Another 'tell me what to do with my life' thread

I don't think I would want to hold that job for many years, though.

And gabbneb, yes, I'm referring to the NYC Columbia in my original post.

be warned: it is a horrible career to be in right now. if i knew nine years ago, when i was about to graduate from university - or even 13 years ago, when i was leaving school - how things would pan out in hackdom (ie budgets being slashed everywhere by panicking proprietors; quality being not just sacrificed but fucking bludgeoned every which way you look; morale at an all-time low), i'd have severely altered my ambitions :)

this is a UK perspective, right enough, but i don't think things are too different elsewhere.

but also heed grimly. if print journalism is what you're talking about, things are real dicey right now. at the very least, make sure any program you go into has lots of multimedia content (web design and production, video, photos and graphics, etc). i can't imagine that mizzou isn't doing all that, but i'd ask serious questions about how they're dealing with all the changes in the profession.

and if you're really more interested in film, then study film, and minor in journalism or something.

UPDATE:
So, I've decided that I definitely want to make a career out of filmmaking, but I'm not sure what I want to do about college. I could go to Mizzou and major in journalism, but looking at the responses upthread, it'd be rather pointless.

This summer, I'm attempting to find some freelance work for online music/film publications. As much as I love writing human interest features, I doubt that I'll ever cover anything other than music/film, so I'm guessing this experience (assuming I get it) will be as helpful as any journalism major.

But assuming I avoid the journalism school, I'm not quite sure where I should go. Mizzou is still the cheapest (I've looked into Reed and Hampshire; I think I could get in, but I doubt I could afford either...my parents said they would only give me enough money to pay for Mizzou's tuition, so that rules out both of those schools). I'm not sure what to major in, though. Ideas?

Any other thoughts/advice, you psychos/asses/schitzos/dipshits?

(p.s. I like the 'fuck around' idea; I need to get around to that)

Bring down the government.

assuming I get it

*terrible assumption

ilx if full of cunty asses and dipshits and even the most articulate posters of the old days have gone on to be psychos and schitzos so i have no idea why you'd ask this community for advice.
-- chaki (chaki), Monday, October 9, 2006 4:08 AM (7 months ago) Bookmark Link

awesome post

chaki otm

i say that with love, however. i'm a cunty dipshit too.

kid, as both a contemporary cunty ass and a self-proclaimed articulate poster of the old days who, himself, stumbled into filmmaking (and as a result stumbled briefly into homelessness and legitimate vagrancy) i recommend you consider your decision with unflinching fucking severity. ask yourself, honestly, why you want to make film. is it because you wish to tell stories? you'll have better luck (and incur less debt, lose less friends, probably suffer less heartbreak) as a writer or scholar. is it because you wish to change the shape and texture of the world by exposing it to the fruits of your imagination? become a psychotherapist or a musician. you're more likely to fly a jumbo jet pantsless than you are to direct a feature film – if that's what you want to do. and for godssakes, if your reason for filmmaking is simply to render for other people the immediate, primal enagement you feel watching a good flick – for godssakes get out now. that's an untenable pot of gold at the end of a celluloid rainbow.

but that being said, i wouldn't listen to me either.

your parents OTM

i have to say i don't understand the perspective of currently living in some smallish town/city in the midwest and being a creative thinker and not being completely desperate to *get out*. so, if i were you, i'd find a college that is far from and different to where you are now that will make financial aid work for your situation, and figure out your major after that.

tape store, you know who you need to talk to? people in town (and I know you know people in town like this) who, like you, lived in Columbia and went to school out of state. you also need to talk to people who went to school at Mizzou after living there since they were born.

personally, columbia is a great place to live and work and make films and stuff, but you should get out and see the world for awhile and then come back and rock.

As much as I love writing human interest features, I doubt that I'll ever cover anything other than music/film, so I'm guessing this experience (assuming I get it) will be as helpful as any journalism major.

OTM

Help me start my fucking lawnmower.

if you really want to make films, GO DO IT!! and don't let ANYONE tell you that you can't

since this is an advice thread here is mine: do you know much about drama? actors? directing actors? helping them make pictures with their bodies that communicate ideas? if not you should start thinking about this part which i think is the most crucial part of a director's job and, these days, the one most neglected by directors, many of whom who have made their names with commercials and music videos. you will have lighting people who know more about lighting than you - sound people who know more about sound - trust them - but no one can replace the director as the one who talks through a scene with the actors, quizzes them, draws out the difficulty of each scene and challenges them to rise to it. this experience will work for you in reality shows, documentaries etc. just as well - because all of these shows tell stories, and involve people being in front of the camera and "performing" in one way or another.

remy bean, you should put together one of those career interest personality type tests. I would take it. (Seriously.)

kid, as both a contemporary cunty ass and a self-proclaimed articulate poster of the old days who, himself, stumbled into filmmaking (and as a result stumbled briefly into homelessness and legitimate vagrancy) i recommend you consider your decision with unflinching fucking severity. ask yourself, honestly, why you want to make film. is it because you wish to tell stories? you'll have better luck (and incur less debt, lose less friends, probably suffer less heartbreak) as a writer or scholar. is it because you wish to change the shape and texture of the world by exposing it to the fruits of your imagination? become a psychotherapist or a musician. you're more likely to fly a jumbo jet pantsless than you are to direct a feature film – if that's what you want to do. and for godssakes, if your reason for filmmaking is simply to render for other people the immediate, primal enagement you feel watching a good flick – for godssakes get out now. that's an untenable pot of gold at the end of a celluloid rainbow.

I'm afraid to ask you if you'd expand on that (read: tell about your shitty life when you were an aspiring filmmaker). But if you don't mind, I'll listen and learn.

tape store, you know who you need to talk to? people in town (and I know you know people in town like this) who, like you, lived in Columbia and went to school out of state. you also need to talk to people who went to school at Mizzou after living there since they were born.

Yeah...I've talked to people who left town and came back. But it seems everyone is trying to get out of Columbia (see: Warhamm3r 48k, mahj0ngg, T1ny Pants, etc.). And most of these people are going to Chicago, which seems like the midwest arts mecca.

I still haven't talked to people who lived in Columbia and stayed at Mizzou, though. I'll get on that.

your parents OTM

Uh, no! I'm not going to become a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer.

And Tracer, thanks for your advice. I'm thinking about taking some acting classes this summer...not so I can act but so that I can figure out what it's like for them (them obv. being actors).

I have experience with documentary filmmaking, so I was thinking about starting off with that (which would potentially lead to commercials, which would hopefully lead to full-length fiction). Does that sound feasible? I'm probably waaayyyy too naive.

i think it's a great idea to take some acting classes, tape store! just remember that there are SO MANY acting classes out there that are just ATROCIOUS and fill your brain with bad ideas. personally i feel that the actor's job and the director's job are sort of diametric opposites, two sides of the same coin. the director needs to be worried about what the total picture communicates, and the actor needs to concern him- or herself with just what his or her character is trying to accomplish in the scene and forget about everything else and let the director nudge him or her in a certain direction. in fact, if actors starts worrying about the total picture, they find themselves, 99% of the time, completely AT SEA and missing what they ought to be concentrating on - which is, you know, getting someone to spill the beans, or getting someone to join their team, or slapping someone into reality, etc. (in a documentary the same thing applies - your interview subjects should just worry about telling the part of the story they know, etc.)

as far as your career path thingie goes i don't know enough about that part :/

i have to say i don't understand the perspective of currently living in some smallish town/city in the midwest and being a creative thinker and not being completely desperate to *get out*. so, if i were you, i'd find a college that is far from and different to where you are now that will make financial aid work for your situation, and figure out your major after that.

-- colette, Sunday, May 20, 2007 2:21 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i understand this perspective. there is something unearthly and beautiful about these places. i am able to find special places in my head that are inaccesible from city life.

i think it also depends on whether you are an introvert or an extrovert

here's a pretty good fuck around plan if you're not all that enamored with the idea of staying in Columbia: move somewhere you think you'd like to go to school, work and establish residency. You can get a feel for the place, get involved with the local film/music/arts community and eventually not have to worry with the burden of out-of-state tuition.

I really wish I had (1) gone to a university not in my backyard and (2) not gone directly to college after HS graduation. I was a horrid student until about 20.

and by "in my backyard" I mean three hours away and filled with folks from my hometown.

I have experience with documentary filmmaking, so I was thinking about starting off with that (which would potentially lead to commercials, which would hopefully lead to full-length fiction). Does that sound feasible? I'm probably waaayyyy too naive.

Did you do the man on the street history doc that showed the last night of T/F?

Yeah...not brilliant or anything really remarkable, but I wasn't trying to be at the time.

dude shut up, that was fucking awesome!

hysterical and smart. really.

Aw, thanks. I've heard mixed reactions.

First off, sorry to keep bother ILX with this (I appreciate all your advice, whether it be on here or on AIM)

OK. So, my new goal is to leave Columbia. Don't get me wrong, I still the love this city...it's just that--like some people have already said--it's important for me to experience cities far away from here. I mean, ideally, that would be Europe, but $8ooo would only pay for plane tickets/a few months of room and board, right?

So, LA was my next idea...Anybody know any great colleges? Cheap ones? I know scholarships will help quite a bit, but I'm still wary about the whole money issue.

Anyone have any suggestions re: colleges? Or degrees? If I go into filmmaking at some school and fail, can I still get a good job?

My mom just yelled at me. "You're going to MU!"

:(

aside from the usual choices, which i'm sure someone like remy can tell you more about, if you are open to LA-ish and somewhat non-traditional (i saw reed and hampshire mentioned above), you might look at this. granted, not in LA, but i think they have good funding.

what about occidental? (max?)

dud: the "life in l.a." part of oxy's website showing only a picture of the freakin' UNIVERSAL CITYWALK.

You know me, I'd definitely advise getting out of Columbia. That town has a certain way of sucking in people from other places, much less someone's who grown up there.

My escape from Columbia, Misery, was to hightail it to Minneapolis. Far enough away to stomp around in someplace new, but only a night's drive back to "home". I also have friends who migrated to Chicago after Columbia. It's all still midwest, you're used to the weather, and Minneapolis is much more affordable than say L.A. or NYC.

pepperdine's a great school

I hate the whole financial issue...When colleges look at how much money my parents make, they'll probably assume I can afford tuition (yay upper middle class!), but my parents won't the be ones giving me aid if I leave town. :(

But I like these suggestions.

Ben Affleck went to Occidental? INTRSTNG

I think it'd be a much better idea to major in English or History or Poly Sci or Econ or something that will give you a bit more background knowledge

You mean political sciences and (applied) economics? My husband switched from the latter to the former and says the piece of paper entiteld DIPLOMA is pretty much useless (around here) as it mainly prepared you for a chained and balled life (read: working for the government).

Me? I dropped out.

Have you considered moving to Austin? There's a growing film industry here and the cost of living is much easier to handle than LA. I don't know much more about the film industry myself except that South by Southwest, one of our big music festivals, has added a film festival and it seems to be pretty successful.

Wow! I totally forgot about Austin. Yeah, SXSW is a pretty good film fest (not as good as True/False IMO, but it still picks up some really good docs).

It does and it doesn't matter where you go to undergrad. It doesn't matter in the sense that in the long run you can go to any grad school, and ultimately wind up in any career, from doing the right things at any half-decent university. It matters because going to a so-so big state school, especially in your home state, means you're going to be around a bunch of mostly myopic people with relatively homogeneous worldviews. You won't make the kinds of friends and contacts that will inspire you or help you get to the next stage, but on the other hand if you're driven you could take full advantage of the fact that you won't be crowded by a million other *creative types* fighting you for attention and resources.

If your parents are going to completely (or almost-) fund you should you choose to stay in state, do it. You have another 60+ years to move wherever the hell you want/let your freak flag fly. Getting out of undergrad with a diploma from a decent school and no debt puts you in a much better position to do what you want down the road, whether it's grad school or filmmaking or whatever.

what about occidental? (max?)

-- get bent, Sunday, July 22, 2007 10:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

i love the shit out of oxy, and i would love to talk to you about it tape store--email me if you want to know anything about it; or about being 18-22 and in LA and from a different state

btw oxy's website is mostly bullshit; if youd like to hear more about being interested in music/art/whatever instead of being interested in seeing mann's chinese theater like 40 times i can let you know...

the downside obviously is the $40k a year price tag, but oxy gives out a fair amount of money. its also easier to get in by being from a place like missouri

I didn't see some of these replies (thx for the offer max!)

And I keep switching and back and forth between milo/hurting's pro-Columbia arguments and my Columbia friends' "YOU NEED TO GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN" command. I'm e-looking at Emerson and Chapman for film school (which I am dead set on doing, though, to be quite honest, I'm much more interested in the equipment access than I am with screenwriting 101...)

I need to decide very, very soon, and I'm torn...Right now, I'm working on an interesting screenplay (for a full-length). I'm really, really excited about it. I have a lead actress who seems genuinely interested; she's quite good, too. And I have an awesome $150 mpeg camera that looks ridiculously amazing for the price...lots of character. I hope to submit it to Cannes. Whenever I mention this to someone, I'm greeted with laughs. But why not?

Mizzou, it is. In a nice little journalism program of, like, 40 people. I'm living a very ambitious life for the next couple weeks, balancing a feature-length film (needs to be finished March 15, scenes are all sticky-noted, and i have my lead actress...still doubting myself as the lead actor, but i don't know anyone else to fill the role), a weekly writing gig and school (including the soul-sucking newspaper). BUT I'M SO EXCITED. so excited that i might actually skip the festival i dedicated many, many hours to, the festival i live forrrr. AND I'M TEMPORARILY BLOCKING ILX STARTING...TOMORROW. wish me luck!

Good luck, young chum.

I never saw this thread. If you're looking to make films, DO NOT go to undergrad film school. This is a lesson I've learned the hard way.

Get your undergrad in something else that is somewhat more marketable and which will inform your artistic work (which it looks like you're doing), and if you still want to get into film, there are a bunch of grad programs that will get you shooting 35mm (or probably 4k digital by the time you're there) within like 9 months, with an MFA at the end.

I've worked on a few grad shoots, and they're huge and pretty much the closest to a "real" shoot you can get without entering the studio system in one way or another.

This is still going on, but we're almost done. Going for a different festival, obv.

Anyway, the biggest mistake i've made over the past couple years was getting involved with the high school journalism program. I could elaborate, but it would come across as pretentious and super lengthy.

choose one of the two (pretentious or super lengthy) and have at it!

DO TELL, MONSIEUR STORE.

Awwww...My teacher just left my a nice note that said something along the lines of, "You were too good for the paper."

That was the secretly pretentious answer.

But in other news, I think I'm leaving my house and living on my own. Buying a bike, moving in with a friend, taking advantage of this cheap cell phone plan and using a carpool to take a job in jefferson city. It's really scary and overwhelming, and I'm not sure how my mom will react (I threatened--mistake--to move today, and she played the, 'go ahead!' card)

(and because i left that answer a bit short, i'll elaborate: I spent so many goddamn hours working for that paper, making shitty stories printable and receiving no gratitude. and my teacher would give me bad grades occasionally. all along, i wish i had created more film and tried to freelance, even for some shitty, unread blog)

i cringe when i think about all the time i wasted in my teens and 20s worrying about what i would do with my life. none of this stuff matters.

i wish i had created more film and tried to freelance, even for some shitty, unread blog

:)

homie, trust me: you're gonna have time to do that stuff. don't feel like you've missed out already.

Yeah. I'm 25 and I'm still feeling like a fucking dumbass, all the time, 24/7

(PS this could just be me, d'oh)

i really appreciate the comments, but my instincts are telling me to get as big a head start as i can. I know it sounds stupid, but i'm kinda sick of ignoring my instincts. It seems easier to receive attention at 18 than at 24 (i'm speculating, obv., but...). People make a bigger deal out of it, and often they give you their contact info. For instance, this summer i got a job w/ a well-known singer/artist; I wouldn't have made that amazing contact had i not been writing and probably had i not been a high school student.

Yeah, but Carlos Santana is chill with everyone, not just high school students.

I think ages 18-24 are all about making contacts. try to meet as many kinds of people as you can and learn from them. and yeah, don't stress. I'm almost 42 and I'm still changing careers!

how'd you know, xpost?!?!

so are you going to college or what

fuck i don't know. i don't want to waste four years here. by the end of this summer, i should be able to move to l.a. and get a good job...i'm going to see how these two film projects go this summer and decide in august

the people in my fig seem like douches

i mean, i hate to go off facebook, but when they pop up on my news feed bragging about their past work and saying stupid pretentious shit, it's hard for me not to judge

young people

Dude I know folks with film degrees who are super networky and have the Columbia college alumni folks on their side who consider themselves extremely lucky when they get an unpaid internship. DO NOT move to L.A. looking to get a job in film unless you've already been hired OR if you've got a few years of proper work experience and plenty of contacts.

Go to college. Seriously. Shit's important and totally worth it, if not in proper monetary terms, than in every other way that is actually worth considering.

It will not, however, teach you not to confuse than and then in quickly typed message board posts.

That's grad school.

dude the people in your fig will probably be nice but ultimately worthless humans, it's only for one semester and at the very least it will give you people to eat with, which is nice. you shuold be able to make other friends tho.

you wanna write for the maneater at all or no?

a. i wouldn't be so tempted if i didn't have a few v. strong contacts in l.a.
b. i know, i know...the no degree thing sounds super stupid
c. re: maneater; honestly no, i have to figure out if i wanna quit the tr1b, and if i do, i'm going for a national publication (read: shitty blog)

you could afford to live in LA?

i mean you could come to school here for two semesters and make money working, up your portfolio, go to class and decide if it's for you or not

i mean you are only 18 + i think it would be kinda rash to throw away school after not even trying it