I’ve had several people recommend moving to Los Angeles as a way of “breaking in.” My long term plan is to write and direct. In the mean time, I’m willing to work as a grunt on set, be an administrative assistant in a production company, or whatever, (if necessary) to start networking and getting professional experience.

I taught 10 years of high school drama, video tech, TV Broadcasting, and stage craft. I know all aspects from creative to technical, but was working in a school, not professional, setting. And the equipment has changed since I quit several years ago. I also have a completed feature length script and a short script. I’m working on other projects as well.

My questions:

1) How do I prepare my resume? Towards a specific job or more generically. Should I prepare several resumes, each focused on something else? What should the focus(es) be? Do I include my paid, but non-movie making professional experiences or my non-paid volunteer movie making experiences? How about my stage/theater background?

3) Any particular jobs that I should focus on in terms of easiest to get my foot in the door or in terms of where the greatest need is whether or not it relates to my ultimate goals?

4) What jobs would offer the best networking opportunities that would help to ultimately reach my directing and writing goals?

2) Where do I go? LA is big. Does it matter what neighborhood I end up in? Which one(s)? How about towns close, but not in LA?

3) What should I expect to pay to rent a 1 bedroom apartment?

4) Any other advice or things I should consider?

Hi Filmlover,

I moved out to LA less than a year ago.  I came out here with 2 features and 1 tv show on my resumé, but it was a big change nonetheless.  It’s hard to say what to include on your resumé.  You basically want to show that you can handle anything, so if you were performing office duties in a fast-paced non-film job, that is going to be helpful if you’re trying to get a job as an office pa.  I think the best thing for you to do is to dig up any possible contacts that you’ve met over the years.  The easiest way for you to get your foot in the door is to use someone you know.  And you should basically take whatever you can get.  It’s true that one contact leads to another to another to another.  I started on a tv show, and jobs have been coming to me ever since, just through the people that I have met.  I now have contacts in both film and tv, from the office pa’s up to executives at the studios.  It’s pretty amazing once you can just get that first gig. 

It might be a hard time to move out here with the writers strike going on because films will be the only thing in production and everyone from both film and tv who already have contacts will be fighting for those jobs.  Maybe shoot your short film script while you wait?  Or polish up the feature script.  Because once you get your first job you’ll have contacts to give those things to, and they have to be good. 

The cost of living out here is pretty expensive.  I rent a two bedroom with a roommate and we each pay about $1000 including utilities.  You can get a studio for about $900-$1000 or live with a roommate or two for as low as $800.  It’s pretty steep.  Especially considering the average PA rate is $650-$700/week.

You can pretty much live wherever you want, and your jobs are always going to be changing, so you can’t really pick your apartment based on your first job.  You can make it a little easier for yourself and live in Burbank or Hollywood so you know that you’ll be fairly close to all of the studios.  I know some people who live out in Santa Monica or Venice because they love it out there, but it’s a bad commute.  Stick to Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Burbank, or you can live in the valley (Studio City, Sherman Oaks, etc.).  I don’t like the valley very much though.  It gets hot.

Anyway, that was a long response!  If you still have questions I’d be happy to write again.

Good luck with everything!  LA is a very cool town, and I totally recommend you eventually coming out here…

Thank you for all the details. That was great information! Everything you said rings true and confirms things I have heard elsewhere. I do have a contact in TV and he said he would be glad to introduce me to a few people. I have a resume which includes my directing, assistant directing, and producer work. It was mostly in public schools and community theater. I am planning to come visit, perhaps knock on a few doors and just get a feel for things sometime in the next 3 to 4 weeks. Any chance of taking you to lunch in exchange for looking over my resume and talking further?

Feel free to email me at or call me at 707-577-8797.

Thanks,
Kimberly