Film-making only for wealthiest as accessible routes disappear, MPs told
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/21/routes-into-film-making-for-minority-and-working-class-talent-have-been-eroded-mps-told
Posted by Fox_9810
Film-making only for wealthiest as accessible routes disappear, MPs told
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/21/routes-into-film-making-for-minority-and-working-class-talent-have-been-eroded-mps-told
Posted by Fox_9810
8 Comments
Myriam Raja
In 13 years she’s made some short films and directed 5 eps of TV. I wonder how she survives?
It’s hard enough as film crew this last year. But that level of work is astonishing.
I know a few people who tried to get into the various creative industries, and this is exactly what they found.
From what they said, you need to either have industry contacts, or have graduated from a small handful of schools the industry takes seriously. And then you need to spend several years working in the periphery of the industry, making barely above minimum wage if you’re lucky, while also living in London and going to the right parties. If you haven’t got all that done by your mid 20s you’ll never have a career.
The people I know who tried it basically spent their 20s living a somewhat crap life in London, before figuring out the reality and giving up.
You just need a phone to start. Film making has never been more accessible. Guardian as always full of sh…
It all comes down to the fact that the supply of art and artists/creatives vastly exceeds the demand, so the only artists/creatives who can “make it” are either heavily advantaged, extremely lucky, or both.
Loads of people want to work in the arts because it’s a “fun” career that lots of people are passionate about and enjoy as a hobby. But there aren’t nearly as many viable positions in the sector as there are wannabe professional artists, which means that gaining a career in the arts becomes extremely competitive, favouring those who already have plenty of advantages and can survive doing unpaid or poorly paid work to build experience.
Everything has gone this way!
I’m so sick of all the features on innovative businesses, ideas and prodcts where the owner is clearly from money.
The name is a dead givaway; it’s always a Tarquin Poncenby-Smythe or Ducasta Petticote-Frock talking about their hard work and vision bringing about the thing they’re being inteviewed about.
There is absolutely no recognition or awareness of the safety net they are privelaged to have. They can afford to fail.
I’ve got some great ideas where I can see great market potential but, if I were to go full-bore, I’d have one shot and everything would have to go perfectly or I, and my family, would be destitute.
I consider myself lucky to have the *potential* to take a single longshot and even that would be through liquidating the small amount I have to my name and relying on my partner to carry our family; there are far more people with great ideas that could never even take that chance.
At one level the bar has never been lower to get started online as an amateur,
But stratospherically high to exist at world- class levels
Its not easy being creative and making a living out of it.
This has been the case for a while though.
I graduated with a 2:1 in Film and Video in 2012. Two people have actually done anything with their degree, and they both had the cash to immediately move to Canada to pursue it. I did assistant direct a microbudget film, but like ten years later it hasn’t even been edited and none of us were paid.
As for writing, it’s near impossible to get an agent without connections or a social media following. I published one book but I don’t have a following so it hasn’t done well, although I need to get over myself and publish the sequel instead of endlessly re-editing it seven years later.
I did have a *banger* of an idea for a movie earlier that I’d love to write, but even then I have no idea how to go about actually getting it made. My film class neglected to teach us that part.
I remember working on a music video in Hampstead Heath. When the cinematographer arrived it was a young woman who was probably 23/24. I remember asking how much the camera was worth and was told it was worth about £60,000. She then told me that her and her boyfriend bought it and shared it as cinematographers. Regardless we all know she and him didn’t buy it and that someone else with a lot of money did. She also wasn’t getting paid or even her travel expenses met. Basically I realised after awhile that there where a lot of rich kids doing work for pennies because they can literally afford to. They had basically paid their way in.
Edit: pretty sure it was an Arri Alexa 35