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Jason Tomaric

Brand New Core Lighting Curriculum

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Announcing all new lighting lessons, which visually guide students through lighting tools and techniques. We partnered with LEDGO to produce an intensive, on-set series that demonstrates key lighting tools in visually-engaging video tutorials.

Lesson 1

Techniques to Reduce Light

The all-new video tutorial methodically guides students through the tools and techniques used to reduce light on your subject. This lesson covers:

  • Working with wire scrims
  • Working with dimmers
  • Remotable Wi-Fi dimming options
  • Solids, cutters, and floppies
  • Creating negative fill
  • Lensers and Courtesies
  • Protecting fabric scrims
  • Scrim and C-stand rigging safety
  • Neutral Density gel on windows

Lesson 2

How to Create Soft Light

In this in-depth tutorial, students learn how to create soft light using a variety of techniques:
 
  • How to control the size of a light source
  • Using Fresnels to craft the spread of light
  • Controlling wraparound
  • Working with diffusion on barn doors
  • Working with soft boxes and Chimeras
  • Skinning 4x4s
  • Working with 6×6 overheads
  • How to control spill from soft light sources
  • Real world demo

Lesson 3

Techniques to Shape Light

Creating light is easy – the art of lighting is in how the light is shaped. In this lesson, students experience industry-standard techniques to shape light to create the desired look. 
 
  • The power of shadows
  • Creating internal vs external shadows
  • Benefits and drawbacks of bard doors
  • Working with black wrap
  • Egg crates and louvres
  • Flags and solids
  • Creating gobos
  • Working with a cucoloris and brancholoris
  • Building duvatyne skirts

Lesson 4

Working with Reflected and Bounced Light

While the previous lessons teach direct lighting techniques, this lesson shows students techniques on how to work with bounced and reflected light.
 
  • Factoring in the Inverse Square Law
  • Foam core and bead board
  • Collapsable reflectors
  • Shiny boards
  • Physics of reflected light
  • Bouncing light off ceiling
  • Working with overheads
  • Shaping hair lights
  • Working with mirrors

Lesson 5

Color Temperatures and White Balance

The all-new video tutorial introduced students to color theory, how color is rendered on screen, and how common light sources appear on screen. This lesson covers:
 
  • Defining how a camrea sees white
  • The Kelvin scale – origins and how it’s used
  • How the imaging sensor sees color
  • Measuring light sources with a spectrometer
  • White balancing techniques
  • How to cheat white balance

Lesson 6

Working with Mixed Light

From gelling lights to working with variable-color temperature LEDs, students learn how to color balance lights on set to achieve the desired look. This lesson covers:
 
  • How to use gels to color correct light sources
  • Light loss calculations through gels
  • Working with LEDs
  • Working with sunlight
  • How to gel windows

Lesson 7

How to Light and Shoot Green Screen

The all-new video tutorial methodically guides students through the process of lighting, exposing, and recording green screen footage.  This lesson covers:
 
  • When to choose green or blue
  • Differences between chromakey and digital blue/green
  • Shooting in a studio vs on location
  • How to light green screen (space lights, cyc lights, LED, Kino-Flo, book lights)
  • How the bit depth and compression affect a key
  • Capturing in LOG vs REC709
  • How to expose actors
  • How to reduce spill and create a cleaner key

25 All New Screenwriting Lessons

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I’m excited to announce the release of our all-new 25 lesson screenwriting series, where we tapped into the knowledge and experience of Academy Award and Emmy-winning filmmakers to guide you through the entire screenwriting process.

Lessons: 25 core lessons, averaging 20 minutes per lesson

Total Video Length: 8 hours

Learn from the Best

STEVE SKROVAN
Emmy-Winning Executive Producer
Two-time Emmy winner, Steve is the Executive Producer on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Hot in Cleveland,” “‘Til Death,” and “School of Rock,” and produced the Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee, “An Unreasonable Man.”

ALEXA AMIN
Studio Executive
Alexa is the former Vice President of Development at Sony Pictures Animation and Vice President of Production at New Regency Productions.

ANNE MARIE GILLEN
Producer
Anne Marie served as COO of Morgan Freeman’s production company, Revelations Entertainment, and is the producer of Oscar nominated “Fried Green Tomatoes.”

ANDREW DAVIS
Director
Andy is best known for directing Harrison Ford in the Oscar nominated, “The Fugitive.” He has also directed numerous feature FilmSkills, including “Under Siege,” “Above the Law” (both starring Steven Segal), “Code of Silence,” “Holes,” “The Package” and “The Guardian.”

WAYNE FITTERMAN
Head of Production at William Morris-Endeavor
Wayne Fitterman leads the WME’s Production Department, one the top five most powerful talent agencies in the world. His clients have included, Oscar-winning cinematographers, production designers, producers, and actors.

EDWARD RICOURT
Screenwriter
Edward has received screenwriting credit for “Now You See Me,” “Jessica Jones,” “Now You See Me 2,” and “Wayward Pines”

CHRIS HUNTLEY
Academy Award Winner
Chris Huntley won the Academy Award for his groundbreaking story structure software DRAMATICA.

KEN DANCYGER
Screenwriter
Ken Dancyger is the author or co-author of seven books on screenwriting, directing, film editing and production. Ken is past Chair of Undergraduate Film and Television, TISCH School of the Arts, New York University, where he is a Full Professor.

RICKY MARGOLIS
Investor
Ricky serves as the Vice President of Future Films, LLC. The Future Film Group is a major financier and producer in the media sector having raised over $2bn in finance and having been involved in over 200 films and TV shows.

NEIL LANDAU
Screenwriter
Neil has penned screenplays for “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,” Melrose Place,” Doogie Howser, M.D.” “Tad: The Explorer,””The Magnificent Seven,” and “Undressed”

GUY GALLO
Screenwriter
Guy has penned the screenplays for “Under the Volcano,” “American Playhouse,” and “Takes from the Darkside”

Lesson 1

Beginning the Writing Process

Congratulations!  You’re ready to start writing your movie script, but where do you start?  Before we jump into developing characters and discussing story structure, you need to prepare your tools and set-up a space to work. In this lesson, we will share some tips and tricks to helping you prepare to write your screenplay.

Lesson 2

Working with a Writing Partner

Writers rarely approach a new script alone, but working with a writing partner can introduce its own challenges.  In this lesson, we will show you tips and techniques for finding and establishing a good relationship with a writing partner.

Lesson 3

Finding Story Ideas & Inspiration

It takes a long time to make a movie, and the pressure to find an idea that you are willing to work on for years is high.  In this lesson, the writers behind dozens of TV shows and movies, including Everybody Loves Raymond and Now You See It, plus studio executives, top Hollywood agents, and the Academy Award-winning Christ Huntley who defined the Hollywood story structure teach you how to find inspiration and develop your idea.

Lesson 4

Developing a Marketable Idea

As a creative people, we’re flooded by interesting ideas for movies all the time. But are those ideas marketable? Will an audience want to see them?

Movie making is one of the most expensive and time-consuming art forms, and before you embark on months, even years of work, it’s wise to research the potential audience for your movie.  In this lesson, I partnered with Emmy and Academy Award-winning writers, studio executives, and screenwriting professors to reveal dozens of tips and tricks to determining the market for your story concept.

Lesson 5

Story Formats

Stories can be told in a number of different ways, and in this lesson, we’re going to look at how a story is structured in feature and short films, animation, commercials, documentaries, music videos, and corporate videos

Lesson 6

The 7 Plot types

Every story that has every been told, is being told, and will ever be told can be distilled into one of seven basic story lines. And every story is a variation of one of these plot types. In this lesson, we will explore each of these 7 plot types and how you can adapt them to your story.

Lesson 7

The Implication of Genre

Genre is the style that wraps around your plot structure. Each genre comes with its own story conventions,  guidelines for the protagonist, scope of the antagonist, and plot structures. In this lesson, we look at the range of genres and how they impact your story and your ability to market your production.

Lesson 8

Three Act Structure

In this module, we’ll show you how to use the three act structure to properly pace your story, what should occur in each act, the length of each act, what happens at the beginning, middle and end of each act, and how to apply these techniques to your story.

Lesson 9

A-Story and Subplots

If you were to describe a movie in a few sentences, you would probably give me a great summary of the main plot of the story- “Raiders of the Lost Arc is about an archaeologist who goes in search of the Arc of the Covenant.” Or “Twilight” is about girl torn between two men – a vampire and a werewolf.” In both of these examples, you would be correct – but what you told me was what is part of what’s called the “A” plot, or the main storyline of the movie. Movies can also include several smaller stories called subplots, which help reveal character, push the story forward and ultimately support the A-plot. In this module, we’re going to look at how to effectively write both the A-plot and the subplots.

Lesson 10

Techniques to Improve Story Pacing

A good screenplay takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster, and one of the challenges facing each writer is how to keep the audience engaged through each and every minute of the story. In this module, learn literary techniques for maintaining strong pacing – especially through the second act.

Lesson 11

Techniques to Engage the Audience

Story pacing is critical to keep your audience engaged and interested in your movie. In this lesson, we’re going to reveal top literary tools you can use in your screenplay to keep people visually, emotionally, and psychologically engaged in your story.

Lesson 12

The Protagonist

As you’re writing your screenplay, the most important character to write is the protagonist. But you have several choices – is he also the main character? Does the protagonist change or remain steadfast? How do you write a character the audience will care about? How can flaws help the protagonsit solve the story problem?

Knowing the answers to these question will help you craft a compelling character, so in this module, we’re going to explore techniques for writing a strong, multi-dimensional protagonist.

Lesson 13

The Antagonist

The antagonist has been classically referred to as the bad guy, the villain, or the adversary. But more properly defined, he, she or it is the literary opposite of the protagonist – the character who opposes the goals of the protagonist. In this module, we’re going to explore techniques for writing a strong antagonist, how to make him, her or it a real, multidimensional character.

Lesson 14

Conflict Types

Conflict in a story is everything – it defines the very purpose of the protagonist. We can divide the types of conflict into one of several categories – each category helping to define the antagonist’s role in the story. They are man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. society, man vs. nature and man vs. the supernatural. So in this module, we’re going to explore these various types of conflict and how you can use them to craft a compelling antagonist.

Lesson 15

Supporting Characters

A movie is populated with dozens of other characters – many of whom have an influence on the protagonist and the antagonist. These supporting characters either help or hinder, compliment or compete with our protagonist and antagonist. They add vibrancy and excitement to the story, all while serving as a valuable literary tool for you as you write the screenplay. In this module, we’re going to explore the function of supporting characters.

Lesson 16

Character Archetypes

All characters can be broken down into eight different archtypes – now these are the basic ingredients of creating a character, so of course you can mix and match them to create more complex, unique characters.  But every supporting character fulfills one of more of these roles.  The eight archtypes are the protagonist and the antagonist, Reason, Emotion, The Sidekick, The Skeptic, the Guardian and the Contagonist. So, in this module, we’re going to explore the six archetypes that make up supporting characters.

Lesson 17

Designing Personality and Building Backstory

The act of writing is much more than simply creating characters – it’s about writing real people with real fears, ambitions, strengths and weaknesses. But although you need to be able to create real, believable people, every choice you make when creating them needs to support the story. Who they are helps them confront the plot, learn more about themselves and ultimately succeed or fail. Their background gives them the tools and experienced they need to confront the conflict, and most importantly, their tragic flaw gives their story a personal arc. So, in this module, we’re going to discuss how to create personality and backstory.

Lesson 18

How to Write Natural Dialogue

One of producers’ biggest criticisms of a script is the weak, cliche dialogue. Learn how to make your script stand out with tight, engaging dialogue from working Hollywood experts. Emmy-winning Executive Producer of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Steve Skrovan, Writer/Producer Mike Emanuel, Writer John Anderson, Writer/Script Doctor David Freeman and Emmy-winning Director Jason Tomaric share valuable insight into avoiding cliches and writing tight dialogue.

Lesson 19

Title, Theme, and Log Lines

The title, theme, and log line are often the first exposure audience, producers, and agents may have to your story. But as a writing tool, they help you develop the plot thread and the heart of your story. In this lesson, we’re going to explore techniques for crafting a compelling title, developing a theme, and honing the log line to your screenplay.

Lesson 20

How to Write a Treatment and Ouline

The treatment and outline for a movie is literally the backbone of the story, and the quality of your work in this phase can either make or break your script. Learn how to write an effective treatment and outline and simplify the process of writing the first draft. Working Hollywood writers teach you how to get the most out of this valuable writing tool.

Lesson 21

How to Format a Screenplay

Learn how to properly write and format the first draft of your script. This module is a complete guide that walks you through every step of how to format a screenplay.

Lesson 22

How to Write the First Draft

Now that your treatment and outline are complete, you can now start writing the first draft of the script. This process is when you take each story beat and develop the action and dialogue of each scene. It’s a tedious process, and one that can be frustrating, but we will give you tips on how to make the first draft the best it can possibly be.

Lesson 23

Improve Your Rewrites

Once the first draft of your script is ready, the real work begins. Learn what to look for in the rewriting process, how to identify problem areas that may adversely affect the story and how to get the most out of each plot, character and line of dialogue. Emmy-winning Executive Producer of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Steve Skrovan, Writer/Producer Mike Emanuel, Writer John Anderson, Writer/Script Doctor David Freeman, Emmy-winning Director Jason Tomaric and Jerrol LeBaron, president of the script brokerage site, inktip.com share industry tips and techniques on how to effectively rewrite your script.

Lesson 24

How to Market Your Screenplay

You’ve finished the script, now what? Working Hollywood writers and producers take you through the process of finding an agent or manager. Should you approach a producer instead? How do you deal with the studio Hollywood Reader? How do you cope with rejection? This module takes you through the intricacies of the Hollywood system and how to manage it.

Lesson 25

Your Screenplay and the Real World

Congratulations! Your screenplay is finished… or is it?  When you sell or option your screenplay, agents, managers, and producers will often ask for multiple rewrites. In this lesson, we’ll show you how to manage feedback, how to protect your screenplay, grow your network, and improve your skills.

New for 2020 – The All New Student Account

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2019 was a big year, with an expansive update and enhancement to the instructor interface.  With a new year, we are proud to announce the same update to the student experience. With an all-new home page, in-person classes and online courses that now match the instructor view, plus dozens of new learning tools, FilmSkills Academic is better than ever.

All New Home Page

The updated student home page has been updated for an easier, more organized learning experience.

  • New Global Announcements let instructors post messages to all students in your school.
  • Certifications are now listed on the home page.
  • Class and Course Overviews tell student what they need to know for the day, including upcoming tests, projects, and assignments.

 

 

In-Person Redesign

Engineered with the same thoughtful design as the instructor’s Class Manager, the new design improves learning outcomes.  

  • Redesigned Test Tool improves testing and assessment with a redesigned test taking pop-up, test preparation page, and test results.
  • New messaging tool incorporates direct messaging with the instructor, classroom discussion forums, and one-way instructor announcements.
  • Lessons are now embedded in the class. Unlike the previous build on which lessons opened in a new page, we incorporated the lessons into the class for a more intuitive learning path.
  • New Projects Section makes it easy for students to access, practice, and upload completed assignments.

Online Course Redesign

The all new online course update makes it easier for students to access their lessons, tests, and projects.

  • New Direct Message to the instructor – Students can easily reach out to you with questions or feedback.
  •  Integrated lessons improve the learning pathway, allowing students to view lessons without leaving the course.

New Certification Dashboard

We added a new section to help students manage their certification programs, requirements, and certificates. 

  • New home page display lists all certification programs in which the student is enrolled.
  • Certification Manager outlines the requirements and status of each assigned certification.

Say Hello to the New Instructor Home Page

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We’re excited to announce the release of the all new instructor home page. Complete with a dynamic new interface and under-the-hood enhancements to improve page load times and responsiveness, the new home page is easier to use than ever.

New Tab Organization

  • The Dashboard tab displays all of your active, pending, and upcoming in-person classes and online courses. You can access any expired classes or suspended courses by clicking on “Classes” or “Courses” in the top menu bar, then choosing “View All Classes,” or “View all Courses.” 
  • We moved all system alerts into their own tab, which will display an alert badge when there is an event that requires your attention. You can review student enrollment requests, manage shared content, receive help ticket notifications, and much more.
  • The all-new Announcements tab allows instructors to post an announcement to all the students and staff members in your organization. It’s the easy way to send out a notification to everyone. 
  • The new Account Set-Up tab includes links to all the key configuration settings you need to set-up, brand, and get your AccuSkills academy up and running.
 

New Certification Section

All of your certification programs are now easily accessible from your home page. Simply click a certification to open and manage it.

New Quick-Link Menu

Access all main tools by clicking on the action button to the right of each class, course, or certification.  See an overview of the class, e-mail all students at once, view enrollment, access the grade book, and much more.

New Status and Alert Pop-Up

Access all of your alerts and to-dos for each class and course by clicking on the red alert badge to the left of each class or course. From here, you can see an overview, plus any tasks that require your attention, including:

  • Student applications pending approval
  • Tests that need to be graded
  • Students who may have had a problem taking a test
  • New student project submissions
  • New posts in class discussion forums
  • New direct messages from students

More responsive than ever

The new instructor home page loads faster than ever with new page optimization. That means getting more done in less time.

The new instructor home page is already live, so you can enjoy it next time you log in to your account.

Introducing the New Instructor Manager

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Managing your instructors has never been easier. The all-new and improved Instructor Manager makes it simple to create and manage the instructors in your organization.

Create and Manage Instructor Accounts

The new Instructor Manager consolidates account management into one simple dashboard.

  • Create new instructor accounts
  • Approve or decline new instructor applications
  • E-mail instructors
  • Manually reset instructor account passwords
  • Log into you instructor’s accounrs

Manage Instructors' Classes and Courses

View each of your instructor’s current, upcoming, and expired classes and courses.

  • View class and course status
  • Track enrollment
  • Contact and manage student rosters
  • Re-assign classes and courses to other instructors
  • Open, manage, and edit any instructor’s class or course

Set Access Permissions

Control which AccuSkills functions each instructor can access, including

  • The Site Editor – to customize the branding, look, and feel of your account
  • The Accounting Manager – to set up and manage student credit card payments, invoices, revenue reports, and royalties
  • The Instructor Manager – allow a user to create and manage other instructor accounts
  • Network Sharing – to share or license your lessons, classes, and courses with other AccuSkills accounts

Set Lesson Permissions

Control which lessons each instructor can access and/or edit.

  • Manage your content by controlling which lessons each instructor can view, add to classes, and add to courses
  • Control which lessons each instructor can edit

Announcing 20 All New Lessons

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We are excited to announce a suite of 20 all new lessons -our best yet!! Each lesson is jam-packed with on-set video tutorials, written companion guides, downloadable files and quick-reference guides, and much more.

You can access these new lessons in a number of ways:

 

Now, on to the new lessons!

Focusing Techniques

From traditional focusing techniques of setting marks and measuring distances, to using digital focus assist tools, students learn how to set focus, overcome focus challenges, and proper on-set procedures.

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Lens Focal Length

Students learn the power of the lens, how focal length affects the field of view and depth, changes in the illusion of time, plus how to work with zoom vs prime lenses, and compensate for crop factor.

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f-Stops and T-Stops

This lesson covers how f-stops and T-stops are used to determine exposure, how to work with fast and slow lenses, and how f-stops are used to determine camera exposure and lighting ratios on set.

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Intro to Light and Exposure

Students are introduced to the nature of light, how it’s measured, and the foundations of exposure. Complex techniques of the inverse square law, dynamic range, latitude, and contrast ratios are made simple.

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Taking Care of Lenses

Students learn how to properly change lenses, remove dust and debris, protect lenses both in transit and on set, prevent condensation, and how to properly clean the imaging sensor.

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The Camera Shutter

Students learn how electronic shutters function, how to choose the shutter angle, global vs rolling shutters, motion blur, managing screen flicker, and how to compensate exposure.

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Frame Rates

This lesson provides a comprehensive look at frame rates, interlaced vs progressive, time code, drop frame, 3:2 pull down, slow motion and time lapse, and how to calculate exposure with different frame rates.

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How to Prep a Camera

Students learn how to prep the camera, matte box, follow focus, monitor, cables, batteries, media, and how to conduct lens calibration tests to ensure the camera works properly on set.

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Imaging Sensor and ISO

Students learn how the imaging sensor, CCD and CMOS chips, and photosites function, plus Bayer pattern and debayering, CODECs and RAW formats, bit depths, ISO, image quality, and gain.

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Three Point Lighting

Students learn a range of key light techniques for beauty and drama, how to work with ambient fill light, rim lights, kickers, and how to use contrast to separate the subject from the background.

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How to Expose a Shot

Students learn exposure techniques including zebra stripes, false color, waveform monitors, histograms, and light meters, plus how to expose skin tones, and work within the camera’s latitude and contrast ratio.

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Depth of Field Study

In this lesson, students learn how to control the depth of field and its technical and creative effects. This lesson includes three scenes of differing depths of field to illustrate the change in emotional impact. Coming Soon!

How to Direct a Scene

Students experience how a scene is blocked, rehearsed, lit, and shot. This lesson includes a downloadable script, final cut, and rough footage of the sample scene.

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How to Shoot a Spec Commercial

This case study explores how a spec commercial is produced from concept to completion, and how spec projects can be used to help students find production work.

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How to Set Up Your Camera

This lesson covers how to set up the recording resolution, aspect ratio, CODECs, ISO, picture profiles, plus basic lens techniques.

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Basic Shooting Techniques

The lesson shows students the basics of focus, exposure, frame rate, and shutter speed in simple, non-technical language.

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Basic Production Techniques

Students learn basic pre-production techniques, how to scout a location, prep equipment, mark shots, manage media, and wrap out a location.

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Basic Framing Techniques

Students learn shot types, camera moves, compositional guidelines, how to frame people, and a basic workflow for shooting each shot.

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Basic Audio Techniques

Students learn how to choose a microphone, reduce ambient noise, configure audio settings, set levels, plus audio recording techniques.

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Basic Directing Techniques

Students learn how to block actors, basic scene coverage, plan proper coverage, shoot sequences, and how to work with actors. Coming Soon!

New Cinematography Lessons

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We are excited to announce an all new lesson, Imaging Sensor and ISO. The imaging sensor is the heart of the camera system. It converts light into the electrical signal that becomes the image we see on screen. But understanding how it works and its limitations will help you improve your cinematography.

This lesson is jam-packed with tips on how to get the most out of your camera by understanding how photosites convert light into an electrical signal, bayer patterns, chip sensitivity, and working with dual ISOs. Emmy-winning cinematographer Jason Tomaric teaches you the secrets of top cinematographers, including:

  • What is an image sensor and it works
  • The difference between CCD and CMOS sensors
  • How photosites convert light into an electrical signal
  • How the bayer pattern works
  • How codecs and RAW files work
  • Camera bit depths and how compression works
  • How the bit depth affects the number of shades captured by the sensor
  • How film sensitivity affects the ISO
  • How to use ISO when exposing a shot
  • Working with dual ISOs in Rec709 and Log curves
  • How to work with gain to maximize image quality in low-light situations

This lesson includes:

  • 20:25 video
  • Illustrated supporting text
This lesson is available in:
 

New Platform Updates

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We are excited to announce the biggest update to the FilmSkills platform ever! As a film educator, film commission, or production company, FilmSkills is much more than industry-leading content.  Our dynamic platform lets you build your own online film training program by mixing and matching multimedia content lessons to craft customized learning paths for your students.

Packed with learning management tools including certification, processing credit cards, content authoring and sharing tools, and complete site-branding, FilmSkills has gotten even better.  Here’s a look at some of our updates scheduled to be released July, 2019.

New Page Interface

Enhanced tables add advanced search, sorting, and nested content for faster navigation.

Quick Navigation Menus

Quickly access any key functions with all new quick menus and group actions.
 

New Reports and Analytics

Get up to date reports of your students’ activities with the redesigned class and course managers. 

New Test Manager

The all new Test Question library lets you write your own questions to mix and match with FilmSkills’ 5000 question library, and share them with colleagues. 
Explore all the New Features

New Lesson: Prepping the Camera

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Getting prepped for a shoot is the first step in making sure your production goes smoothly. We met up with Drew Lauer, cinematographer and owner of Hollywood Special Ops. Drew has worked on over a hundred TV shows, and specializes in slow motion cinematography.  In this comprehensive tutorial, he takes you through his process of prepping the camera package before each shoot.

You will learn:

  • What gear to go over
  • How to configure the camera settings
  • How to calibrate the lenses
  • How to test media cards
  • Camera prep workflow
  • How to avoid costly issues on set
This lesson is available in:
 
Watch the Preview

How to Network in Hollywood

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Let’s say you’re looking to hire a professional. Maybe it’s a doctor, or a plumber, or an auto mechanic. While you can certainly go online and search for someone, you’d probably feel much better getting a referral from a friend or family member. Working on a film project is no different. You want to know that the people you’re working next to are creative, have good attitudes, and a solid work ethic, which is why referrals are so important. When you’re new to LA, the best way to meet new people is to network… but networking in Hollywood isn’t what you think.

Networking conjures up images of stuffy events at which hundreds of suit-clad people plaster smiles on their faces while handing out business cards in an effort to drum up more work.  While this may be the case in some industries, the opposite is true in Hollywood. Networking is about making friends, and fostering real relationships. People want to work with those they trust and enjoy, which is why more deals are made in a bar or on the golf course than at a networking event.

I’d argue that the old adage, “It’s who you know,” should really say, “In Hollywood, it’s about who knows you.” That’s the secret of marketing– get them to come to you.

Networking is about people.  Meeting people, giving to others, bringing a talent to the table, and being pleasant to work with.  When you’re in the film industry, nurture your relationships because you never know where they’ll lead. The best way to network is by having something to give. Volunteer your time, offer to do something for someone, and become valuable to the people with whom you’re working. Helping someone today may not have an immediate impact, but the relationship you nurture will pay dividends in the future.

  • Don’t wear your desperation on your sleeve.  There are a lot of people in LA who are looking for their next job and the need it desperately. You will absolutely meet them. You will meet at a party and within 30- seconds they will pitch you a screenplay idea, try to find out what you do and if you can help them, and try to figure out who you know and to whom you can introduce them.  Don’t be like these people. No one likes them.
  • Call your contacts when things are going well to check in, not just when you need something – If you are working, check in with your friends and acquaintances to see how they are doing.  It’s common to hear from someone when they want something from you, but it’s flattering when they call to simply see how you’re doing.
  • Bring something to the table – People will be more inclined to help you if you offer them something first.  Offer to read their screenplay, watch a rough cut of their short film, check out their website, or like a blog post they wrote.  Giving of your time and talents is the best way to see that generosity reciprocated.
  • Surround yourself with the people you want to be like – There are a ton of people in LA, from the ultra rich and successful to the downright broke and desperate.  While misery loves company, it won’t help you get to the next level.  Surround yourself with other successful people.  Talk to them, learn from them, and become part of a network that empowers you.
  • Help others – Volunteering your time on someone’s film, lending a camera or gear, or reading someone’s script is a great way to show you care about them and their project, and people will remember that.
  • Attend trade shows – There are dozens of events, equipment demos, and trade shows that are well-attended by professionals. They are an informal and comfortable way to meet other filmmakers and vendors.
  • Attend workshops – Many camera, lighting, sound, and post vendors host open houses and hands-on training seminars as a way of educating filmmakers about their new products. These are often low cost or free and attract other professionals.

The best way to network is to get yourself out there. Attend film festivals, industry events, trade shows, and vendor events. Look out for rental companies that host open houses. Go to industry screenings and premieres. From there, talk to everyone and learn their story.

LA is an incredibly social city. People throw pool parties and barbecues, house parties and dinners. They go out to the beach and to local bars. This is where the real networking happens. Someone will mention a project over a drink, or you may overhear a friend looking to hire a crew person. This is where recommendations are made and deals happen.

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