Well, I graduated. Feels pretty anti-climactic. Was film school a waste of $200k? Maybe…*
I took a trip with my friends to Florida for a week and half. I kinda put all thoughts about my future on hold. Now, I’m back in NYC and unemployed.
While my parents are kind, money isn’t flowing from fountains and I don’t want to be a financial burden on them - they paid for my college and the majority of my rent these past few years and I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking for much more. Furthermore, I’m not the type to just sit on my butt and collect unemployment. I’m a physically and mentally healthy young man and want to be productive.
So, here is how I divide my workday:
Job searching
I look for both junk/survival jobs (retail & service) as well as salaried positions in film, games, VR industries. I know a bit of Unreal Engine* and Python, plus being a writer opens you up for copywriting/assistant positions. By the end of the month, I hope to be employed somewhere that pays at least $20/hour.
One useful tip I have, for those lucky enough to have attended university, is to look up an employer on LinkedIn. It tells you how many people who went to your school are employed there. Look at this list and try to find the contact info of at least one of the names - just Google the names if the info isn’t on the profile. Reach out to these people. Most people are very friendly and want to help you get a job.*
Fulbright
Ever heard of a Fulbright Grant? It’s a fairly prestigious program that sends U.S. citizens abroad to study a master’s program at a foreign university or to perform some sort of research project of their own choosing. Pretty nifty - people will often put this on their resume.
The organization also funds creative research projects. Perhaps you want to study at an elite German ballet school or you want to take large portrait photos of female FARC soldiers in Colombia. Or… in my case, write a screenplay about the attempted assassination of Italian socialist politician Palmiro Togliatti.
Fulbright would [theoretically] pay my housing and living expenses to spend ten months in Catania, Sicily, researching, learning, immersing myself in the culture, and writing a screenplay on the subject matter.
I spend a little bit of each day working on my application. Right now, I’m reaching out to the University of Catania and other institutions and inquiring about a sponsorship.
Independent Work
In addition to these two projects, I work on various screenplays (all at different stages), including one collaborative short. There’s a short I’d like to shoot this summer I have written, I just need to go about finding collaborators and producing.
I hone my skills in Unreal Engine, Python, as well as video editing and special effects so I can improve myself as a creative asset and add pieces to my portfolio.
Finally, there’s this very blog. I have so many ideas for cool, new stuff, but right now I’m still getting comfortable with the written columns.
What else?
Aside from all that, I’m spending time with my girlfriend, playing video games, watching movies, and making efforts to improve my NYC social life.
Until next time,
-Andrew
*I will expand on these subjects in later entries - believe me, I have a LOT to say