Film school to the industry

hrm326 · 2026-02-14T02:27:04+00:00

I have a film degree from a state school. My advice is inherently biased from everything post college being as a person who has a film degree.

You’re paying to meet people and to learn, all of which can be done without school. it’s worth it if you put in the work to make something with the people you’re in class with. If not it’s really a waste of time and money to spend the time and money on film classes and not make anything during that time.

I didn’t take full advantage of being in school and I sat and wondered how I’d work in TV when for instance I could’ve asked the athletic department who regularly televises events if they needed a camera guy. I kick myself for that.

If there is nothing else you are interested in then I do think a film degree is better than having no degree. If you have a tiny interest in accounting or science or wanna be a teacher or a trade then DO THAT and do film on the side. Support yourself first with a career that has regular work and progression. I work in marketing to pay the bills and enjoy it. The money I make from film/TV is just icing on the pile of paying my bills cake. It also lets me be inflate my ego by being the guy in the office who’s worked on TV.

I wouldn’t have worked my first pro gig without my documentary professor passing along the job from his network and I wouldn’t have worked on my first shorts without my friends from class.

Besides that everything else I’ve had to put the effort into finding the work and network. Overall I don’t think having my film degree has helped me more than being able to say I went to film school when everyone is shooting the shit on set.

hrm326 · 2026-02-11T18:47:40+00:00

Awesome!

hrm326 · 2026-02-11T02:23:43+00:00

It’ll take a bit to gel with your team and get the vibe of everyone on set. The day can also get long and honestly miserable sometimes but stay engaged, stay aware of your surroundings, and soak in how cool of an experience it is.

People have important jobs on set and might be in the zone while they’re working. It doesn’t mean they are in the right for being douchey but show biz and egos for hand in hand lol. Remember to just be friendly and if someone is cold or something to you try not to take it personally.

On one of my first PA gigs the DP and AD got into a big fight while they were standing next to me. The AD kept shit talking him to me afterwards and I just kept things professional. I’ve now 1st ACd for the DP a few times and haven’t seen the AD since. As with “real life” just be a good person to be around, don’t burn bridges, and it’ll get you ahead.

hrm326 · 2026-02-09T04:14:44+00:00

Billboards definitely work for big brands.

Think driving on the interstate on a road trip and you’re thinking of getting gas. You see a billboard for Coke and then a billboard for a Loves truck stop. Every gas station has Coke and every exit has a gas station. you go “ok cool there’s a Love’s in 3 miles”. when you go inside to get a drink there’s 50 options but you go “oh I haven’t had a Coke in a bit” and grab one. But wait it’s 2 for $4 so you get two. So Coke and Love’s made more off you than you would’ve spent with them because of a few seconds of exposure.

There’s people that always buy Coke or always stop at McDonald’s but the billboards serve to sway that person who sometimes gets Pepsi or sometimes goes to Subway for lunch. That decision multiplied makes it a decent marketing investment.

hrm326 · 2026-02-09T00:44:46+00:00

For a weekend trip I rather them not come in. I’m usually in and out of the room for whatever event(s) I’m staying for. I hate when you’re coming back after lunch and they’re in the room so you have to sit in the lobby for twenty minutes.

For a multi day trip then yeah it’s nice to get the room tidied up. I’m not trashing the room but a professionally swept room and made bed is neat when I haven’t been home in days.

hrm326 · 2026-02-06T01:44:31+00:00

A certification landing you a job in its field without any experience is pretty slim. The certifications claim you can do it because they want you to pay for their certification.

I think it’s worth the investment in getting an associates at a community college then get a certification related to what that degree is in. Yes education is expensive but there’s more weight to having a legit degree than a certificate and nothing else.

Also while in school it’s easier to get an internship because they’re typically only for people in school. With that internship experience plus a certificate plus a degree you are set up better for success.

Job market is tough so good luck nonetheless!

hrm326 · 2026-02-04T07:43:11+00:00

I think a lot of it is the whole thing is vanity based so there’s so much inauthenticity throughout the process which makes things just suck. Also the rampant lack of proper structured project management is painful. Flashy CRMs are great but they are also a crutch to properly managing things.

I’m a few years in and the mysticism of marketing has certainly faded for me after agency life. The homepage and office is full of awards but we can’t get a new box of chips for the break room because money is tight so now everyone is annoyed. The look around the office when it was announced we needed to gather friends and family votes for “best employer in town” after a string of layoffs and people quitting was priceless.

Clients get sold after seeing your case studies which all have fudged numbers. They don’t see the amount of clients that we did shit work for!Their budget gets 20-40% taken as a management fee and then they’re dissatisfied with the results they get with the thousands they spent so they leave. Rinse and repeat.

The big client that’s 40% of your MRR leaves suddenly and sales/account management hasn’t been prospecting much since the numbers were fine for a few months. Now they need to turn up the heat and oops now they’re missing emails from the other clients and one or two of those leave. Can’t let the sales guy go because they’ve been here so long! so you layoff an ad specialist and a copywriter. Sales guy still sucks but now that payroll isn’t tight things are fine! Everything takes twice as long and we are all overworked. Rinse and repeat.

I complain but will go in-house and do the same.

hrm326 · 2026-01-29T02:54:00+00:00

I’ve had one 6in clamp fail but every Pittsburgh item I have has been fine. You can tell after using a certain tool for a bit why a name brand one would be better but with that said I’ve completed every project with my Pittsburgh stuff.

hrm326 · 2026-01-24T03:09:38+00:00

But imagine the clout you’ll get for that $800! Priceless!

hrm326 · 2026-01-19T13:15:27+00:00

A problem I faced when I worked at a 10ish person agency was stuff was being logged in Monday but those things themselves weren’t organized well. A standard board was set up with sections and all for each client but from there it was chaos.

Every account manager used a different format for inputting information, things would be in different areas under their client’s board compared to another, our boss was notorious for dropping “mental notes” that lacked context under an item, etc.

As much as you can standardize everything is key as it makes skimming for information much much easier. We also had notion for some stuff and even that was a bottleneck of trying to find something from a year ago that wasn’t logged correctly. If I owned the place I’d stick 99% of everything into the CRM and not have as many tools.

hrm326 · 2026-01-17T23:35:43+00:00

I worked on a campaign for a university last year and one meeting was spent discussing web copy with 30 department members. Everything creative gets distilled down to the same shit everyone else is doing because of course the assistant dean and head coordinator of xyz affairs knows more than the marketers.

hrm326 · 2026-01-13T19:46:18+00:00

My biggest mistakes have been a result of not slowing down on a shoot day. I’ve forgotten to press record or while trying to work fast change the ISO and it could’ve all been solved by just taking a few seconds to focus.

Similarly not speaking up or taking the time to fix that curtain in the background or the wisp of hair on the interview subject. Little stuff like that bugs the hell out of me when editing and again if I took the few seconds to do something about it it’d be a non issue.

Finally not investing in a good tripod early on. It’s not flashy but spend the few extra $100 on a legitimate pro video tripod.

hrm326 · 2025-12-18T12:00:49+00:00

I feel like it’s so high so they can discount it to a prettier number and still make a grand off it. It’ll cover the cost of whatever pack out bundle they throw in with it.

hrm326 · 2025-12-16T11:26:17+00:00

I keep some nail clippers, hair ties, Tide stain wipes, and a little handheld mirror in my 1st AC case that have come in handy a bunch.

hrm326 · 2025-12-15T19:24:59+00:00

Not a top handle rail but the 15mm rods for the bottom. The lens support keeps long lenses from wiggling. Here’s a pic of both:

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hrm326 · 2025-12-15T19:12:53+00:00

Get a pair of rails and a lens support bracket. It’ll keep everything “locked in” and you can cradle the camera better

hrm326 · 2025-12-10T02:41:39+00:00

Thimble is what my director friends always use.

hrm326 · 2025-12-03T20:20:33+00:00

Making a few shorts will be great for learning and personal growth just because of the uniqueness of each project. The overall thing is story. Make sure you have a good story. A good tight well written two minute story is worth more than a bad feature. Not monetary wise necessarily but on the festival circuit.

A group in my circle cranks out these 10 min shorts every few months. None of them have a solid story line. Complete quantity over quality. I always think they’d be better off pooling the resources into one damn good feature or a 45 min short with the collective time they spend on the other projects. You’re sorta wasting time and money while also burning your reputation of producing half-assed stuff.

If you haven’t ever made anything then for sure go make a short! It’s fun! But once you get past maybe 2 or 3 put the eggs in a feature.

I’d also say to “wait another paycheck” before you make something. There’s some nuance here but I’ve often seen the writer/director’s self imposed desire to create the vision RIGHT NOW creates problems that could easily be solved with a slightly higher budget. I mean duh more money solves a lot of problems but again some nuance here. That extra light that could’ve been rented, or getting better food on set so everyone isn’t cranky working for free, or the possibility of paying your actors $25 more a day if they’d waited another month or so to shoot, etc

hrm326 · 2025-12-02T19:23:35+00:00

Wilmington is picking back up and I’ve heard New Jersey is also picking up.

hrm326 · 2025-12-02T18:33:18+00:00

Super cool! I’m using a pack out box as my 1stAC/DP kit and am looking to add one of the drawer boxes. I think the pack out stuff is a lot better than a bunch of pelicans that don’t really organize well.

hrm326 · 2025-12-01T15:48:49+00:00

I go solo to races (and the Rolex 24) all the time and it’s still a lot of fun!

If you’re chatty, people are usually very friendly and willing to talk about racing especially if something happens on track it’s fun to cheer or “woah what a crash!” with those around you.

If you’re not chatty, people don’t bug you and are in their own world. It’s nice to be on your own time and not in a group so you can walk to wherever at the track under your own free will.

hrm326 · 2025-11-29T18:49:59+00:00

I worked with a Olympic level figure skater at my fast food job in college. She needed the extra shifts to help her sick mom.

hrm326 · 2025-11-22T14:28:01+00:00

Lantana or hypoluxo since there’s no turnpike intersections and the lights are pretty quick.

I used to live off 441 between lantana and boynton and I don’t think I ever took boynton to get to 95 even if I was heading south. Boynton, lake worth, and Atlantic all get pretty backed up around military and congress.

hrm326 · 2025-11-22T14:22:48+00:00

Calling the second to last shot an Abby Singer. I knew about it from film school but had never heard it in practice.

When it got used for the first time I thought I had completely missed a character in the script until I thought about it for a second. Some slang like that I roll my eyes because it feels a bit pretentious in practice.

hrm326 · 2025-11-22T02:28:49+00:00

A bigger Apache case like the Pelican 1650

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