30 Oct 09 A New Wave of Film Jobs is Coming by Alex Baker
Once clustered almost entirely in southern California, film jobs and film internships have become much more prevalent throughout the country as production continues to migrate to “third coast” areas. Because of this, the need for film talent across the United States has significantly increased.
Southern California, once the almost exclusive domain of Film and TV production does, on the other hand, continue to be a primary hub of the industry. The best professionals – writers, actors, directors, editors – are still in the Los Angeles area.
Meanwhile, New York City has also witnessed an increase in production with many network and critically acclaimed cable TV series making use of it as their home base. The city also keeps a sustainable level of commercial and feature film production.
The “third coast” locations, situated between the coasts, has become a whole new era in feature film production. Over the last ten years, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida – also known as gulf states – have seen a significant increase in production. While these projects usually bring in key people, the need for locally hired production crew has taken a big leap. As such, there has been a big increase in the number of film jobs existing along the gulf coast. This has created an increased demand for talent needed to occupy these vacancies.
Metropolitan areas like Minneapolis, San Francisco and Chicago have also began to establish themselves as production centers. For example, TV drama, “The Beast” (starring the late Patrick Swayze) and major film production “The Dark Knight” have been the filmed in Chicago.
The film industry has proven itself to be resilient during the past economic downturns – but this doesn’t mean that the industry is totally recession-proof. This can be explained by the fact that people try to find solace in entertainment – in television shows and movies – when recession hits.
Major developments in digital film production have also created an increased demand for talent with the skills to take film production into the next level. At present, the demand has never been greater especially that film production has been done virtually anywhere and in novel ways.
The business always needs new face as well as writers and directors with novel ideas. This paves way for the increase in demand of “below-the-line” talent in key production roles. Talented, trained personnel to work as art directors, sound people, cinematographers, grips, and lighting people, are an invaluable element of any film production.
Indeed, it is safe to assume that as film production continues to transfer to other locals and ways of filming continue to diversify, the demand for new talent in the film industry for film internships and jobs will constantly rise.
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