PRACTICAL DV FILMMAKING

Practical DV FilmMaking

• Overview
• Inside video
• Films and how they work
• Pre-production
• Production tools
• Production aesthetics
• Post-production tools
• Post-production aesthetics
• Careers and distribution
• Mapping the industry
• Glossary of film and video terms

Careers and distribution

What's a career?

To many people, the idea of a career is something that you have for life - you move onwards and upwards towards greater financial and employment security. In the film industry, however, this doesn't fit. A career in films means a series of jobs, each of them starting and ending with periods of no job in between a mix of employment and self-employment. But it is possible to aim for a situation where you successfully earn a living in films, linking together various skills you have and forming a coherent plan. With this plan you can make the best of your individual talents and where they can be used - all of which will help allow you to make your own films too.

If we use the term career loosely, the closest analogy is probably rock climbing. Forging a career in film is similar in that you know roughly where you want to go - up - and you know the skills to get you there. But each step can be gruelling and challenging because you have to make your own mark and find your own footholds for yourself. So, although the overall route may be clear, the small steps you make along this path may not be easy.

In essence, then, the film industry makes no effort to help prospective entrants into it, despite the seem­ingly ubiquitous nature of the moving image and the huge industry infrastructure in some territories where jobs are more common. In most places it is up to the individual to adopt an attitude of self-reliance, focus and persistence.

On the other hand, of course, all this talk of making it to the top gives the impression that it is an 'all or nothing' industry where you either become a star or you sink. The key to being successful in this indus­try is in realizing that there are many other levels to it, that opportunities exist right across the industry at every point, from no-budget right up to large features. If you are willing to multiply the possible aims you have - rather than relying on just one, such as making features - then the chances of your succeed­ing increase.

In practice: case studies

To get more realistic about what kinds of routes we are talking about here, let's home in on some prac­titioners who are managing to do what they enjoy and work towards a better future position. All are at the start of their careers, developing skills but also trying to figure out exactly what it is they can offer and where their strengths lie. Names and companies have been changed.