The good news is you don’t have to know everything to work in the film industry. No two productions are the same; you will frequently be inventing what to do to get a shot, scene or concept on film. That’s why you need to take stock of your experiences to date and be knowledgeable of your expertise.

Take my first day at IMAX. We were shooting a documentary in space (yes, real space) when the MIR space station was in orbit. The camera was scheduled to go up on the Space Shuttle, which would dock on to MIR. The Space Shuttle would then go about its business, leaving as scheduled. But the camera – and film stock – would still be on MIR. Our challenge: how do we get the camera and film back to Earth?

I thought nothing in my life would prepare me for contributing to the logistics discussion (between Producer, PM, and UM) … but I was wrong. From my life experiences, including a love of international travel, and those photo safaris with my dad when I was a kid (experimenting with both antique and modern film cameras), I could contribute. Sure, I’d never dealt with the potential for sun’s radiation in the vacuum of space, but I’ve plenty dealt with multiple airport x-ray machine radiation on exposed and unexposed film stock.

In the end, we chose to send up (on an earlier shuttle) unexposed film stock from all the leading film stock companies to see which one(s) would handle the extreme radiation best. Then when it was time to send up the camera. We had our best-choice film stock, and we brought both camera and film back via Soyez into Russia instead of the Space Shuttle into the USA… which meant, yes, we also need to prepare the documentation for crossing the international border via a trip to space!

So… what life experiences have you had that could cross-over into the film industry? On your CV, you can flag some of these experiences as hobbies; they also double as good prompts for interview ice breakers.

Cheers & a good shoot to you,
Deb

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“Film Production Management 101” (now in its third edition) is updated for today’s respectful workplace and sustainable practices – available worldwide, including Amazon-USA, Indigo-Canada and many other bookstores or directly from the publisher (MWP).