Over the last few weeks, since I got back from screening my film in Beijing, I’ve had conversations with three different editors, all of whom have been out of work for at least four months. One of them, a really good editor who has worked on some top films, has been out of work since June with no real possibility of anything until after the start of the New Year.  Even if he gets work the second day of January 2009, that will still be seven months with no employment.Needless to say, he’s freaked.Years ago, when Alan Heim was hired onto AMERICAN  HISTORY X, I remember wondering out loud to him how I could be expected to find work if editors with his track record (LENNY, ALL THAT JAZZ) were playing in my sandbox. It seems to me that that question still exists today.For those of you who are interested in becoming editors of most product, you should know that you are getting into a freelance business. You’ll be working from one project to the next, rarely for the same employer. When I was editing feature films full time, it was a joke around tax times — I had more W-2 tax reporting forms than any of my friends. Production people, who generally work for shorter periods of time, had it even worse. So, weathering economic dry spells is part of the job description. You have to be comfortable with that fact if you’re going to do any of this.So, how do you handle it in these extremely difficult times?  How can you avoid both mental and financial ruin?  I’ve got a few tips for you.

1. DO something and do it while you’re working. It may seem obvious that, in order to get work, you have to look for work. But it’s amazing to me, how many of us think that work should come to us. We should be able to make a few phone calls to let people know that we’re looking, and then just sit back and wait for the job offers to sift through.  Of course, it doesn’t work like that. The world of filmmaking has shrunk — it now takes six to eight months to make a film in what used to take 12-18 months. That means that not only will you be back on the street faster, but so will all of your competitors. If I only had to worry about Alan Heim looking for work once a year or so that would be fine. Now, he’s back out in the same marketplace several times a year and, if I’m a producer, I’m going to choose the Oscar winner over the working stiff like me every day of the week. So, I can’t wait for the job offers to come to me and I have to start looking, often in the first week or two of a new job.  That means that I’m letting people know that I’m working, but only for the next four months (let’s say). I’m having lunches with people, sending them interesting links I’ve found, and writing on my blog often enough so people know what I’m up to and what I’d like to be up to next.
2. DO something else and do it while you’re not working.  I used to like to edit small films in between the bigger ones. In other words, I used the major companies to support independent filmmaking. I could take a job for less money, if I was just coming off of a bigger film. But that’s only one example. I know people who like rock climbing. There’s suspiciously little time to do that when you’re working seven days a week on a film. A week or so after they finish a job, then, they start rock climbing.  If they’ve worked hard at letting people know they are ready to take another job, the chances are that they’ll come back from their trips refreshed and ready to work on the film or two that may have contacted them during their vacation. In short, having a different focus, helps to keep us sane, during the horrific process of being out of work.
3. Stop thinking of your job and start thinking of your skills. If you think of yourself as a “television editor” you’ll never be considered for anything else, and when the TV season dries up you’ll be out of work for a while. If you think of yourself as a “event film editor/producer” then that’s what’s you’ll get jobs doing.  But if you think of yourself as someone who can shape stories using highly improvised material (such as a wedding with real people in front of the lens) that you’e shot, then you can branch from wedding photography into other forms of documentaries and, eventually, narrative. If you show someone that you can work on the tight deadlines of episodic television, then moving into a ridiculously scheduled student film, might be a possibility.
4. Broaden your skill set and your pool of job possibilities. This means more than learning Photoshop and Final Cut and Avid and ProTools and Motion and Color and more.  It’s important to constantly be adding to your skill set, but it’s also important to realize that you aren’t going to be the best in everything. Trust me, the good producers will realize that too. It doesn’t hurt to learn and practice those things, but I’m talking about broadening your other skills — your ability to work with other people, your familiarity with art and music, a comfort zone with the dynamics of theater. I took two years of acting lessons and became a better editor as a result. No one is going to hire me to act in their films, but I get more jobs as a result of my being able to understand acting performances and talk with directors about that. I’m also asked to sit in on rehearsals and on-set a lot. It’s a talent that I bring to the production that other editors don’t. So, you should learn how to do things that are outside of what you know now. And then you should think of doing film genres that you’re not comfortable with. For instance, say “yes” once or twice to an infomercial, or a commercial, reality television, or even a friend’s wedding video.
5. Be as thorough and methodical about your job search as you are in your editing. An ex-student of mine once told me that she got hired quickly after school because she considered her job out of university, to be finding a job. She worked six or seven hours a day on it — keeping logs of the people she emailed to, of the people who she called and the results of the call. She made a list of every promise she made to anyone (”I’ll write you on Tuesday when you get back to town.” is such an easy promise to keep.

In short, WORK AT NOT WORKING.And then, the work will come — too much of it.  And won’t we be happy when that happens! 

Tags: Film Blog, Oscars, Director, Hollywood, Movie

Part I:  Madness Has no Chronological Boundaries

On this, my first blog entry, I would like to write a heartfelt “Howdy!” to all of you interested-in-film people and all of you working-in-film people.  I work in The Business as a stand by painter, or stand by scenic artist.  Although I sometimes …

Tags: Film Industry, Movie Bloggers, Movie Blog, Movie, Movie