Working in film?

dr gonzo

Finishing up my degree soon and will probably continue on to a masters but just recently ive been thinking it would be interesting to do a little bit of research into film work. I dont mean acting or directing/producing or anything like that but i was curious about grip work or something. There does seem to be a lot of production in Ireland recently so that helps too.

Can anyone tell me anything about this? What jobs are available on the bottom rung so to speak and how to train for them? Also are there agencies for this?

Cheers everyone. I know this is probably impossible to get into but i was just curious.

Sad Professor

Moved to Film Production. This is better suited here.

Catcher7791

http://iftn.com/jobs/

singingfish

Hi Gonzo,

This depends on what type of work you are really interested in. If you are interested in working in the grip department the only real way to do it is to spend a lot of time training on the job. Its not something you can really learn in college and there are so many aspects to it that you have to work in a real scenario to understand the job. The usual route for people here is to find a fully qualified Key Grip and offer your services as their trainee. Whenever they need help on a bigger job they may be able to bring you along. Over time as you gain more experience you may get asked to do smaller jobs such as short films on your own. That way, over a long period of time, you may gain enough experience and contacts to have a sustainable career. Generally though, while money can be good when you are working, you may only be working for short periods of time, so particularly when you are starting out it would also be good to have some other way of making money.

In general though, jobs like this come down to forging relationships with people more established than you and letting them have confidence to recommend you for work when it is available. It's all about the people you know.

It may be good to ask SIPTU for a list of their members in the Grip department and ask to meet them for advice and to see if they might consider taking you on for a few days trial on something they may be about to work on.

There is absolutely no point in approaching production companies, producers or directors offering your services as the convention is always that a production hires their Heads of Department (eg. Key Grip) and that person is then responsible for hiring their own team. A production company will never tell a professional Grip that they have picked out a trainee for him to work with, so don't waste any time sending CVs to companies in this regard.

Hope that helps and good luck with it.

NealB

Are you studying film?