My Advice

Dear Those Who Feels Lost,

(Old age getting to this grandma, totally forgot about this).

My advice is not to ask for advice. Obviously when it comes to your work of art you should ask to make sure that you aren't the only one who likes and understands it.

Networking is a good place to meet people, make some contacts and stalk them - see what they do and what they can do for you - so why are you interviewing them? During my first Film & TV training I remember being "advised" (more like told) to ask people how they got into the industry, their backgrounds and films they like to watch since they work in that industry their passion and interest will be watching films. Being very unknowledgeable about networking, I asked away only to find that the conversation went nowhere - industry professionals do not appreciate being interviewed.

I got a bit smart and floated about listening to other people's conversations - engaged and laughed when they did. They included me into their conversations. So what did these people talk about? Everything apart from films and work. I then realised that the Film & TV industry isn't any different or unique than any other industry. Some people forget that it's the people who shapes the industry and not the other way around. Not everyone will spend an entire dinner talking about what they do.

Being stuck with only dipping my toe nail into the industry, I really wanted to know how to get in, just an aim of 3 jobs per year where each lasting at least 2 weeks. Stumped. I had no idea. I started changing my questions to, "what are your views of having someone shadow you or trainees?" Quite interesting as it seems to be dependent on the job and I did find the minority who hated it as it compromised their quality of work. I wanted more experience and how was I going to do this? I applied for another training scheme and got in.

From the scheme, we got to hear a talk from a working Line Producer and his friends from different departments. Things became more realistic. There was a common theme which a lot of the other trainees didn't seem to realise as they still asked the same question, "what do you think if..." and "how did you get into the industry?" The Line Producer didn't see the point in sharing his employment history as the industry and opportunities back then were completely different - the information isn't viable to us. He also mentioned that he can't tell us what to do because at the end of your day it's your judgement call if you think that working for free for 2 weeks is going to get you somewhere then do it. However, he did say that asking for free services and offering free services is damaging the industry as new talents are not getting appreciated.

A dear friend did blog that if people are finding difficulty in finding work it means the conventional way is no longer working. People once thought the Boom Box was the best way to listen to music without watching the TV but now we have iPhones. Looking back is always easy than looking forward because it requires creativity, new thinking, analysis, risk-taking, etc.,

Just some of my thoughts.