I am a filmmaker from Toronto I am currently going into my last year of Highschool, I am in a film program at my highschool as well, right now I am really deciding on weather or not I want to go to film school or move to la right away, I want to direct and I just want some advise?
Filmmaking / Directing : Moving to La or film school by Gianluca Di Tullio
Moving to La or film school
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Whether you go to film school or not get at least a B.A. from a good university before trying to come to Los Angeles and finding a job.
Make connections. Use summers to intern for producers and production companies. Have a plan and a way to support yourself for at least 18 months in LA, even if that plan involves sleeping on your college dorm buddy's couch and eating Ramen.
And as a Canadian citizen don't start in LA. Toronto and Vancouver are serious film and TV hubs, you have government funded arts programs and the odds of having your car broken into on a weekly basis is a whole lot lower up there than down here. And the competition for jobs in LA is fierce.
My advice, and this comes from a very long time seeing what tends to work and what doesn't, is: 1) get a college degree in any subject, but get a degree. Nobody cares what your GPA was or even what you majored in. But that piece of paper clears you over a big hurdle. There is one criteria that is a bonus on that degree: if you went to the same school as the person hiring you did. The number one answer is: USC. 2) Network while you're in college and young. Intern every Summer at the company you want to work for. Make people remember you as a hard worker, inquisitive and a team player. Send them update emails regularly especially when you get close to graduating. Make friends with and get to know the children of the movers and shakers who will speak highly of you to their parents who will give you your first breaks. 3) Do something interesting before you get invited to Hollywood dinner parties so you have something to talk about other than your latest script. Go pipe water into a village in Rwanda. Go hike across India. Go join Greenpeace ramming Japanese whaling ships for spring break. 4) Go shoot videos. Lots of videos. Try to get to shoot music videos for local bands and car dealerships. Build up a reel.
Do not move immediately to LA. It is not glamorous. It is not easy. And if you come too early it can scar you. LA isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It'll wait for you to finish college and have some fun first.
Just my two cents.