Pro Tip #7 - Up your skills

This post applies to all sitting at home during the corona-virus with no job.
The best thing you can do in your downtime, not just the virus time but every time you are without a project is to up your skillset.

You never know what you learn today will come handy tomorrow. It does not necessarily have to be related to your field. But if it is so, it might help you better when you apply for your next job.

A few film-related examples: 

For a graduate just out of college and wants to be an assistant in advertising or filmmaking, master the skills of PowerPoint and/or Pages. If you have done so move on the basics of Photoshop or Indesign these skills will come handy when you are preparing your PPM docket.

An actor who thinks that only acting is needed, think about learning to sing, dance, play an instrument or even something like martial arts. You never know when that skill is the reason you win a role over someone else. Why stop there, learn direction or scriptwriting these will give you insights into how and why people get cast.

Directors learn how to edit or compose music, you may end up with a disaster of a project but you might learn a few tricks which will come in handy later when dealing with the professionals on your project.



Some learning comes from watching behind the scenes, or a director's interview or anyone from your industry. You could learn just by listening to their experiences on the project.


Look to learn other soft skills, like a new language, patience, personality development, leadership, decision making, etc. All these will help you grow as a better human being, it does not matter which field you belong to.

Every day is a chance to learn something new.

Check out more professional filmmaking tips here

Don't forget to read,

Pro Tip #6 - Portfolio Sending

Pro Tip #6 - Portfolio sending

These tips are for all the actors, directors and anyone who attaches their body of work in emails.

When sending out your work, be it images, videos or files think of the person on the receiving end as well as what you are trying to showcase. Sending an email full of attachments may not even go through if the receiver has a limit to attachment size. Not to mention that they then have to download these in order to view them. Remember a lot of people read their emails on their mobiles and most will not have the patience to wait for your entire work to come through.

So how to get noticed and make sure your work gets looks at. Here are some tips you could follow.

1. Send one link with all your work. The link should lead the person to see all your work online, e.g. a website.

2. You don't have a website, you can still use what's free and available.
Like a link to a photo album on Gmail or G-drive, if you have videos, you can have a separate blog with your work or even an Instagram or Facebook page with only your work that needs to be seen.

3. If your an actor or photographer and still want to attach your work, send a comp card.
That way in one image the person gets a quick idea of your work. Don't forget to put the link to the rest of your work on the image.

4. For directors, cinematographers, music composers etc, you may have multiple files to share.
Do not paste multiple links in the body of the email.  Instead send either a short montage or a playlist with individual work.

5. Remember its important to customize your showreel especially if you are sending this for a pitch. You want the showreel to match the pitch, like beauty work to a beauty client or drama work for a storytelling script.

6. A playlist can be easily made on youtube for videos.
You can have different playlists for the variety of work you want to showcase.
Like different playlists for a director could be under the genres - comedy, action, vfx, beauty etc.

7. If you have to send different genres of work do not send more than 2 - 3 links.
If using your website make sure there are separate tabs that can quickly take people to the desired section on your webpage quickly.

7. Link to FTP's or sites like we-transfer where one has to download the files before viewing is a big NO-NO.

8. Use hyper-links ideally or at least make sure your link is clickable and the person does not have to copy & paste in the browser.

Keeping your email neat and short is always the way to get people to glance at your work. If they like it, then further conversation and detailed work can be shared at a later stage.


Check out more professional filmmaking tips here

Don't forget to read

Pro-tip #5 - File Naming

Pro Tip #7 - Up your skills

Pro Tip #5 - File Naming

When you have multiple versions of files in the same folder, the best way to name your file is to use the 
Year/Month/Date_Project Name_Description_Version No.
This always lines up all your files in the folder vs any other file name format, that could mix up the order of your files. 

TIPs when naming your files- 

• Always use the YYYYMMDD or the YYMMDD format to start your file name.
• Date followed by Project Name or Client name or Project Number
• Use short forms/anagrams for big names
• Overall keep the file name as short as possible.
• If possible have as much description of the contents in the name
• Files should be named consistently
• Avoid special characters (@ # $ *) in a file name.
• The use of underscore ( _ ) is recommended instead of spaces. 
• Use Version No to differentiate between files

Examples:

200306_BTS_offline_V1

200306_BTS_offline_V2
200306_BTS_offline_V1A1
200306_BTS_offline_V2A2
200306_BTS_grade_V1
200306_BTS_online_V1

*BTS - Behind the scenes (Project name)
** V1 - Version 1
***V1A1 - Version 1 video with Audio option 1


NOTE:

Ideally, organize different files in separate folders. 
Like a separate folder for all your offlines the same for online or audio etc.



Check out more professional filmmaking tips here

For more tips read

Pro Tip #4 - When sending your resume
Pro Tip #6 - Portfolio sending

Pro Tip #4 - When sending your resume

Yes sending your resume to many people is a very good thing but you should take the trouble to make each email personal.

Never and I mean NEVER CC people from different companies. The only time to use CC would be when its different people in the same company.


Check out more professional filmmaking tips here

For more tips and details read

Pro Tip #3 - When sending your resume

Tips when applying for work