How You Start Your Career in The Film Industry Starting From Scratch
A lot of people think working in film means getting “a job,” like working at a store or an office. But in the film industry, a job is just one day on set.
To have a real career, you have to keep getting hired for new shoots over and over—hundreds of times!
I have been on thousands of shoots over 30 years, and made well over $10,000,000 on those shoots. You can too over time—and even surpass me.
The film industry is freelance. That means you don’t have just one job with a boss who pays you every week. Instead, you get hired for each film shoot individually. You book a shoot, do your work, get paid, and then move on to the next one.
When you start working on film sets, you begin with simple jobs to learn how everything works. Each time you work, you get better and gain more experience. As you learn and show you can handle more responsibility, you get hired for bigger jobs with better pay. As you can handle more, you move up the ladder.
The cool thing about the film industry is that no one is keeping track of how long you’ve worked or deciding when you get promoted. Since it’s freelance, you move up based on the people you meet and the work you do. The more people you know and work with, the more jobs you’ll get.
In the film industry, when someone needs help on set, they have a list of people to call. If you’re their “first call,” that means they’ll call you first and offer you the job. If you’re not available, they move to the next person on their list.
That’s why I always say, “Your career is your connections.”
What is a craft?
Every job on set is a craft, like acting, directing, producing, writing, cinematography, sound, costume design, and set design.
A craft is a job that you get really good at by practicing it over and over in different situations. In film, you don’t just learn a craft in a classroom—you have to do it on real sets, under pressure, again and again, in different scenes and situations. That’s why it’s called a craft: it takes many years of doing the job on film sets, to be smooth and experienced.
Many people think you have to go to school to study a craft. You can, but it can get you into debt, and it won’t matter to people in the film industry that you got a degree in film or studied the craft in a class. You have to learn it on sets.
Everyone learned by doing on film sets.
They didn’t learn it in school.
The famous director I just worked with? Worked on film sets as a PA in Norway.
Ask everyone on sets, did you learn your job in a class? Or from working on sets?
Everyone will tell you they learned everything on set. Everything!
People on set will teach you, giving you small tasks and you can learn by doing.
That’s how they learned too—and it’s also how they met everyone who hires them today!
So it does two things, you learn and you meet everybody who hires you for the rest of your career.
Working on set gives you 1. professional set experience or 2. the connections from working alongside pros who keep hiring you.
Classes and school do not give you these 2 most important things.
You start learning your craft by working alongside people on sets in entry-level roles. You help them out setting up scenes, breaking down the set, having lunch together, asking questions, and lots of observing.
You get to know each other through working together. If they like working with you, they’ll put you on their list and hire you for more shoots.
It’s not only that you learn your craft by working with experienced people, but it’s really about the relationships you are forming as you’re learning. These are the people who will hire and refer you jobs throughout your entire career. And you’re only going to meet them on professional sets.
If you don’t have this learning on set, you’ll never know the job well enough to do it professionally. You can’t learn it on student films or doing videography.
And if you don’t have the time spent with people in the trenches, you won’t ever have enough people knowing you and calling you for work so you can do that job consistently as a career.
This is why you must learn the craft, not at school, but on professional sets from the very beginning. That’s how I learned my craft! I’ve never taken a single class in film.
Not only do you learn by doing on set, but that’s also how you meet everyone who hires you for your craft in the future!
When you start working on film sets, you’ll get to see all the different jobs in action. You might not know right now which one is right for you, but that’s okay! Watching people do their jobs and asking them questions will help you figure out what job or jobs are a fit for you.
Asking questions on set is also how you find your mentors!
I would be on set and ask the camera guy, “How do you set up the camera? Why are we putting this light there? What else needs to be done to be ready to shoot?” And they’d teach me all the important things. And they appreciated that I was asking! They’d put me on their list for future shoots!
Look at the chart below to see the different jobs on set and what work style you have to determine what you might love to do on set. You might have an idea of what you want to do but this chart can help you see if the job is really your working style.
If you are an actor, singer, or stunt person, you can do any of these jobs on set, which will get you on more sets. And then you can also get acting opportunities from being there on set.
The point is to be on sets consistently so you get to live that great film lifestyle.
You might see yourself in more than one of those categories. That’s fine! Many people do several jobs!
In fact, many of the people you admire, they act, direct, write and they may have done other jobs like stunt coordinating or casting or producing.
So if you’re an actor, singer, or stunt person you want to be on sets consistently so you can find more opportunities.
If you’re only on set when you audition and land that acting or VOjob, you’re not on set very much. And the point is have a great life and to find opportunities to act, sing, and dance from being on sets.
Maybe you love the energy of the camera crew, and that fits your dream of being a director. Or maybe you’ve always wanted to act, and you also want to do another job so you are on set all the time. You don’t’ want that survival job, you want to be on set.
The most important thing is finding a job that gives you a great life. There are so many different jobs in film, and plenty of them can lead to an exciting, fulfilling career!
You’ll start in simpler, lower-end jobs, build your experience and get referred to higher paying and more complex jobs over time.
Here’s the career path for successful filmmakers and actors:
- Use entry-level jobs to meet people.
- Let people know what you want to do.
- Get opportunities to help out so you can start getting more “hands on” experience doing that job.
- Keep doing that job on as many sets as you can & expand into more complex and higher-paying shoots!
What’s next?
I’m sure you’ve still got lots of questions, but there’ll be plenty of opportunities for those to be answered.
The next chapter: How to prepare for set so you look like a rockstar and not a rock. (Like I did when I started out!) You don’t want to miss this one. :-)
See you there! Feel free to email me at janet@friendsinfilm.com if you have questions or want to tell me something!
Janet
