<p>we have heard about the lucky few who graduate from MFA film schools and get scripts sold, get picked by studios to direct movies, who become showrunners, etc.
BUT I wanted to know about the ones we don't hear about. Out of a typical graduating class, how many students actually go on to direct and write big movies? What do the others do?</p>
<p>lgb93: From what I can see, just based on my son’s experience and watching his college friends and industry friends, I summed it up in this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1319259-above-line-below-line-jobs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1319259-above-line-below-line-jobs.html</a></p>
<p>It APPEARS (micro-view) that the directors and screenwriters have a very hard time getting to do what they wanted. Those with technical industry skills seem to have much better luck, given that they take total initiative into their own hands and make things happen. Of the dozen or so of my son’s college friends, at least eleven are on IMDB and seem to be getting work. Some are very successful. The one director/screenwriter is the most underemployed, but is still finding work (Below-the-line) on various films and TV shows.</p>
<p>It’s hard, but there are probably more opportunities now than ever before. But this is not the industry where you graduate, send out resumes/film scripts, and wait for job offers. And it never hurts to pick up some technical/business/general skills as well.</p>
<p>Well I’m an economics major with a CS minor so I don’t know, but I’ll ask my butler next time I see him.</p>
<p>^lol, that’s adorable!</p>
<p>From what I can see as the parent of just one film grad:</p>
<p>Some graduates who majored in directing or screenwriting (ATL) get lowpaid work as Production Assistants on films, but with schedules of 12-14 hours on set and their own domestic lives to maintain, they find it hard to pursue their own projects. There is no “spare time.” It’s entirely different from college life. The most hardworking, eager PA’s can rise hierarchically upwards on set into more responsibility writing or directing small parts of scenes, after a few years (NOT a few weeks or months) tp gain trust and contacts. Sometimes there’s crossover into TV.</p>
<p>Other grads take the jobs you imagine - waiting tables, working in bookstores - but need to be diligent and keep up their peer contacts from school to keep abreast of the industry. Their goal is to work survival jobs for rent, so they have maximum spare time to work on film type projects. They also have to endure the sneers of some who think they’ve failed because they’re waiting tables with a college degree (they haven’t failed, so if they sneer back, that’s why). </p>
<p>Others go home to work in their parent’s business selling widgets forever, but had the joy of majoring in film production. As future investors in film, with a college degree and understanding of all it takes to assemble a film, those graduates are also involved, but differently.</p>
<p>To keep traction after graduation requires core inner strength, and moral support/leads/contacts from peers placed elsewhere in the industry-- but some have just that. Personally I believe it takes a good 10 years of dues-paying in some form, in any creative industry. Parents who look at new or recent graduates with a one-year calendar in hand and anxious eyes on their wristwatch are not being fair to the situation. Give it time.</p>
<p>Glad you realized i was kidding. I was worried I’d get the lecture.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions, that was a great answer with a lot of real wisdom on starting a career in film or other arts. Persistence and resilience are two qualities that rank high on the list of needs for those who are following this path. It is not overnight. You have got to like the risk, the sudden opportunities, and the serendipity, while having great tolerance for the dips, the lulls, and the letdowns.</p>
<p>p3t: Brilliant! Thanks.</p>