How Rookie Filmmakers Get Work Without Experience

It was really painful for me to write this post.

I still get people saying to me: Show me your resume. Can I see what you have done. And this after over 30 years working in the industry.

Fortunately I have a body of work that can speak for itself. But what of the old conundrum: To get work you need experience. To get experience, you need work? Correct?

Young filmmakers, directors, screenwriters and actors have always faced this dilemma. And in today’s shrinking markets, established professionals like myself also face this on a daily basis. Whether it is to be laid off, or to be replaced by someone cheaper or simply made redundant by one of the new digital production technologies, older and younger film workers everywhere are constantly battling to make themselves marketable in a changing landscape.

My good friend Simon Hunter was waiting at his agents office in LA at the end of last year, when in walked Frank Durabont asking if there were any commercials going. Imagine that! An Oscar winning director of feature films trying to earn a bit from a lowly commercial.

Whether you are starting out, or whether you are established and trying to strengthen your position in the job market, you can get around the Catch 22 of work and experience by using some creative action and energy.

Anyway, here is How I Got Film Work Without Experience