5 Popular Entertainment Industry Misconceptions

Every industry has misconceptions about it that people hold while looking in from the outside, perhaps none more so than the entertainment industry.  The entire business is based on creating fantasy worlds, and that’s often confused with what goes into the actual work of film production.  Anyone who has worked in the business for any length of time has heard the misconceptions about our industry from friends, family and acquaintances.  What they see from the outside is an illusion, not the reality of what we experience in our day to day work.

Here are 5 popular misconceptions about working in the entertainment industry that I’ve encountered during the course of my career:

1. It’s a glamorous business to work in.

To me the most exciting thing about working in the industry is the fact that it’s always changing.  If you work in production, your location changes, what you’re filming each day changes and the crew changes from job to job.  It’s interesting to work on a variety of creative projects with a revolving group of people.  I’ve had more jobs in some years than many people have in their lifetime.  However, is the day to day work glamorous?  No.  You have to really enjoy the work itself, or you’re better off doing something else.

2. We have cushy jobs.

Working on a film set is physically demanding work.  Most of us spend long hours on our feet and have to remain mentally and physically sharp enough to make decisions and set up and break down equipment, even when we’re mentally and physically exhausted.  On a movie or television series, this goes on day after day for months.  Weekends are often spent trying in vain to catch up on missed sleep.  It’s not work for the mentally or physically weak and I wouldn’t call any of the jobs cushy.

3. Everyone who works in the entertainment industry is wealthy.

Anyone in the Hollywood labor unions who works regularly can make a comfortable living and will have health and pension benefits.  But most people working in the industry are not what I’d consider wealthy.  Even before the current shut down, many people in the industry, especially the non-union workers and assistants, were struggling.  Work can be erratic and unpredictable, such as the halt in production we’re experiencing right now.  Shows can get cancelled unexpectedly.  Below-the-line industry workers can make a decent living, but most are not wealthy.

4. You have to go to film school to get a job in the industry.

Almost none of the successful people I know in the industry went to film school.  In fact, some call film school a breeding ground for unemployment.  While that may or may not be true, no one is guaranteed an industry job by going to film school.  My own college degree has nothing to do with filmmaking, and many very successful people working in the entertainment industry didn’t go to college at all.  Many film school programs are focused more on theory than on the actual process of film production, and are not useful in training students to work on a set.  They’d learn more about film making by working as set P.A.s.

5. The smartest, most talented people have the most success.

As is true of many industries, the smartest and most talented people are not necessarily the ones who rise to the top in the entertainment industry.  You do have to be competent at your job, but it takes more than that to really succeed.  Because so much industry work is freelance, it’s essential to network constantly and keep up your contacts to get work.  The people who master this and persevere are the ones who enjoy the most success.  I worked with one director early in my career who excelled at this, making networking calls non-stop between setups.  This industry favors the bold.

So that’s my roundup of the 5 misconceptions about the film industry that I’ve probably heard the most over the years.  Did I miss any?  I welcome your comments.