Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Things I might do... later

I've been thinking a lot about what I'm doing after graduation. I think I've gotten my two-year itch to get up and move again. As much as I love college, something tells me it's time to start real life soon. Here are my current options:

1. Go home. Well, this isn't an option, actually. My two best friends from high school getting married in June and my bridesmaid duties require my presence for my first two months as a college graduate. However, this is not all just sitting around and waiting for the weddings. It's free room and board, and because I'm so close to New York City, I'm going to translate this into Get An Internship, something I don't have on my resume but is a practical necessity in this industry. If I find at the end of the weddings/internship that I am still poor but can find a job in the City, then I might stick around the area for another year or so.

2. Move to LA. This is tricky. The thing about moving to LA is that you sorta need money before you go out there. Since you can't get a job before you're there, you're going to spend a couple of weeks just job searching, paying to live in LA without having any money come back in. There is just the slimmest chance that I will be financially ready to move to LA come July. My other LA option is this Screenwriter's Lab. My screenwriting prof of last year recommended it to me, and by the time the deadline rolls around I should have at least two scripts that have been raked over enough to show to them. I haven't done well in competitions historically, but if I can get into this, I won't mind moving out to LA and getting a job at Starbucks or Applebee's or nannying for some B-list actress. As long as I have some film-related reason for being there, I'll take any job.

3. Albuquerque. Or any other place that has great tax incentives and low cost of living. Michigan recently passed a whole lot of tax incentives for film and business has been great. My industry professor has friends in New Mexico who've never stopped working since they passed the tax incentives there. There are a couple other states that have drawn the film industry but still remain relatively cheap places to live. If I were to stay in Michigan, though, I'd need more of a reason than just a job. New Mexico sounds like fun, maybe just because I've never been there before, but I'm going to have to learn how to spell Albuquerque. This would be a stepping stone to LA. 1-3 years.

4. Leave the country. One of our recent graduates works in Ireland for a production company and is involved in the International Film Board or something. Let's be honest. I'm going to live in Ireland one day, and I'm much more interested in winning an Irish Academy Award than an American one. The only question is how soon do I want to move there and should I stop by LA on the way.

5. Move to a small town with one stop light somewhere west of the Mississippi, get a high profile job like bank teller, and spend a year writing and being the center of town gossip.

I still have about six months to figure this out, eight if you count my time in Jersey for the weddings. Something, maybe just how it's happened in the past, makes me feel like I won't know for sure until month seven and three quarters.

1 comment:

Karl Jansen said...

I just read your #4 option, and although it doesn't involve Ireland, I suggest making films to inform the world about the rest of the world.

Because I love Haiti so much, I've come across this one...
http://bzfilms.com/haitian-hope/
and this one...
http://www.obangatek.com/haiti/

But I've also heard of may other causes that have movies or films involved in some way to promote their work.
For example, Invisible Children...
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php

And I'm sure you've see other films that are of the same nature of all these. Maybe you've already though about all this, but i just thought I'd share my "comeback" with you.

Happy Thanksgiving