YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
My son just switched majors and is going with film. I'm thinking of buying him a video camera for Xmas and was wondering if anybody knows what to get a college film student ? Thanks.
To be brutally honest a degree won't give him much more of an advantage in the industry, if he has a real passion for it I would say to start on the bottom as a runner and work up from there. The degree will give him the fundamentals in the theory, but very little practical experience. Even after college he's going to be a good 2-5 years of working for peanuts in order to make the connections and getting the on set experience that are required to get any substantial work.
Also if its to be a full time profession for him, productions are centered around a few major hubs, LA, NYC, London, Tokyo, so moving to one of those locations is a must. A second language will see his usefulness jump up very high, French or Spanish to a good conversational level will make him useful on a lot of sets.
What profession does he want to pursue within the industry after the degree?
(Feel free to respond in PM's if you'd like) I'll give any advice that I can as its a bit of a black art/industury in some ways.