It (Still) All Comes Down to the "Bible"

L

OS ANGELES, CA — Wandering around the Siggraph floor these last couple of days has generated a great deal of envy for this former USC film student. For just a few thousand dollars, you can have at minimum:

• a prosumer DV camcorder;
  
• a baseline Power Mac G5;
  
• Appleis Production Suite of editing tools; and
  
• an extra FireWire 800 drive or two.

You could spend a little more for various accessories like a tripod, a dolly (or used wheelchair), some sound equipment, special effects software. Meanwhile, the school loans out backdrops and boom mics, you have a ready crew of film students to assist you, and put a tiny free student ad in Dramalogue — and be prepared to be inundated with headshots.

The equivalent setup 10 years ago (while I was a student) cost several hundred thousand dollars, and the few Avid workstations available at the school were booked way in advance. The average student was relegated to splicing film by hand or using three-quarter editing machines for ugly analog video. I suppose that if I really had been passionate about making films, these issues wouldnit have stopped me. Nevertheless, I do wonder how I would have proceeded if I were 10 years younger and were starting my masteris program next month.

However, while technology has transformed film and video production, it has yet to transform what is for many the holy grail: finding an agent to represent you and a production and distribution house to at the very least distribute and market your product.

Thatis where the Hollywood Creative Directory and its sister publications, the Hollywood Representation Directory, the Hollywood Music Directory, among others come in. Unless you are a genius and extremely lucky, you need to know the right people to target — indeed, the whole Hollywood landscape, if you want to avoid some agentis assistant or Hollywood “D-girl” tossing your DVD-R into the trash.