[Mike Cohen]

Mark makes some excellent points. It seems that college and/or high school advisors do not address the real world use of a degree.

Here are my thoughts:

1. Learn your desired craft, become as expert as you can at your young age.
2. Learn the aesthetic side.
3. Most importantly, become well rounded. Take some arts classes, literature and business classes.

As for jobs you may get with your film degree in hand – it will vary. If you are good at networking, as others have suggested, you may get yourself a few good internships and who knows, maybe a decent job.

However be prepared to do some grunt work for a few or more than a few years in order to attain whatever your goal is.

A friend of the family’s son got a job during film school as a page on Letterman. After college he got into the DGA apprentic program. 10 years later he was AD on the Sopranos and Law and Order. This is probably atypical, but if your goal is feature or TV work, you need to do anything and everything to get the experience and contacts you need.

It is hard work getting work. Good luck.

Finally, if you listen to the great podcasts from Creative Screenwriting Magazine, you learn that many successful writers and directors have degrees in fine arts, English or history. Don’t get too hung up on the best school – aside from the prestige and networking opportunities, you don’t necessarily get a job because you went to XYZ university. I have employed a few film school grads who have been quite intelligent and well-read, but who have no technical knowledge to speak of. You can learn technical skills on the job – learning to be a well-rounded person on the job is not so easy, and in my opinion, the more important quality to look for.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

I have found the CS 3 H.264 YouTube setting to create inferior videos. Instead I used h.264 DV and it produced a really nice looking file, and when uploaded to YouTube it looks pretty nice (for YouTube of course)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=d0-YND1F4cs

[Mike Cohen]

here is another version – I remember this one from school

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsOeLcUARw

[Mike Cohen]

money…lots of money.

Depending upon your audience, you may be able to accomplish this with a dissolve sequence. Find appropriate still photos at a large enough size and zoom out from the center of each, dissolving from the end of one to the next. You could shoot video of actual eyeballs for the beginning and end.
After effects may help, as programs like Premiere tend to choke on really large images.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

Are you already living on your own, needing to support yourself, for whatever reason?

If so, you need to find a way to put some money in the bank, and to take some college level classes.
Perhaps take a business writing or marketing class at your local community college.
While you may think you have killer video skills, the unpaid internships suggested by others are normally what people your age do to learn just what they actually need to know to make it in the “biz.”.

If going to school full time, or even a semester at a time is not an option, then maybe you should get a job to support yourself. Living gig to gig when you are not an established name in your area sounds a bit dicey.

Craigslist is a good place for the occasional gig, but one should not rely upon that for steady work (video work anyway!)

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

We have a client (let’s call them Company A) who has given us steady work for many years. Last year, after one particular project had endless revisions, and we billed them for the overages, they sent us this e-mail:

“Thanks. We will decide shortly whether or not we will use your team for future work.”

Their solution? They are having their in-house person, (who no offense to people who wear many hats, is probably their designer who has a Mac and obviously can cut video using iMovie,) so why would they need to hire an outside firm for this?

Perhaps they think their customers like star-wipes and lots of scrolling titles!

The funny thing is, this is a fairly big company, but nickel and diming happens everywhere.

I have a related story, kind of the reverse of swinging customers. Call it “sleeping with the enemy”.

The above mentioned company sent us a video with a note saying

“we have acquired a copy of our competitor’s video. We’d like our next video to be exactly like this.”

Little did my client know that we also shot their competitor’s video, so they sent me my own work to copy!

Later in the year it was announced that company A will now be distributing Company’s B’s product, and do we have video shot for Company B which company A could use? That’s up to company B, since their contract stated that they own the rights to the video.

What goes around comes around.

Mike Cohen

[Mike Cohen]

I for one will be growing all my own food this year, powering my house with a proprietary perpetual motion machine I bought from a Chinese company, and despite my condo association’s strict rules, I am raising cattle in my garage. Oh, and compact flourescent bulbs!

Seriously, we have weathered the 2001 recession and ones before that. Cross your fingers and keep working hard to generate business and keep clients happy.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

We tried this on two occasions. It can take a year to develop good contacts for big ticket productions, so the commission only guys did not last long enough to develop those projects.
It really depends upon your market.
You may consider hiring a producer with sales or marketing experience who can take his or her sales through production.
Mike

[Mike Cohen]

It is true that statistics are part of marketing.

I guess there are two approaches – you are marketing to potential clients who do not know they need a video – or you are marketing to potential clients who know they need a video, they just do not have a vendor yet.

The former needs to be convinced video is the way to go, the latter needs a good sales pitch on the quality of your services.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

My rationale for not using Windows Media (streaming anyway) comes from corporate IT departments blocking streaming video on their firewalls.
I guess it depends upon the type of clients you have.
Ad agencies certainly will have fewer technical limitations.

Mike