If you want a career in video production, there is no better way then to jump right in. The water feels fine! There are several ways to get started. For a quick list of different ways to get started, please follow these links for a short cut. If you know someone who needs to read these articles, you can share these articles with them using the buttons at the top of the articles.
How to get started in Professional Video Production using Social Media.
Traditional Steps To Start In Video Production
School
The most obvious choice is Art School or attending specialty programs which offer classes on different facets of video production. In Atlanta, Georgia State has a great film program. One can attend a traditional four-year college where you can also study business which can come in handy in the long run. Not only will you be well versed on how to shoot a film, but you can also learn the economics behind running a business.
If traditional 4-year colleges are not your thing, Art schools like SCAD are great institutions where you can surround yourself with thousands of creatives who specialize in wardrobe, set design, physical production, and visual effects.
Internships
As in any industry, the best way to learn is to actually get out there and do it. In today’s digital world, more and more creatives are picking up cameras, joining production creative groups and creating content. People are filming content on their phones and have turned it into millions of dollars through partnerships on Youtube and Instagram.
These creative avenues are fine, but if you want to learn how to produce a high-end commercial video production or feature film, you will want to intern with a company that shoots these types of video content. Sure you will make coffee and answer phone calls. But you will also get to coordinate shoots and maybe hold a boom pole or two.
Pull up Google and do a search for video production companies in Atlanta like ours or Video Production companies in New York, Los Angeles or whatever city you live in. Give them a call or send them an email and let them know you are interested in interning. Prepare your resume with pertinent experience and when the opportunity arises, send it to them. You will learn a lot more in a short time frame if you can get in with the right company looking for interns.
Apply to jobs online
Agh, the dreaded job search. If you have zero experience in the production industry, you can still find companies that are willing to teach the right people. The most important thing is personality, being easy to work with and having a strong desire to learn. For our Atlanta Talent Management Company, our Head of Talent and Our Head of Production had little to no experience in the business world. They had a Masters in Theatre from prestigious Universities and were former actors, so it’s not all about your experience
Next time you interview for a job in production, walk in there with the knowledge that if you have a great personality and seem like someone the interviewers wants to work with, that can be more then enough.
Social Media
We touched on this a bit earlier. Youtube and Instagram is sort of a grey area for me. On one end, historically, professional videos are not meant to be distributed on Youtube, Instagram or any other social sites. We are moving towards a society where apps and other digital platforms are exploring the business practice of monetizing long form on social channels but we aren’t there yet, nor am I convinced we will.
The fact remains people are making millions of dollars creating short-form content on socials and Integrating brand messages, then sending them to their millions of followers. Social is a great way to learn the production process on your own – before schools, before internships. If you apply for a job at Paramount and state you created a youtube channel with 250,000 subscribers, they will listen to what you have to say.
Social videos will teach you how to organize a story, edit it, and deliver it to a viewing audience. Congratulations, you just completed the exact same process JJ Abrams and Michael Bay go through. Albeit on a much smaller scale, but you get the point
