Directing the Documentary, 6th Edition

PART 8

WORK

 

 

After your training period you have to make the difficult transition into paid employment. Even if you have established a top-notch reputation for craftsmanship and reliability, you will probably have to struggle for a subsistence living while you get established, like most people in the arts.

For these two final chapters I consulted the career development specialist Dirk Matthews of Columbia College Chicago, and Tod Lending, Academy-nominated director of many PBS films (www­.no­mad­icp­ix.­com­). He is an old hand at writing proposals for grants, foundations, and broadcasters.

During Dirk’s decades of placement counseling, he has tracked thousands of arts students setting out to find professional employment. He stresses the need ...