotherly Love” with Joey Lawrence and his brothers, and “The Larroquette Show,” with John Larroquette working at a bus station.

It was a really nice way to be exposed to the working stages of Hollywood. We had a show on each of the different networks. I was a post production runner and I really ran around this town. I mean, now I put 4,000 or 5,000 miles on my car per year. My first year in Hollywood, I put over 20,000 miles on my car.

Tell us a little bit about your career path from there. Why did you leave Witt/Thomas?  The company scaled back when several of the shows were canceled. Everybody went in a different direction. I got a job at that point as freelance Production Coordinator on a few commercials with a production company that was based out of Raleigh Studios. I was just trying to make ends meet.

From that job, I started doing some small feature films with a friend of a friend out of Miami, who’s a producer. Her name is Maureen Mottley and she’s still making movies around the world. Then, as a freelancer, I’d work maybe six weeks or, if I was lucky, six months. After that, I was looking. I took a lot of gigs working with temp agencies. I’ve had some real doozies. Good and bad. I just wasn’t going to sit around.

I ended up at a longterm gig in circulation at “The Hollywood Reporter.” It was a very basic 9-to-5 job and they wanted to keep me. I thought about it for a moment and I just said to myself, “I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life.” So I told them “no” and moved on. At one point, I even worked at the Gap in the Beverly Center. I was 24 and instead of working on a show, this was what I was doing to make rent. That was a low for me, personally and professionally.

Then I just really got lucky. My friend Maureen hired me for this documentary feature on comedy at the end of the millennium. It was called “The Millennium Project,” and several feature film directors each chose a different topic. It was kind of my crossover into reality and features because we did a lot of interviews and clip licensing, and we put together this 90-minute+ film.

That led me to a production company in the Valley where I started working on different reality shows. The rest is history. I went from job to job; and produced steadily with a few different companies and some producers that I would work with that I’m still friends with. It was the late ’90s. The reality television business was really starting to explode, and I was just working as a Production Manager here in L.A. through 2002. Then I decided to move back to New York.

This was a decision I made with my twin brother who had moved out here with me. My father had passed away in 1999 and my mother was living alone in downtown New York, in the area where the Twin Towers fell, Battery Park. My brother and I just said, “We’ve never lived in New York. Let’s go give it a shot.” We were maybe feeling a little beat up by L.A. at that point. We’d come out here together wanting to write. We did have representation in the late ’90s and early 2000s. We had an agent at Paul Kohner Agency and a bunch of scripts that we wrote were out there for consideration. We were trying to break in as a brother writing team, but had had no break.

So we went back to New York. My brother set us up, found us an apartment. I moved back, and fairly quickly I got a job in New York as a production manager on “Blind Date” and “The Fifth Wheel.” It was perfect timing and they were great for what they were at the time. That was in 2003. It took me from April to December. It was like a great kind of way to jump into the New York market and meet all the New York people doing reality at the time. I worked pretty steady from there, on a ton of different shows. I was working on TLC shows and Discovery shows and then I got into the MTV world through someone who I’m still friends with. The relationships that you build when you’re working with people 12 to 16 hours a day for 8 weeks to longer – those are still so important to me.

I continued to freelance through 2004 and then a friend of mine from L.A. moved to New York, got a job at MTV, and brought me onto one of his shows. One thing led to another and toward the end of 2005 there was an opening for a Line Producer at MTV, a staff position, and I got that job. That’s where my corporate career started. That was really a dream job at the time. MTV’s such a wonderful place. A lot of great people have been through “the MTV factory,” and it’s a great place to work and learn.

I was on staff with them through 2007 and then I decided to move back to L.A. They transferred me to the Los Angeles office and I was with MTV in LA through most of 2008.  In the summer of 2008, somebody I had met at MTV in New York, who was on staff at Sony asked if I was interested in working there. I took that job in September 2008, and I’ve been with Sony ever since, first as Director of Production and then Executive Director. I was most recently promoted to Vice President. And here we are today. It’s been a roller coaster, but a really good one.

It’s interesting talking to people involved in the globalization of media. I interviewed Judith McHale not long ago. She was part of growing MTV outside the US and then, as President and CEO of Discovery Communications, led the growth of that company to a global media conglomerate.  There’s some great programming coming out around the world, whether U.K. formats or Dutch formats or even Sweden now. But the U.S. still has that cachet.

So now that we’ve covered your path, I’m going to ask you a series of questions. Can you give me an example of a “Eureka!” moment you’ve had, where you realized you did or did not want to do something or where you had some kind of shift?  There were definitely a few jobs where I struggled. I remember I did a feature in Death Valley. I think I was promised $700 for the whole project or something ridiculous like that. Ultimately, I didn’t even get paid because the producer was this bad guy. He was ultimately banned from his own set because people just despised him so much. I was working for about two to three weeks on this film. I just felt really alone and kind of icky. I realized maybe working in features wasn’t the place for me. I didn’t jibe well in that world, and so I shifted to television. It was in 1998 or ’99, when reality really started to take off and there were a lot more jobs and I just started feeling more comfortable in television and with the sort of people I was meeting.

So let’s jump a little bit to the deep dark past. What was your worst job or worst day in the entertainment industry?  I would say it was that feature film that I did in the late 90s. There was a line producer who hired me and then she quit the day I started. So I ended up doing everything. Like I said, I was really alone on the feature; me, and a creepy producer and a director who was too big for himself. There was really no one I could turn to for anything, and it was a lot of pressure and stress. That was my worst experience in the industry.

Okay. So, conversely, what was your best job or best day in the entertainment industry?  I did an MTV show in New York in 2004 called “Damage Control.” I was the Production Manager and we did 16 episodes in a very short amount of time. It was a hidden camera show. We would go into people’s homes in cahoots with the parents and/or a best friend and we would outfit the home with 24 to 30 hidden cameras. We cut into the walls and placed cameras behind them and behind mirrors and different artwork and, you know, all over the house except bathrooms.

The parents would set their child up for the weekend and go away, leave the kid at home. We’d have all these different events happen, usually over 24 to 36 hours. It was just such a great experience, meeting all these different people in the tri-state area who wanted to get one over on their kid. We always put the house back the way we found it, but it was a big build-out. We had some celebrity guests like Vanilla Ice and Kelly Clarkson, when she’d just won American Idol. They would just show up at the house, looking for directions to a store or that kind of thing. It was all this fun, pranky stuff and great seeing how the kids would react to all these different scenarios. That was really my entrance into MTV. I had done a few shows, but this was like really being part of the network. It was them getting to know me and me getting to know them. Just the friends that I made and the memories – it was really an incredible experience.

That’s great. Okay, so what’s the best thing about your current job?  The best thing about my current job is the shows. I love the shows that I do. Also, I love that I get to travel. I’ve never been afraid to get on a plane and go somewhere. I never had any kind of fear of just going in there alone and having to find my way to the office and connect with people I’d never met before. I love meeting people, seeing different cultures, trying new food, and seeing how shows are made around the world, which is really both similar but yet different everywhere. So it’s been great.

I’m looking for a brush with greatness. It can be a celebrity encounter or just being exposed to someone being brilliant at what they do.  I’ve had both celebrities and just people I admire. Celebrity wise, Jim Burroughs was the director of the first sitcom I worked on here in L.A. “Pearl.” Just watching him work was really a highlight for me. I’ll never forget it. I admired him so much. He was doing “Will and Grace” and had done “Cheers.”

I’ve worked with some really incredible people. One of my best bosses and somebody I really admire wasn’t a direct boss, he was overseeing the department. His name is Chris Linn and he is now the Executive Vice President of MTV programming and production, overseeing the network and, really all the creative and production operations. He is somebody I still admire and speak to. I always liked working with him because he had this very even temper. He had a really great sense of work/life balance and he always made sure that we all did, too.

Okay, so what’s the one thing that you wish you’d known when you started in the business?  I wish I’d gotten some talent agency experience. I never really had that inside experience, whether it was at a desk or in the mailroom. I just think there are great things to come from that because of the relationships and just how exposed you are to different aspects of the business. So when I talk to people just starting out, I tell them working in an agency is a great way to start.

What do you think makes you good at what you do?  I think the combination of not cracking under pressure, being flexible, liking people, and having the production experience I had before Sony, which was a lot of numbers and schedules and logistics. I really have a knack for budgets and calendars and making it all work together. It works for me.

What advice would you give someone just starting out either in entertainment or on the same path as you? I give people two pieces of advice: One is to try the agency route and the other is to network. This business is all about networking and relationships. I’m seeing it now with friends of mine. When we all started in the business, we didn’t know anybody. Now I have friends who are running networks. They’re presidents of production companies. I never thought I’d know the people at that level. It happens, you know, over time.

Last question: What’s your next move? Where do you see yourself going from here?  I’ve thought a lot about this. I love the international market. I got married in September and my husband works at Mattel. He’s a marketing director on some global brands. So we’ve talked about moving overseas, possibly. We’ve thrown out Asia, Australia and London. We think London is probably a little more realistic for both of us, because we both have good options there. I’d like to continue working there, if we end up relocating to London in the future.

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One of the questions I get most often from students, recent grads, & others outside LA is whether they need to move to LA in order to achieve their goals/dreams in the industry. (The answer is, “It depends.” Maddening to some, I know.)

Following that, there’s a whole barrage of questions about preparing for the move (how much money do I need to save? how do I connect with people there in advance? etc.) and then doing the move, including getting settled, finding a place to live, finding a job, meeting people, making strides toward their dreams, how to deal with being away from family and/or feeling like a big fish in a big pond and/or… ?

So in order to answer all of the questions for everyone, I’m preparing a free webinar called ”The Big LA Move” for late May (look for an official announcement & sign up soon). 

I want to make sure I don’t miss any burning topics (though there will be a Q&A period during the webinar), I need the help of those considering/planning a move and those who have moved in the last 6 years.

There’s a $50 Amazon gift card being raffled off on April 10th for those qualified respondents who fill out the survey and provide their email address.

If you already know you want to attend the free webinar (or get the recording I’ll be sending out afterwards to everyone who registered), make sure you are subscribed to Your Industry Insider here. (You get a 5-part entertainment career kickstart course when you sign up.)

Here are the surveys to choose from:

If you are CONSIDERING or PLANNING TO MOVE TO LOS ANGELES imminently, soon, or “some day.”

If you ALREADY LIVE IN Los Angeles and have moved here within the last SIX years.

Note: The survey is now closed. For more information on the upcoming free webinar, “The Big LA Move — or Not,”  subscribe to Your Industry Insider at the bottom of this page today.

Congratulations to survey-taker Sandra Miska for winning the $50 Amazon Gift Card we raffled off yesterday! Thanks, too, to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey!

Last weekend at the Boston University in Los Angeles Graduate Symposium, I gave a presentation on creating a career strategy and getting a job in the entertainment industry. I always enjoy talking to groups about this topic, sharing the experience of my 15+ years as a hiring executive, my 20+ years total in the entertainment industry, and it’s especially satisfying to present to students from my alma mater.

When I speak to students, recent grads, or other newcomers to the entertainment industry, I like to hear what advice they’ve been getting from other sources. One of the students told me he was told (by his parents) to “cast a wide net.”

You’ve probably heard this nugget – maybe given or gotten it yourself. It sounds good for someone just starting out in a new field. After all, when you don’t have any experience in a field, how can you afford to be picky?  You can’t blame a parent for wanting to get the son or daughter off their payroll and onto someone else’s quickly.

Considering/planning to take the plunge and move to Los Angeles to start or continue YOUR entertainment career? Sign up for a free webinar on June 4th, “The Big LA Move – or Not” to help you with all the questions about deciding to move (do I need to? should I? when?), planning the move (budgeting, scheduling, everything you can do before you go & one surprising thing you can’t do), and making the move (finding a place to live, finding a job, getting connected, starting to pursue your dreams). Sign up here.

In the afternoon, similar guidance was given to the students by a panelist, a TV writer, who told them emphatically to, “Get a job. Any job! It’s better to be on the inside than on the outside, no matter what the job is!” I bristled a bit at the tone. I pictured these students post-graduation panicked, resumes in hand, like they were playing some new version of “Duck Duck Goose,” running around trying to find an empty chair, any empty chair, to sit down in.

This is not, I repeat not, a good way to enter any new field – or conduct any job hunt.

The implication in the “wide net” advice is that when you have no professional experience, you are equally qualified for and capable of doing any entry-level job in your new field, since all entry level positions require no previous professional experience. So, if that is true, the more resumes and cover letters you send out, the more likely you will be to land a job. The quicker you will do so.

However, job hunting is not primarily a numbers game; it’s primarily a marketing game. Career building is about “fit.” If you want to be personally satisfied and professionally successful, you want to follow a path (built job-by-job) that suits your unique qualities and skills. Even from the beginning.

Recruiters and hiring executives don’t know how many resumes you sent out. You don’t hit a magic number and – presto! – you are hired. In fact, they can often tell if they are part of a mass mailing by a resume that looks like it was written for some other job or the generic wording of a cover letter.

I can’t tell you how many cover letters I’ve gotten that reference some other company or interest in a position I am not hiring for. Even if the documents are otherwise well-written and error-free, I won’t contact those candidates.

A job hunt IS a job. How you conduct your job hunt shows me what kind of worker you will be and even how much you want the particular job I am looking to fill. Not enough to customize the letter and proofread it before you send it out?  Pass.

Lesson to take away from that:  Playing the numbers game can hurt your chances of being hired.

Though entry level positions require no previous paid professional experience, the people doing the hiring, if they know what they are doing, are not just randomly looking for a decent-looking resume with the right addressee and right position referenced, they are looking for someone who will be the right fit for the job.

As a newbie to the entertainment industry, you bring with you skills and qualities from the field you were in before you decided entertainment was for you, and even from before you graduated from college. You had jobs while in school. You volunteered. You even had school projects that could demonstrate that you are the right fit for the job.

The example I gave to the BU students was for the job of production assistant on a set. The qualifications are being hard working, personable, calm under pressure, and able to multitask. Most of the BU students had this set of experience because of all the student films they work on, but regardless, other experience in their backgrounds would also demonstrate a fit.

Summers spent working as an elementary school camp counselor show that you are hardworking, personable, calm under pressure and likely an excellent multitasker. Ditto, time waiting tables at a busy restaurant or working the customer service desk at Sears. Volunteer work and school projects described in the right way can also demonstrate a fit for the job.

You are more likely to get hired from sending out five pristine resume / cover letter submissions custom-tailored to the job being filled than sending 50 generic resume / cover letter submissions using a mail merge program.

Yes, there are times when finding a job – any job – is necessary.

You are out of money and/or being unemployed is too much of a drain on your energy and your morale. You have been looking but haven’t landed anything and you are desperate. Ideally you should stick with jobs that seem like the best fit – just find more of them and work your network so those opportunities come to you quicker and your submission makes it to the top of the pile.

Even if you feel you have to “Get a job. Any Job” in order to get paid as soon as possible, that doesn’t make it a numbers game. It is still a marketing game. You must still target your resume and cover letter to each type of job you are applying for. Sounds like a lot of work when you are talking 20, 50 or even 100+ submissions, but there is a technique that can streamline the process.

Categorize the jobs by what type of background or qualifications they are looking for and tailor a resume and cover letter set to each general category. Office jobs in one category, on-set jobs in another, technical jobs in another, etc.  Use the right resume and cover letter set for all jobs within each category and customize the cover letter to make sure the person reviewing it knows you are a careful person and you want the job enough to take the time to do so. You will have a job in no time.

That’s right: The correct answer is wide net AND narrow focus.

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A prominent film and television program quotes the statistic to their writing program grads that it will take an average of ten years to get a foothold in their chosen entertainment career.

How many years are you willing to give it?
Television executive/producer Deborah Spera’s #1 piece of advice for people who come to her about wanting to work in the industry is to learn to love the word no. “You will hear it a lot,” she tells them.

Considering/planning to take the plunge and move to Los Angeles to start or continue YOUR entertainment career? Sign up for a free webinar on June 4th, “The Big LA Move – or Not” to help you with all the questions about deciding to move (do I need to? should I? when?), planning the move (budgeting, scheduling, everything you can do before you go & one surprising thing you can’t do), and making the move (finding a place to live, finding a job, getting connected, starting to pursue your dreams). Sign up here.

How many nos will you be able to endure before your first meaningful yes? Between every subsequent meaningful yes?

It’s been reported that the average yearly income from acting of a SAG-Aftra member is $5,000.

How many years of making that little money from your dream job would you put in before you’d decide to devote yourself wholly to something else?

There are no right answers to these questions. But knowing what you are up against going in – or early on – might help you make a plan for the long haul or a Plan B for the “what if it doesn’t happen?” On the other hand, a good portion of people who read this post will think, “That’s not me.” Just like the writing program grads and the people who come to Deb for guidance and the newly-minted SAG-Aftra members. Sometimes a good dose of denial is what it takes to get onto a high-degree-of-difficulty career path. But having a strategy, a time limit, or a parallel career path doesn’t make you uncommitted. It makes you smart.

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Who are the movers and shakers of the entertainment industry? You might (or might not) know their names, but you know they make things happen. And, you wonder how they got to be players in the first place, and what exactly they do that is so powerful.

Below are the four types of power players. By the time you hear of them, they have probably become a hybrid of more than one, but for the purposes of your career, you can focus on becoming known as one type and once you get a foothold there, you will naturally grow in other areas.

Financier

If you come from money (or come to the industry with money you’ve accumulated somewhere else), this is an easy IN. Everyone needs money to get their projects made. Come to the table with a pile of cash and the industry will be lining up to help you spend it. The trick here is to find the right people with the right projects to spend it on.

Examples:  Film Producer/Executive Producer and head of River Road Entertainment Bill Pohlad (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, INTO THE WILD, THE TREE OF LIFE), son of billionaire banker and businessman Carl Pohlad; Film Producer/Executive Producer Eli Samaha (BATTLEFIELD EARTH, THE WHOLE NINE YARDS, VAN WILDER 2), who made his money with a dry cleaning chain and nightclubs in LA before transitioning into film production

Natural job:  Producer/Executive producer for film, new media mogul

Takeaway:  If you have a pile of cash and want to be in the entertainment industry, find yourself a Connector with proven credibility and have them hook you up with the right collaborators. If you don’t know a Connector, find an Influencer and ask them who you should talk to.

Considering/planning to take the plunge and move to Los Angeles to start or continue YOUR entertainment career? Sign up for a free webinar on June 4th, “The Big LA Move – or Not” to help you with all the questions about deciding to move (do I need to? should I? when?), planning the move (budgeting, scheduling, everything you can do before you go & one surprising thing you can’t do), and making the move (finding a place to live, finding a job, getting connected, starting to pursue your dreams). Sign up here.

Doer

You know these people in your own life. They are the opposite of a Talker. A Talker always has grand plans. “You know what we should do?” they always say. Their ideas are good. The trouble is, the Talker just has ideas. The Doers says, “You know what we should do?” and the next time you talk to them, they have plan. And, if you don’t get back to them right away, by the time you do, they’ve done it without you, whatever it was.

Examples:  Jared Hess, co-writer and director of NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE, based on a short film he made in school; Writer/Director/Producer J.J. Abrams, who shot his own movies starting in early childhood.

Natural job fit:  Independent Producer, Director, Writer, any creative position really.

Takeaway:  Are you the one who’s always coming up with great ideas and then executing them? Or, making other people’s visions a reality? You are a doer. Keep doing, keep doing. The Connectors, the Influencer, and even the Financiers will be naturally drawn to you. Without you, nothing gets done.

Connector

These are people who know how to network, who within five minutes of meeting an interesting person is saying, “You know who you should meet?” Sometimes, Connectors create projects or make deals with the people they assemble. Sometimes Connectors just put people together and let them create projects or deals (or date or play tennis – Connectors connect people for all sorts of reasons) on their own. But, regardless, Connectors are valuable and become more powerful as their network of contacts grows.

Examples:  Superagent Ari Gold from “Entourage” and his real-life role model, Ari Emanuel.

Natural job fit:  Studio production executives, agents, managers

Takeaway:  You know you are a Connector if the dotted line of how people met always goes back to you. If you are going to make being a Connector your focus, the trick is to either keep yourself actively in the mix on whatever project comes of the connection so you can get a cut or (screen?) credit – or at least be able point to the fruits of your connecting as a way of giving yourself credibility as a power player. (“Yeah, I introduced Jen and Justin,” is a great shorthand for “I am at the epicenter of Hollywood).

Influencer

These people have expertise in an area. They know network television scheduling, film budgeting, marketing, or even non-work-related subjects, such as who the best trainer is, or a wine you just have to try. Knowledge is the source of the Influencer’s power and true Influencers have knowledge across multiple areas. They collect it, much like Connectors collect people. People listen to Influencers. So if you can get on their radar – or get their approval for whatever your objective is (being the go-to Pilates instructor, or getting a particular time slot for your TV show or approval for your project’s budget, etc), you have power by association. The trick is that true Influencers know their stuff. So if your show doesn’t work as a lead in to “Two and a Half Men” or your budget falls short for what the script demands, the Influencer isn’t going to back you.

Examples: Preston Beckman, NBC’s legendary scheduling guru during the “Must See TV” era of dominance; Stephen Spielberg’s longtime film publicist Martin Levy

Natural job fit: Any position where research and results have a place, such as network scheduler, film studio marketing executive, production accountant or financial analyst.

Takeaway: If you are a good student and like to be in the know, this type of power is where you should focus first.

As mentioned in the opening, if you start with your best fit and establish yourself there, you will eventually accumulate more sources of power. When you are the go-to for sought-after expertise as an Influencer, you will naturally accumulate a great network and become a Connector, too. The reverse is of course, also true. If you do well as a “Doer,” you will likely have the opportunity to also become a Financier. And so on. Power grows exponentially as you develop your entertainment career, so if you haven’t already, get in and start financing, doing, connecting, and influencing. You might hit the jackpot and become all four!

Photo by ZagatBuzz.

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