Networking

Networking is something that can be seen as dirty, but really you are just trying to connect with people who are working in your field who can be friends outside of work as well. The more genuine the connection, the better the working relationship will be.

Understanding your Role

It's important for you to have a firm idea of what role you want to do and a general idea of what kind of work you're interested in. Some areas have jobs that are centered around commercials, industrials, music videos, or narrative filmmaking. Some might have a combination. You need to be sure that there is work to be had in your area before trying to get it.

Networking On Set

The best place to network is doing so on set. People can see you working and know that they can trust you with their next project.

Keep in Touch

When working on jobs, try to keep in touch with as many crew members that provide a good working relationship. This will help possibly keep work coming in if others remember you and will recommend you for future crews. This could be anyone from the producer to a PA, as people will move up quickly and you should put a good impression on everyone. This could be anything from following them on social media to exchanging contact info if its someone you seriously would like to work with next time.

Networking Off Set

You will have to put in some amount of energy outside of work to get people interested in doing new projects with you.

Developing New Leads

After a certain point you're going to run out of mutual friends or on-set contacts to connect with and you'll want to keep growing your network. These are some areas you can look into to find new directors or other crew members to network with.

• Film Festivals. Approach directors or crew members that worked on a project that truly stood out to you. try to get contact info and possibly reach out if they have future projects that need help developing.

• Fundraising sites to find local projects to reach out to for either future collaborations or other developments.

• Vimeo Staff Picks

• Short of the Week

• Film Shortage

• No Budge

• Look through posts asking for a director and reach out to those directors

• Free the Work

• Commercial Directors Diversity Program

Cold Calling

If you fit you can try contact production companies that mention diversity on their website.

This is mostly done through email or DM's on certain social platforms. Keep in mind you'll have to change the tone of your message depending on the platform. A great email could be a terrible message on Instagram. Email is really preferable as it is a bit more formal, but it's not always possible as they have to be publicly available. The following information will be for email, just know that if you reach out on Facebook or Instagram it should be a bit less formal.

• Subject Line

The subject line should be about them. Attempt to prove to them that you carefully planned to contact them and are not a spammer who sends myriads of identical emails to people and waits to see what sticks. Engage their attention by making them reflect on a problem they may have.

• Intro

A cold email introduction shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 sentences. It’s not supposed to introduce them to us. Instead, mention something about them or their project.

Ex: I just watched your project (name) from (source). I really loved how you (something specific about the project you liked.)

• Pitch

Try your best to put the person you're reaching out to in the center of your pitch. Provide as much value to them as you can.

• CTA

At the end include some sort of call to action. Most of the time this will be a coffee meeting.

Formal Example

Hey Tyler!

I just found your interview with the New Directors Showcase, watched some of your work and really loved it. Its hard NOT to relate to “What Day is it?”…loved the whole rabbit hole feeling of it all, a bunch of great laugh out loud moments.

I felt like I had to reach out to you since it felt like we had a few things in common. I’ve been working as a DP for Comedy Central doing branded content for them, did a bunch of sketch comedy work for College Humor in the past, and it looks like you’re headed in the commercial/sketch comedy world too.

Any chance you’d have some free time soon to grab a coffee? I’m in the LA area and would love to meet up if you’re up for it.

If you want to check out some of my work, here’s my website (http://www.ryanthomasdp.com) the most recent Comedy Central project I did was the Can Mold project.

Thanks and hope to talk soon!

Informal Example

Hey Kati! I took a peak at your website and ended up watching Pots N Tots...omg...SO GOOD. The whole sequence of the colored overlaid faces that transitions to the old TV was perfect...not to mention that it actually felt pretty big in scope for being a short, pretty impressive.

I've been trying to focus my work recently, looking for more directors doing weird comedies. :) Any chance you'd have some free time to grab a coffee? Would love to hang out and see if there's some way we could work together in the future.

Networking with you

Sometimes you will have someone who found your work on social media or by recommendation of someone else. They might want to pick your brain on your workflow and ask for advice on current or future projects. This is a good time to share and explain your method even if it is a little chaotic. Having the ability to articulate and explain things to someone else helps simplify certain approaches that you can use to explain to future clients or directors.

Having the chance to talk to someone reaching out can also provide the opportunity to get feedback on your approaches to your role on set. This could mean better ways to communicate to your team or anyone else.

Of course, at the end of the day, this adds another person to your network you might be able to call upon for future help.

Meetings

Meetings are great for anyone at any point in your relationship. Just have to ask them if they'd like to meet up for a coffee or drinks. This could help you to learn more about someone, catch up with what they've been up to, or see if you can work on a project together.

• Important to not say lunch or breakfast unless you mean it!

If you are meeting with people often buying lunch out all the time can get expensive, not to mention it's tougher to talk while you eat.

• Find somewhere you can pay at the counter

Don't feel obligated to pay for someone else's meal, its not expected.

• Don't Meet too Often

Once every 4-6 months is ok. Otherwise you run out of projects and things to talk about.

• Take Notes

If you can walk away from the meeting with a few notes about them that you can bring up next time, it will show you've paid attention.

The goal of the meetings is to work on a project with them. If you are interested in doing commercials, that could be a spec. If you want to do narrative, that might be a short film. Its much easier to work with someone on something that is a bit lower stakes. This will allow them to trust you more for a bigger project.