<p>(The film has finished principle photography and is now in the stage I think is called “post-production”. It was just an independent ultra low budget film, and I had a small role. I’m afraid I played a character who wasn’t very attractive, which would also make me even more self conscious about clips from the movie than I would anyway. In one scene I had to confront the leading man, and I thought about how my character looked like a slob while the leading man had a nice suit, makeup and so on. At the wrap party a scruffy looking fellow came up to me to talk with me, it took me a while to realize it was the leading man! Then even having said all that, I spoke with one of the other actors who told me one film role he had all of his scenes ended up being cut, so I am aware that could happen too.)</p>
<p>But to return to ctl987’s kid. I think your kid knows what he wants to do, and should be encouraged to pursue that. I don’t think it is worth worrying about how much jobs will pay. I became a lawyer because I thought that would get me well-paying jobs, but it hasn’t. I’m stuck with low-paying legal jobs. And periods of unemployment. I’m thinking now, “If I was going to be stuck with low pay and periods of unemployment ANYWAY, why didn’t I stick with something I really enjoyed?” I think I mentioned in another thread the character in the movie THE COMMITMENTS who says “It’s a lot more fun being an unemployed musician than an unemployed pipefitter.”</p>
<p>I was struck working on a movie for the first time how “technical” the knowledge of the crew was. They were working with a lot of very expensive hi-tech equipment (cameras, sound equipment, etc) and I imagine needed some very specific training. Not necessarily a degree, there are schools that will give the training to do this sort of work. They all knew exactly what they were doing without some supervisor sitting over them watching. Even, for example, the boom operator, who basically just has a mike at the end of a long stick, I could see he was quite experienced so he never bashed anyone in the head, or hit the set, or something like that. Not a job for amateurs!</p>
<p>This was in contrast with the cast, that although they were all very talented, had a wide variety of acting backgrounds. A couple of us had degrees in acting or theatre, a couple had different non-degree acting training, and a couple seemed to have just learned “on-the-job” in a long acting career.</p>
<p>KEVP</p>