About Film Jobs
.
Film Job is a site about film jobs and is dedicated to explaining the film industry and film production to prospective film workers particularly those who have not worked on films before or are new to this career. Discussions will include TV jobs but the primary aim is discussion of film for cinema. It also covers employment in related industry like advertising and television since all of these employ film techniques and crew protocols and have a similar production pipeline.
THE SITE
Information is divided into the categories you see on the top menu bar;
About ‘Film Job’:
The site; you are here now reading.
Film Production:
This area aims to cover how a film is put together, the different relationships between the people who work on a film and the day-to-day workplace culture within the film industry. The area focuses on the larger issues and groupings that influence film creation and production rather than the individual roles, such as the politics between departments within a ’shoot’. It will also discuss film schools and production companies.
Film Jobs & Departments:
This section covers each job and discusses its individual merits and challenges, the relationships between jobs and the pathways for career development. Jobs are located within their respective departments and the departments are also looked at; such as lighting, editing, camera, art, production, post production.
Television:
Whilst the site approaches film from the perspective of ‘cinema’, that is making feature films, most of the discussions will have close relevance to TV and industries that utilise film such as games and advertising. This section will develop and study the differences found in television employment from that of film jobs.
Users Blog:
Here site users and industry professionals discuss film and working within the industry.
Making Films
About the writers and contributors to this site.
The primary author of this site has worked extensively in the Film Industry over the last ten years, particularly in the Art Department and is able to draw on extensive personal and professional contacts in sourcing material about film jobs. Having worked on such films as The Matrix : Reloaded and Revolutions, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, The Last Samurai, Waterhorse and King Kong as well as a number of smaller films including award winning 48 Hour film competition films.
THE MOVIES
Movies! It really is great working on movies, I am calling them movies because ‘film’ has connotations of the medium, the strip of film upon which the movie was made prior to that advent of digital cameras. But also because ‘movie’ by contrast emphasizes what once was the unique aspect of of the art, the fact that the images move. This is a key aspect of film jobs, how movement is managed and captured, it’s what creates the magic and the challenge of the job. Movement is a characteristic that connects movies and the film profession to other fields, such as computer games, this is why the game industry utilizes techniques and job descriptions that are similar to film – art directors, camera positions, lighting and so on.
More on all that later, here I just want to say if you intend to work in the movie business be it producing or as a painter this is what you can expect. For certain the hours are longer that most jobs but between contracts you often get longer breaks than most employees get once a year. You need to be dedicated! But then who else gets to design or build a spaceship one year and a medieval castle the next? Or if you are on set, you might be part of a team in studio coaxing a great performance from Gollum on Tuesday and at the top of a snowy mountain the next week. Every job is different, and frequently the people are too.
Key skills for film makers actually include a passion for movies, how good is this?! In some countries you can even get a tax rebate for movie tickets because watching films counts as a professional expense crucial to keeping abreast of the competition, and up to date with ideas and techniques being used elsewhere in the industry. Other than the basic practical skills required for you job area personal amicability is highly valued. When working long hours and in stressful situations nobody enjoys working with a ‘winger’ or ‘moaner’, this is particularly true of film jobs. You need to me energetic and enjoyable to be around and ‘easy going’, yet able to focus and give it everything you have when the time counts. Because film work is typically contract based this means you are always looking for work and there is no guarantee that you will be hired on the next job. For example an Art Director may be faced with choosing between two equally capable people because this film is a smaller production than the one they all worked on the month before. Who will he choose? Most likely the person who is more enjoyable to be around, is less demanding and does not complain
With that said, if this sounds like you then delve into the site and find some more useful career tips and advice on film jobs.
