The highway to seek out regular work in Hollywood is extra fraught now than ever earlier than. The leisure business is within the throes of a seismic transformation, as conventional jobs are vanishing, and AI threatens to utterly upend the way in which visible media is made and consumed. Fortuitously, Ada Tseng and Jon Healey are right here to assist.
The writing crew, each former Occasions editors with intensive expertise protecting present enterprise, have written “Breaking Into New Hollywood,” a how-to information like no different. Healey and Tseng interviewed lots of of insiders each above and under the road — gaffers, casting administrators, actors, writers, stunt individuals and plenty of others — to supply an in depth, wide-screen view of the best way to break in, and what it’s like once you really do discover that dream job.
I sat down with Healey and Tseng to debate their new guide.
Ada Tseng, left, and Jon Healey.
(Ricardo DeAratanha; Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Occasions)
That is essentially the most complete how-to information for Hollywood careers I’ve ever learn. The place did the impetus for the guide come from?
Ada: The guide began as a Hollywood careers sequence on the Los Angeles Occasions, when Jon and I have been editors on a crew that specialised in writing guides and explainers. As we have been occupied with the best way to be helpful to L.A. Occasions readers, I pitched a venture to assist individuals who have been curious about getting a job in Hollywood. Lots of people come to L.A. starry-eyed with massive goals, however the movie and TV business could be fairly brutal.
Jon: A number of of us I interviewed had comparable origin tales on this respect: They knew that they wished to work within the business in some capability, however they didn’t know what precisely they may do. So it made sense to do a guide for that type of individual — a information that will present an array of attainable profession paths to individuals who didn’t know what function they wished to fill.
I really feel like “How to Break into the Business” books prior to now have tended to give attention to constructive outcomes somewhat than the wrestle. Did you wish to mood expectations, or at the least be certain individuals assume issues via very completely earlier than leaping in?
Ada: We simply wished to be trustworthy. The glamorous fantasy of Hollywood is so intoxicating. However in case you’re going to work within the business, that you must navigate the day-to-day actuality of it. I don’t assume we have been making an attempt to encourage or discourage anybody. I’d hope that some individuals would learn the chapters and assume, “This seems doable, and now I can make a plan,” whereas others would learn it and assume, “If I’m honest with myself, I’m someone who needs more stability in my life.” As a result of it’s not only a profession alternative. It’s a life-style alternative.
Jon: Proper, this was about expectation-setting and reality-checking. The very first interviews I did on this venture have been of Foley artists. An knowledgeable I interviewed stated there have been 40 to 50 established Foley practitioners within the U.S., and 100 to 200 of us making an attempt to get into the sector. That’s a really robust nut to crack. Then there are the Hollywood unions, which current a catch-22 to anybody making an attempt to hitch their ranks — they need to do a sure variety of hours in jobs lined by union contracts, however union members get first crack in any respect these gigs.
Your guide additionally covers jobs above and under the road. I feel many individuals don’t even notice what number of completely different profession alternatives exist.
Ada: There are two issues we heard over and over. Individuals would say, “It’s incredibly important to understand what all the different departments do.” And so they’d additionally say, “So many people — even our own colleagues in the industry — don’t understand what we do.” So we wished to encourage newcomers to find out about all several types of jobs in Hollywood and the way they work collectively.
Jon: Speaking concerning the emotional elements is about setting expectations too. The overwhelming majority of people that work in Hollywood, from A-list actors to entry-level grips, are freelancers. That’s a tricky lifetime of highs and lows, and you need to put together for that mentally in addition to financially. Individuals need to hustle for years to ascertain themselves, and that takes an infinite capability for rejection. On prime of that’s the bodily toll the work can extract, particularly on the oldsters concerned in establishing and tearing down units. A part of the purpose of the guide is to inform individuals with Hollywood goals that they’ll have to gird themselves emotionally and bodily for the work.
You additionally broach the topic of cash and who makes what. One other novel concept for a guide like this.
Ada: We constantly heard from those that it takes 5 to 7 years to make a dwelling — and that’s in case you’re profitable. So until you come from wealth, the way you pay your payments once you aren’t reserving gigs is an integral a part of breaking into — and reaching longevity — in Hollywood.
Additionally, the cash varies broadly — relying on expertise, how massive the venture is and different components, nevertheless it’s good to know the fundamental minimums dictated by the unions, in addition to whether or not you’re curious about a profession path the place you may anticipate to have yearly full-time work – or if 30 weeks of employment a 12 months is taken into account a extremely good 12 months.
Jon: The toughest elements to write down for me, and possibly for Ada too, have been the sections telling individuals in sure fields that they have been anticipated to work free of charge. Fortunately, the business appears to be getting higher about that, albeit as a result of it’s been pressured to take action.
Ada: Though, it’s not even that you just aren’t getting cash. It’s important to spend some huge cash, whether or not you’re taking lessons, shopping for gear, submitting your work for fellowships — getting your individual aircraft tickets and lodge rooms to go to occasions to community or promote your work. You’re mainly investing in your self as a enterprise.
Your sections on AI are eye-opening. It’s not essentially a profession killer however, in reality, may increase employment, proper?
Jon: I like to offer a brilliant lengthy reply to this query that cites the lengthy historical past of commercial revolutions, however for the sake of brevity, I’ll simply say that know-how has at all times been essential to the movie and TV business, and improvements through the years have ended some livelihoods whereas creating others. AI instruments can permit filmmakers to be extra environment friendly, simply as digital cameras and LED lights have carried out. That inevitably means fewer jobs per venture, but additionally ought to lead to extra initiatives being green-lit. And as digital instruments and streaming providers eradicate boundaries to entry in music, so can AI eradicate boundaries to entry in movie. Advocates of AI consider there will probably be a internet enhance in jobs, and time will inform whether or not they’re proper. However there’s no query that the roles in movie and TV will probably be completely different.
Ada: This was one other onerous half to offer recommendation about, as a result of AI is quickly evolving and there’s loads of well-founded concern concerning the jobs of our generations that will probably be eradicated. However this guide is for the following era, and aspiring creatives have to deal with AI as a part of their toolkit.
Was there any frequent thread that runs via all the interviews you performed with professionals?
Ada: Everyone seems to be deeply dedicated to their crafts, however what they’re most captivated with is storytelling. What I imply by that’s: A fancy dress designer, in fact, is captivated with clothes, but when their fundamental precedence was lovely clothes, they’d be a stylist or a clothier. Costume designers are captivated with utilizing clothes to create a personality and inform a narrative. Equally, if a set decorator’s fundamental ardour was creating lovely properties, they’d be an inside designer. However a set decorator needs to make use of the furnishings, decor and objects that will help you perceive the protagonist’s backstory.
Jon: Even essentially the most achieved crew members and producers we talked to stated they checked out their jobs as advancing another person’s imaginative and prescient, not their very own. They discovered early on to not get invested emotionally of their greatest concepts as a result of another person — the director on a movie, the showrunner on a TV sequence — can be the decide of which concepts to make use of. That’s actually humbling.
What do you assume is essentially the most profound change in Hollywood because it continues to transition from theatrical and TV into streaming?
Jon: Streaming has confirmed to be an enormous boon to long-form storytelling, at the least from the viewer’s vantage level. You’d nonetheless have “Succession” with out streaming, however you don’t have the amount of “Succession”-level exhibits with out the funding and competitors from the likes of Netflix, Apple and Amazon. However the economics of streaming sequence are very completely different from these of a long-running broadcast TV present. There are fewer episodes, which suggests much less pay for writers, actors and crew members over the course of a 12 months. And residuals are decrease for individuals who are entitled to them. In the meantime, after a gentle rise within the variety of scripted exhibits launched within the U.S., the quantity fell sharply in 2024. So it seems that peak TV could have peaked.
For motion pictures, the pandemic gave studios a preview of the post-theatrical world to return. However, the business continues to be struggling to give you a coherent strategy to streaming. A lot of a film’s advertising continues to be tied to theatrical releases, and multiplexes and studios proceed to struggle over how lengthy a brand new film ought to wait earlier than it hits the streamers. And I’m wondering if there isn’t a lingering stigma for motion pictures which are out there instantly for streaming, much like the one for motion pictures that went straight to DVD.
Ada: It’s not simply streaming. Every part that we eat from our telephones — from social media content material to podcasts to gaming livestreams — will not be solely competing with mainstream Hollywood but additionally changing into a part of the identical massive leisure ecosystem.
However on the flip aspect, it’s by no means been extra attainable for aspiring creatives to bypass conventional gatekeepers, make their very own initiatives, join instantly with audiences and construct their very own income streams — even when it’s by no means going to be straightforward.
Preorder “Breaking Into New Hollywood” and skim Tseng and Healey’s authentic Occasions reporting that led to the guide.
