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<p>I so agree, DIgmedia – and as your S’s experience demonstrates beautifully, that can be a group from another college across the country, too, when a group of them moves to L.A. after a strong undergraduate experience and SKILLS to offer. </p>
<p>And this is nothing new about L.A. Where I now live (Buffalo), I’m told of a native Buffalo-born network of production and crew members that’s been living and working in L.A. for several generations, including Frank Mancuso and others. They’ll watch out for each other similarly (or so I’m told).</p>
<p>I think people should take note of this idea if they are students now in film programs across the nation. Upon graduation, you should just rent a U-Haul and move ALL your filmmaking buddies to L.A. </p>
<p>Clearly, it’s too early to know what any of our sons/daughters in their 20’s will generate, but I find it encouraging to know how digmedia and madbean regard this issue of Networking.</p>
<p>That said, there are also a handful of students in some of these undergraduate programs with astonishing last names and well-greased film/TV industry connections already. Actually they have to work not to get “hit on” by classmates throughout their four years and develop strategies around avoiding just that. Those related to well-placed people surely have an advantage. My impression is they can get a few moments with a high placed executive, but then what?</p>
<p>Anyway, one works with what one has. Talent, hard work, contacts (peer) and luck is the formula I think about these days, but the student can only create the first three. Perhaps the first 3 will generate the fourth, or as the Chinese say, “you make your own luck.”</p>