These days, you can spend four years of your life and almost US $100,000 to obtain a prestigious film degree from a big-name university. Yet once you hit the streets looking for a job in the entertainment industry, that hard-earned diploma may not land as many interviews or bring you as much respect as you imagined.
Indeed, you may find yourself losing out to someone without a degree but who happens to have some production credits, plus good connections.
"The old adage is true--it's definitely who you know," says Sherwood Jones, an editor and postproduction supervisor at Tapestry Films in Beverly Hills. "This is why internships have become an increasingly effective way to get the proverbial foot in the door. Many producers and production managers no longer look to resumes but instead turn to colleagues for their hiring recommendations," Jones notes.
Experience sells, too, but good references are absolutely vital, especially in tight job markets. Producers and directors who are responsible for multimillion-dollar projects often have to hire quickly, and they must trust that the people who get the jobs will show up every day and give their best efforts.
Faced with a choice between a film school graduate with no professional experience and a high-school dropout who recently has worked on a few movie sets, many hiring managers will go for the dropout right away. He or she will need a lot less on-the-job training and will have references from other producers and directors
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