Career Tips

These are some tips, tricks and clues to getting into the business from a standing start.

VOLUNTEER & WORK IN TEAMS

The best approach to a career in this business is to volunteer or otherwise start at the bottom and work your way up – there are no short cuts. (see below QPIX Volunteer Attachments etc)
Always repay gifts of gear, skills and time – give your labour and your time until you can afford cash.
Filmmaking is teamwork, so learning to work in harmony with others is a career deal-breaker.

STUDY THE MARKETS & LEARN FROM AUDIENCES

You have the talent – study what shows on TV, what makes it to the screen in cinemas, and what you have heard is making money in the digital world (like Apps for example), then make that. This is exactly what Reg Grundy (Neighbours, Home & Away etc) did all those years ago when he invented format television and made his billions.
Making films for yourself instead of an audience is just gazing at a mirror in the dark.
Everyone in the audience is a seasoned detective – they can get the clues even before you do so don’t try to trick them or patronise them.
The more audience feedback you get (and act on) the more your work will improve.

MAKE PRODUCT

Production is the most direct way of developing your aesthetic & skills and gaining career traction.
We all have 7 bad films in us – get them out of the way as soon as possible – Rodriguez.

CONDUCT YOURSELF PROFESSIONALLY

There are 2 kinds of filmmakers – diplomats & bullies – who wants to work twice with a bully.
There are 2 kinds of filmmakers – those who make phone calls, & those who wait for them.
Respect is everything.

KEEP LEARNING

Once you finish your education in filmmaking, you have to start trying to get into the business – that is when you start learning.
Once you start learning, always take time to keep learning and building your skills – get enrolled in ongoing masterclasses, industrially focused training and so on.
Step outside your comfort zone and start training in business and commercial skills, including bookkeeping. Filmmaking will be a small business for you for many years to come – master it.
Those filmmakers who don’t engage with feedback or advice fail.

NETWORK, & WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, PITCH

Get out more – go to the gigs, enjoy yourself and chat to people – people call it work just to intimidate you – it really can be enjoyable, but is also works
Get a business card made up and always carry it, but don’t overdo it – everyone else wants to relax a little too.
If you want to start telling people about your projects (“pitching”), just make sure it is brief and punchy – no detail – and don’t really tell the story, more the feeling of the story, or the area of the story – keep your best material for a later one-on-one.
Be passionate and delighted in your ideas, but stay modest, always listen hard, take an interest in others, and try to learn good timing. This used to be called good manners – it still is.
Join QPIX and get involved in our productions, masterclasses, Pitch courses and industry functions and events.

GETTING YOUR FIRST MONEY

DON’T FORGET THE ART

Filmmaking is an industrial art form – start (and finish) with the art, but stay smart – you need a lot of money to do it and so it needs to make a lot more money.
Save your “heart” projects up for when you have the power to get the money for them.

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