ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

8 years, 4 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

Dan would be your man to ask as he lives out there. Maybe able to give you some pointers. My experience is with writers and producers in LA, not really the creative stuff. Although for my VFX company most of my clients are LA based. Again, producers mainly. I'll be heading out in a couple of months so if you still havent gone by then, let me know and we could have a beer someplace.

8 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

I have no answers! Forget music videos. Those budgets here are abysmal. These aren't the heady days of MGMMO.

The scene here isn't great in general. The studios have pretty much gutted their indie arms, replacing those 5 to 30 million dollar budgets with tent pole 100 million plus movies. The indie arms with still distribute a film, but they no longer fund them. Zero. Work here is very much in television, but that would be a non-starter for you unless you have dual citizenship. Otherwise, if you were lucky enough to find work here, you'd have to go back to the U.K. while your future employer convinced the government that you had skills that no American has. Getting a work visa before 9/11 was almost easy. Now add 9/11 and a xenophobic president Trump, and you'll see where I'm going with this. If you told the Border Customs Agent you were coming here for work, and didn't have the proper paperwork, I can almost promise that you wouldn't be allowed in the country. I'm dead serious about that. You'd be on the next plane back to the U.K. Say "Holiday" and with enough cash to cover your stay, Bob's your uncle.

Here's the cold hard truth: if you want to work in America, you need a sponsor (have been hired before you come). Or if you're an actor coming here to work on a film, you'll be able to get a working visa pretty easily. Or if you've sold a script. Or are a producer coming here with a nice budget to make a movie. Or have made a movie and are trying to set up a sale or distribution. Let's say you're an actor, there are many non-citizens working that way. But you can ONLY act. If you decided to become an underwater welder, then you'd have go back home and start the process over again. If there's a shortage of American underwater welders, then you're good to go.

There are some indie production companies here. My suggestion would be to find some indie films you really like, look up what company made them, then contact those companies before you come. But make sure your temperament, CV, etc. fits those companies. For example, Killer Films in New York makes things like "Boys don't cry." If you've developed a lot of action films, that wouldn't be a good company to contact (I'm not sure what a "Jr. Creative" exactly is). But if you've done a lot of low budget action stuff, go talk to Roger Corman. Don't ask for a job, just offer to buy them lunch and to pick their brains. Don't try to bullshit. Just be straight. We have finely honed bullshit detectors out here. I also wouldn't email them. Write them a real letter. They will be more likely to read it. Follow up a week later with an email.

If you want to do any below-the-line work, forget it. While there are a lot of Brits working in the film industry here, I don't know of any that arrived recently. And if they have, it's usually graduate from USC and parlay that into a job before you graduate so that you can stay.

While I started off in commercials in the late 70s, I have absolutely no idea about them now. I've been working uncredited fixing films for over 30 years now (holy shit!), and have been having a rotten time of it. But I'm also not as hungry as I used to be, and people just don't bother trying to improve their films like they used to. I get by with a little consulting work or films that have triggered their completion bond--a pretty rare thing.

If you're young (under 30) you'll have a better chance of it. Hollywood is the most ageist place on the planet. And I don't mean just actors, but directors, editors, writers... all the creatives. They like 'em young.

Because of my book, I get asked a lot to set people up or arrange meetings, etc. but I don't do that any more unless I know them. And I mean REALLY know what kind of person they are. I worked with this kid on a friend's short, and thought he was a competent editor, so I set him up with Wozy. Big mistake. The kid was completely unprofessional. So knowing that someone can do solid work and knowing what kind of person they are, are two different things.

If you know a fellow Brit working here, it might be better to ask them. I see Lucy Davis skulking around my neighborhood quite often, but again, she's an actress with an established track record.

Sorry for the dismal news. I'm old and cranky and bitter. But hey, if you want to buy me a scotch...

8 years, 4 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

Single malt, blended or grain? I'll get one in when I come over ;)

8 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Hahaha! Given my income, blended is fine. I'm used to that! Fucking pirates!

8 years, 4 months ago - Lynwood Shiva Sawyer

Please read Dan Selakovich's post word-for-word. Then read it again. And again. And again.Then read it again. Maybe memorize it.

Ps. Dan, next time I'm in LA, let's sit down. I'll buy you a few shots of 16-year old Lagavulin if you promise not to dilute it (can't afford the Distiller's Edition) and whinge about the good ole days. (First script I ever wrote got optioned by Otto Preminger, and I didn't have a CLUE about how to write a screenplay, other than following the rough format of a pirated copy of ROCKY (which says something about the availability of hardcopy screenplays back then). Boy, are those days forever gone!

BACK TO SCENE:

WARNING! SPOILERS, DISCLAIMERS AND ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT ASIDES FOLLOW.

Many Brits see all the Brit actors on US TV and the movies, and entre looks like a piece of cake. But these stars all had sponsors BEFORE they went over, and many had substantial bodies of work that could easily be viewed on IMDB etc.

As Dan said, U.S.immigration inspectors always looked very suspiciously at anyone under 35, suspecting them of coming to America to look for work. So you can imagine what it must be like now. You don't want to get stopped even before you get out of the airport.

DISCLAIMER: I'm a New Yorker at heart. But the Indie film world there is on life support. A shadow of what's going on in London as the 1% take over everything and turn the tiny studios, theatres, venues etc. into luxury condos, shops selling $400 handbags (cf. CBGB's) or as the Giant Vampire Squid of NYU sucks the life out of the Village.

DIGRESSION: It breaks my heart to admit it, but there's more Off-Broadway theatre on Ventura Boulevard than there is in now New York. Let's see, Last Christmas,I went to a backer's audition at a small 50-seat theatre in NY. $2,500 for the day. LImited access from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. My friend's theatre on Ventura Boulevard was a 100-seat black box ($500 a week [six or seven years ago]), lots of parking, unlimited access. As my writing partner, Frank Hickey says, "Work the math, Frankey, work the math."

I am genetically programmed to hate LA, but could never pinpoint the source of my distaste until I saw LA LA LAND and my Polish girlfriend pointed out a scene I'd overlooked that distills the LA mindset int two scenes that can't last more than a few minutes.

SPOILER ALERT: Remember when Emma Stone blows off the Woman moaning about her gluten-free pastry? Two minutes later Emma Stone is having the audition of her life for the role of a lifetime. The Woman appears in the glass window in the door behind her, holding up a Post-It Note with a big "No!"

End of audition. End of role of a lifetime. End of Emma Stone's career. [Except this was a movie.]

Everyone else's success, connections, Klout scores are rubbed in your face continually, but you have to be superficially nice to everybody, because you never know when the Woman you meet in the coffee shop (or her second cousin twice removed) holds the key to your future success.

Meanwhile the rage and resentment seethes underneath the bight shiny surface expressions.

Which is why at least once a day you see these scenes of explosive yelling and screaming because someone took your parking space or cut in front of you. All of that frustration has to go somewhere, so it gets uncorked on strangers. (Cf. the end of the opening sequence of 3L between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling).

IMHO

But what this means is that not only do you need a body of work, sponsorship, you need to know how to play the Hollywood Game.

What always surprises me is that both the Brits and Hollywood are both incredibly below-the-surface subtextual, and everything is communicated in code. But for some reason, in the lower echelons, neither seems to be able to interpret the others code. Not sure why that is.

In LA, "Great! Let's get together." can mean, "Great. Let's get together." "Great. Let's NOT get together." "Great. I would like to get together with you, unless someone who can really help my career wants to meet me, in which case, not only am I not going to bother showing up, I'm not even going to bother to phone you to let you know I'm not going to show up, even though I phoned you at 10 a.m. this morning promising on my Mother's grave to show up."

Everyone I know in LA totally accepts this, though I find it very peculiar.

DISCLAIMER: Much as I moan, I have some wonderful, wonderful friends out there, and every time I go out there, I have a fabulous time.

Guess that's the universe's way of rubbing my face it.

Pps. Be sure to drink lots of water as summer approaches. .As green as LA looks, it's actually a desert, and you'll find yourself dehydrated fairly quickly.

8 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Lynwood, "Scotch and Water" is an abomination!

I can't really argue with anything you said about L.A. Those things are especially true in the Valley and west side. That's why I rarely go west of Highland. I think most that come here are unprepared for how vast the city is. The good side of that is being able to find your own little niche, and not leave it too often. The bad side; it takes forever to get anywhere in the city. My personal pet peeve is people being late as a matter of course, and not so much as a "sorry." And yes, flaking is an actual excuse here. "Why didn't you show up yesterday?" "Sorry, dude, I flaked."

Oh, my beloved CBGBs! Staying with a friend living on Ave. A in the late 70s are memories I'll cherish. By the end of the summer, I knew all the heroin addicts by name.

As a great American City, L.A. resisted gentrification, but it seems to have gotten a foothold. We will be following San Francisco and New York soon.

Theatre has gotten so much better here (though still hard to find a truly great show). 15 years ago "theatre" was just showcases for actors trying to find an agent. So there's that, I guess.

8 years, 4 months ago - John Lubran

All of the above and I'd add that whilst the American administration and it's heavies at the borders hate a great many types of foreigner and fears paupers and tramps they love and adore rich people and business commerce. A singular thing can be described in two or more ways so it usually best to describe oneself and ones activities by the label that works best in terms of law, context and expedience.

Brits without Muslim sounding names entering on tourist visas or visa waivers who have a return ticket or proof of wealth and or an address in hand of where they're staying ought not have difficulty. Turning that visit into a career opportunity would mean getting a deal, whilst on 'holiday' returning to the UK and relying on that deal when applying for a work visa.

For the little bit more worldly and capable the other way is to get a B1 B2 visa, known as a business visa. To get one of these you need to show that you are an employee or boss of a Limited Company, or a corporation as the Americans call it. In this pirate Island of the UK forming a Ltd., Co is as easy as falling off a log and costs as little as twenty pounds. We are one of the least regulated countries in the World. Most of the advanced countries require a lot of regulations to be met and often a conciderable bond to be deposited as a base line insurance against mal administration and bankruptcy. Consequently the USA has a higher regard for people entering the country to do international business. One need not be an employee of a US entity but an employee of a British entity doing business in the USA.

This is a proven system every day. For those able to extrapolate a plan based on these facts may they proceed successfully, for those who don't get it then you may be too ignorant to even try. Cap doffers need not apply.

8 years, 4 months ago - Lynwood Shiva Sawyer

Thanks, Dan. Totally get where you're coming from. Sounds you got out of the Big Apple just in time, before the Crack Epidemic (when you had to don combat boots to go work and wear rubber gloves to pull the spikes out of your soles) AND the Gentrification Epidemic, when the corner of Crackhead and Crackhead in Alphabet City was slowly taken over by Starbucks and sushi bars.

Fingers crossed that some of my projects go from greenlight to actual production and I'll be out there to quaff some straight up single malts..

8 years, 4 months ago - James Argyll

If you get there and find yourself frustrated at not being as busy as you'd ideally like to be....moonshadows ;-)

8 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

HA! Stay away from Malibu! All your worst cliches will appear in record time. Especially at Moonshadows (no offense to you personally, James). Diakokuya in Little Tokyo. I'll let you buy me a bowl of Ramen.

8 years, 4 months ago - James Argyll

Haha yes that's true Dan but Moonshadows at 3 on a weekday is a place of tranquil bliss. I love the patio when it's empty, so peaceful. In that same sense the Jerry's deli at the end of the pier in Newport Beach is so detached from anything it's like walking into a diner from the fifties. Clichés aside, I love those red leather seats in that white washed wooden housing, especially when the place is empty. As they say, you know you're getting older when you walk into an empty bar and think it's the best bar you've ever walked into. :-))

8 years, 4 months ago - Aaron Wheeler

I have just read through all of this and it is super super helpful!! I have met with a couple of producers in the UK and asked them the same question and they pretty much said the same thing as you guys.

I'm still looking to visit in May but it is mainly to get away from the rubbish British weather... Would love to meet with whoever is about, I'm not over 21 so you'll just have to take my word that I can out drink you ;-)

I'm going to read through this a few more times now...

8 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Not over 21? Damn it! If you want to meet for coffee, I'll tell you a bunch of bullshit that won't help you one bit.

8 years, 4 months ago - Buppha Wittaya-Amponpunt

This is very helpful. I plan to go to LA myself to pursue my dreams as an actress, screenwriter, director, etc. So the best thing to do to find a sponsor first then?

8 years, 4 months ago - Lynwood Shiva Sawyer

Won't help your career any, but if you are out in the Valley, I highly recommend Rabbi Ed Feinstein's Saturday morning talks at Temple Beth Shalom in Encino. Far more entertaining and enlightening than anything on late night television and the kibbitzer's contributions are almost worth the price of admission.

8 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Buppha, do you have an agent in the U.K.? Have them set you up with a manager in Los Angeles. If you've done zero in the U.K., you'll need to get film on yourself. Shorts are fine. Features and television are better.