Breaking into Film
Breaking Into Film is a comprehensive professional development program for anyone ready to launch their career in the film industry. Whether you're pursuing internships, production assistant roles, or entry-level crew positions, our four-part lecture series equips you with the essential knowledge and practical skills to get started—regardless of your background.
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Led by seasoned industry professionals with decades of combined experience, this course covers everything you need to know: creating opportunities through strategic networking, mastering the interview process, understanding industry contracts, navigating on-set health and safety protocols, and much more.
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More than just education, Breaking Into Film provides a supportive community where aspiring filmmakers can learn, connect, and build the confidence needed to succeed. This is where your journey begins.
Lesson
Plan:
Breaking into Film
1
Learning Objectives
This lesson will focus on the Who, What, Where, When and How of forging relationships in the film community with a focus on networking to create opportunities to get your foot in the door.
2
Lesson Outline
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Welcome and introductions
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How to find opportunities through:
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Networking
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Cold Calls
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Reaching out
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Following up
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Landing an opportunity
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Expectations
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Paid gigs vs unpaid gigs
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Interns vs Production Assistants
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Union vs Non-union
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Types of film projects
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How to get noticed as a PA
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Intro to set etiquette
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Useful vocabulary
3
Lesson Activities
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Introductions (practical lesson in networking)
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Breaking the ice
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Who are you and what brought you here?
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Any special skills?
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Discussion with power point
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Practical review of essentials
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Q&A
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Review vocabulary
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Familiarize yourself for next lesson
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4
Lesson Goals
This first lesson will be an introduction to breaking into the film business. This can be applied to accessing various departments within the entertainment industry. By the end of this lesson students will know how to find networking events, who to reach out to for opportunities and how to land an interview. They will also know what kind of opportunities are out there from internships to crew positions and how to optimize each experience for future work. There will be in introduction to set etiquette and a review of common vocabulary used on the job.
