videobear
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Apr 18, 2007, 5:26 PM
Post #7 of 13
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Re: [Jan-Arden] Looking for advice on video production education
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Oddly enough, I think that most of the successful video producers I've met don't have a formal education in video production. Instead, they are (or were) musicians, writers, engineers, soldiers, teachers, or salesmen. Production isn't one of those fields where a diploma is a ticket to a job. What matters is how persistent you are, and (somewhat) on who you know.
The entry level job in a video production company is Production Assistant, and it generally doesn't take much education...PAs are gofers. The more motivated PAs will take every opportunity to soak up on the job training from shooters, editors, sound techs, grips, producers and directors. The pay is nonexistent to poverty-level, as PA is considered a "makee-learnee" type of position.
The other way into it, other than working your way up the chain of PA, shooter/editor, assistant producer, producer in a company, is to start your own shop. A lot of people have done this as a second career, or have broken away from a big company and gone independent. The main problem is finding some way to support yourself until the business has gotten up onto its legs. That could be savings, a "day job", a working wife, a loan, or a pension from a prior career.
But I don't advise your young hopeful to go right out after high school and seek a PA job. Some college education is always helpful. It can help in four ways:
1. More knowledge (about almost anything) is never a bad thing.
2. You may be able to pick up a degree that'll qualify you for an alternate career field if the production thing doesn't work out.
3. You may meet people who will be useful contacts later in life.
4. It's an opportunity to learn to write, or to learn to write better. This is a key skill in video production, as well as in many other fields.
I would advise him to pick a major in some field that interests him, whether it's physics or horticulture, and then add on video production courses as electives to fill in around the edges.
Regards,
Doug Graham
Panda Productions
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