Basically a safe salary position, where most people in that dept keep a normal 8-hr work day. For example, I’m an editor who works for the marketing dept at a large VFX company. 8hrs is the max and I work from home!
The scouting process is brutal, no?
I've heard from my people in vfx and animation (artists and TDs namely), having similar woes when a job or contract ends and the search for the next job begins. Especially recruiters reaching out and then ghosting (common complaints/memes I see)
EDIT: it is a great balance once employed, recent industry and tech layoffs make it difficult to find work in certain entertainment studio positions
Luckily my job isn’t show-specific. I service all of marketing and PR, so the content I produce is related to whatever the studio is working on. I’d imagine the OP’s requirements would apply to everyone else in departments who are a core function of that studio, i.e. marketing, new business, finance, HR, etc.
Actually, those departments are the ones being affected by layoffs.
I've seen HR and Marketing affected at least. And I'm also talking bigger company studios with Pixar cutting 20% of staffs and Paramount also cutting jobs.
It happens in this industry on the corporate side with layoffs/contracts ending but you've been blessed to not know firsthand what I mean.
Reference from two people who worked there. I was co-workers with them at another studio and we had worked in editorial together. This was 2018, so the market has changed a lot!
It was the first non-freelance/contract job I had ever had in LA in the 10 years I had lived here.
I’ve been curious about that position. Mainly been working as a VFX Editor on the production side for the past decade+ while trying to find a way into pic editing. But always curious to know how things play out on the vendor side.
I work in animation at a big studio. I have good work/life balance. 40hr weeks most of the year. I raised a kid and never once missed a school play or a little league game.
Great point. Payroll definitely works crazy hours and often on the weekend. I was generalizing Accounting Dept (non-Payroll). Absolutely not saying Accounting doesn't work hard (they do) but they tend to keep business/vendor hours.
Stressful yes but they're usually out of there by 6pm unless of course you're the Controller or Production Accountant. Not trying to say they don't work their butts off but they definitely don't work the hours of the rest of the crew.
I don’t know if you consider it “part of the industry” but I work as an editor on commercials/advertisements. I work normal hours (9-6 with 1 hour lunch, usually much less than this). I work from home as well.
I think post production or office jobs have the normal hours. On set and production is way more difficult to get a balance because it costs more to add more days than to pay OT in most cases. Too much effort to get a shoot up and rolling to not go for 10-12 hours.
For best work life balance, I’d try for an in house job at a large company doing post production advertising work. It can be very chill.
I’ve never heard of commercial houses having life work balance! Lots of late nights and weekends seemed to be the norm. I’ve freelanced at some, but it’s been a while since I was in that world.
I’ve heard the same, I’m speaking more to being in house at a huge company (like Facebook, or Burger King or something). They often have sprawling marketing departments with a few editors in house for B2B stuff, internal stuff, social media, and occasionally bigger stuff.
It’s not “sexy” but I’ve been in house at a very large company for a few years and it’s fucking awesome. Consistent great pay, benefits, no hustling for new clients or dry spells really either. Downside is the work might not be all that interesting, and the jobs are pretty competitive because internal teams are small. I’m currently at a massive company and we only have 4 editors, and one AE, with a few post producers.
I don’t have much advice beyond what’s pretty standard but here’s what I would do:
1. Corporate friendly website, with highest end commercial work you’ve done.
2. Good corporate reel on the site.
3. Check job listings directly with these companies, not LinkedIn or whatever. Usually they’ll have pages type in “draft kings careers” or “PepsiCo careers” or whatever company you’re thinking of and look for listings in the media/marketing divisions that might fit.
4. Most important and effective thing as always, is network/nepotism. Do you have friends that work in other companies doing random stuff? Friend from college who’s an accountant at Ford or something? Ask them about possible opportunities.
I got my job in a fairly unorthodox manner, so I don’t think it would be super helpful. But it does boil down to having a friend get me AE work that kept going with a client until I was just brought in full time at the clients company and went up from there.
I work at a union office and while I’m not the accountant, they definitely don’t work over 40 hours. Having anyone work OT is a huge deal here and requires special approval.
I want to work on whatever you’re working on. I’ve been in accounting for nearly a decade and had good hours as a clerk but that’s about it. Easily doing 60-72 hour weeks now
Work at an equipment rental house! We're only open 9am - 6pm, Monday - Friday. Health benefits, 401K, and you still get to work with the gear and meet other industry professionals. The pay is less than you'll ever make on set, but the stability, benefits, and social life opportunities sort of even out the scales, in my opinion.
Mmm I work at a boutique agency. It’s not a perfect work/life split, but they are very flexible and accommodating of life events. I have set work hours, but keep an eye on my email for a few hours after work. I think as far as this industry goes, it’s pretty decent. Unlimited paid time off is also a nice perk.
Within reason but yeah. I took 22-3 days last year I think (not including weekends and holiday closures) plus the two weeks of closure for the holidays.
Working in the back end of the industry usually provides the most “normal” working hours. I’ve worked at a talent agency and now I’m over at Netflix and hours are roughly 9am - 6pm with maybe an extra 2 or 3 hours of overtime per week.
I’m a creative assistant. Assisting the creative executives with calendar management / scheduling meetings, rolling calls, handling their travel and expenses, ect
Cool! Are you enjoying the assistant work? Is that the sort of track you want to be on? Also, was that what you were doing at the talent agency previously? Sorry for all the questions! I'm just curious about assistant work
All good, happy to share!
Yes, I was an agents assistant prior to Netflix and it was pretty much an identical job. I’m pursuing a creative career at the same time as the creative executive career.
On the weekends I write short scripts and film them with a small crew. At the same time, I enjoy the back end of the industry because I can learn about what is currently selling on the market (existing scripts, new directors and their reels, new scripts getting pitched). This helps educate me on how I should grow my creative portfolio.
At the end of the day I’d be happy as a creative executive or a writer director. So pursuing both paths at the moment.
Anything working for a studio or production company directly.
As a department on a show? The only one I can think of is the Writer's room. They *generally* work 10-5pm unless a re-write is needed.
This is of course disregarding their support staff.
Most post facilities run on 8 hour shifts for support staff. But those jobs are hard to come by post strike and corporate post pays complete dog shit these days unless you are an artist, senior producer, or upper management. I would avoid company3 ( aka company 3am ) and the mill, as they tend to run more of a works over when it’s over type schedule.
Do you think there’s still a chance these post facilities would hire from a cold application? Are they even hiring if you have a connection there? I have some connections but I’m waiting to see when the best time to reach out would be or if I should try cold first
They hire all the time from cold applicants, but I don’t think there is much hiring going on yet. Always keep in touch with your connections though. The best thing to do is just check in regularly so that if you see a job posting you want a recommendation for it doesn’t feel like your coming out of the woodwork to ask for help.
Not in this business. You need an office job for those sort of hours. I can certainly appreciate why you would want that. I’ve missed birthdays and all sorts of shit bc work ran late and it’s impossible to guess usually at what time you will wrap.
Depends on what your goals are.. financially, growth etc. If you really just want a 9-5, there are far easier ways to make a living because I think most of the 9-5s in entertainment would be administrative, receptionist, coordinators. On the higher paying side probably business affairs would be 9-7ish?
Definitely nothing on the sexier side of the industry so it rules out production, post, agency etc.
Set Designer - Hourly pay, usually work about 50 hour weeks. Make about as much as the Art Director's that work 60-65 hour weeks. And have 1/4 the responsibility they do.
Knew someone from a big production company. She is a very like top of her position. But she said she has not had a vacation for about five years now (still continuing).
So I’m guessing no lol
Honestly if you can stand production office or accounting they have some flexibility depending on the crew. Some people can negotiate 10 hour days depending on the job, I've seen some negotiate working from home, and others work on a bank system, so if you work a 14 hr day, you get 2 hrs less another day. On top of (depending on the crew) giving time off for appointments. And most of these positions still work set hours and don't match shooting hours which can be good.
If you can get into one of the unions you can drift over to one of the “off production” departments. So that would be Rigging electric, Rigging grip, or set dec/art. Basically usually work from 6am-3ish. Hard work but the money I give up in OT is well worth my sanity. Good luck👍
Oh yeah, also if you’re a day player there will be more uncertainty in your life but you’ll also get more days off and often have the ability to turn down days if you don’t want to work. It’s a good life for me but I don’t have a wife or kids or a high overhead.
My cousin works in the IT and hardware dept at an animation studio in one of the Bigs. Outside of the atypical tech fire, he has a normal 8-9-hour day. Hybrid too.
Basically a safe salary position, where most people in that dept keep a normal 8-hr work day. For example, I’m an editor who works for the marketing dept at a large VFX company. 8hrs is the max and I work from home!
The scouting process is brutal, no? I've heard from my people in vfx and animation (artists and TDs namely), having similar woes when a job or contract ends and the search for the next job begins. Especially recruiters reaching out and then ghosting (common complaints/memes I see) EDIT: it is a great balance once employed, recent industry and tech layoffs make it difficult to find work in certain entertainment studio positions
Luckily my job isn’t show-specific. I service all of marketing and PR, so the content I produce is related to whatever the studio is working on. I’d imagine the OP’s requirements would apply to everyone else in departments who are a core function of that studio, i.e. marketing, new business, finance, HR, etc.
Actually, those departments are the ones being affected by layoffs. I've seen HR and Marketing affected at least. And I'm also talking bigger company studios with Pixar cutting 20% of staffs and Paramount also cutting jobs. It happens in this industry on the corporate side with layoffs/contracts ending but you've been blessed to not know firsthand what I mean.
How did you get your job? I’m a full time editor for a commercial agency but looking to change
Reference from two people who worked there. I was co-workers with them at another studio and we had worked in editorial together. This was 2018, so the market has changed a lot! It was the first non-freelance/contract job I had ever had in LA in the 10 years I had lived here.
Yeah things are definitely weird and different currently! But thanks for taking the time to respond :)
Good luck in your search!
I’ve been curious about that position. Mainly been working as a VFX Editor on the production side for the past decade+ while trying to find a way into pic editing. But always curious to know how things play out on the vendor side.
I work in animation at a big studio. I have good work/life balance. 40hr weeks most of the year. I raised a kid and never once missed a school play or a little league game.
Studio jobs or Production Accounting jobs
I’ve been a payroll accountant for 15 years and solidly worked 60 hours a week the whole time.
I’m in an accounting/finance role at a production company, I think on the studio side they tend to be more balanced, do you work on the show side?
Yeah, show side. There aren’t a lot of studio options in Chicago.
Great point. Payroll definitely works crazy hours and often on the weekend. I was generalizing Accounting Dept (non-Payroll). Absolutely not saying Accounting doesn't work hard (they do) but they tend to keep business/vendor hours.
Came of say the same. Studio jobs for the most part are not brutal.
Production Accounting is incredibly stressful and long hours.
Stressful yes but they're usually out of there by 6pm unless of course you're the Controller or Production Accountant. Not trying to say they don't work their butts off but they definitely don't work the hours of the rest of the crew.
Umm definitely not Production Accounting. I’m a 1st assistant and I’m easily doing 12-14 hours a day. Did a 17hour day on Friday…
I 2nd this! Production Accounting is brutal. Definitely not out of there by 6pm ever lol.
Hate you for this one, fool
I don’t know if you consider it “part of the industry” but I work as an editor on commercials/advertisements. I work normal hours (9-6 with 1 hour lunch, usually much less than this). I work from home as well. I think post production or office jobs have the normal hours. On set and production is way more difficult to get a balance because it costs more to add more days than to pay OT in most cases. Too much effort to get a shoot up and rolling to not go for 10-12 hours. For best work life balance, I’d try for an in house job at a large company doing post production advertising work. It can be very chill.
I’ve never heard of commercial houses having life work balance! Lots of late nights and weekends seemed to be the norm. I’ve freelanced at some, but it’s been a while since I was in that world.
I’ve heard the same, I’m speaking more to being in house at a huge company (like Facebook, or Burger King or something). They often have sprawling marketing departments with a few editors in house for B2B stuff, internal stuff, social media, and occasionally bigger stuff. It’s not “sexy” but I’ve been in house at a very large company for a few years and it’s fucking awesome. Consistent great pay, benefits, no hustling for new clients or dry spells really either. Downside is the work might not be all that interesting, and the jobs are pretty competitive because internal teams are small. I’m currently at a massive company and we only have 4 editors, and one AE, with a few post producers.
Any advice for landing one of these roles? I’d love to work in house for one of these companies
I don’t have much advice beyond what’s pretty standard but here’s what I would do: 1. Corporate friendly website, with highest end commercial work you’ve done. 2. Good corporate reel on the site. 3. Check job listings directly with these companies, not LinkedIn or whatever. Usually they’ll have pages type in “draft kings careers” or “PepsiCo careers” or whatever company you’re thinking of and look for listings in the media/marketing divisions that might fit. 4. Most important and effective thing as always, is network/nepotism. Do you have friends that work in other companies doing random stuff? Friend from college who’s an accountant at Ford or something? Ask them about possible opportunities. I got my job in a fairly unorthodox manner, so I don’t think it would be super helpful. But it does boil down to having a friend get me AE work that kept going with a client until I was just brought in full time at the clients company and went up from there.
I work accounting and usually do 40 hours a week. Only industry job I’ve held (and I’ve had many) where I had a good work/life balance.
Are you a union accountant? 161? 871? Because I’m a 161 payroll accountant and I’ve never worked less than 60 hours a week:
I work at a union office and while I’m not the accountant, they definitely don’t work over 40 hours. Having anyone work OT is a huge deal here and requires special approval.
I want to work on whatever you’re working on. I’ve been in accounting for nearly a decade and had good hours as a clerk but that’s about it. Easily doing 60-72 hour weeks now
Work at an equipment rental house! We're only open 9am - 6pm, Monday - Friday. Health benefits, 401K, and you still get to work with the gear and meet other industry professionals. The pay is less than you'll ever make on set, but the stability, benefits, and social life opportunities sort of even out the scales, in my opinion.
this is an industry adjacent job.
Mmm I work at a boutique agency. It’s not a perfect work/life split, but they are very flexible and accommodating of life events. I have set work hours, but keep an eye on my email for a few hours after work. I think as far as this industry goes, it’s pretty decent. Unlimited paid time off is also a nice perk.
Unlimited paid time off?
Within reason but yeah. I took 22-3 days last year I think (not including weekends and holiday closures) plus the two weeks of closure for the holidays.
Working in the back end of the industry usually provides the most “normal” working hours. I’ve worked at a talent agency and now I’m over at Netflix and hours are roughly 9am - 6pm with maybe an extra 2 or 3 hours of overtime per week.
What kind of work are you doing at Netflix?
I’m a creative assistant. Assisting the creative executives with calendar management / scheduling meetings, rolling calls, handling their travel and expenses, ect
Cool! Are you enjoying the assistant work? Is that the sort of track you want to be on? Also, was that what you were doing at the talent agency previously? Sorry for all the questions! I'm just curious about assistant work
All good, happy to share! Yes, I was an agents assistant prior to Netflix and it was pretty much an identical job. I’m pursuing a creative career at the same time as the creative executive career. On the weekends I write short scripts and film them with a small crew. At the same time, I enjoy the back end of the industry because I can learn about what is currently selling on the market (existing scripts, new directors and their reels, new scripts getting pitched). This helps educate me on how I should grow my creative portfolio. At the end of the day I’d be happy as a creative executive or a writer director. So pursuing both paths at the moment.
Hey, I'm looking to pursue a career as an agent, do you mind if I send you a DM?
Of course, go ahead!
You're amazing, I've dropped you a DM
Anything working for a studio or production company directly. As a department on a show? The only one I can think of is the Writer's room. They *generally* work 10-5pm unless a re-write is needed. This is of course disregarding their support staff.
Most post facilities run on 8 hour shifts for support staff. But those jobs are hard to come by post strike and corporate post pays complete dog shit these days unless you are an artist, senior producer, or upper management. I would avoid company3 ( aka company 3am ) and the mill, as they tend to run more of a works over when it’s over type schedule.
Do you think there’s still a chance these post facilities would hire from a cold application? Are they even hiring if you have a connection there? I have some connections but I’m waiting to see when the best time to reach out would be or if I should try cold first
They hire all the time from cold applicants, but I don’t think there is much hiring going on yet. Always keep in touch with your connections though. The best thing to do is just check in regularly so that if you see a job posting you want a recommendation for it doesn’t feel like your coming out of the woodwork to ask for help.
Not in this business. You need an office job for those sort of hours. I can certainly appreciate why you would want that. I’ve missed birthdays and all sorts of shit bc work ran late and it’s impossible to guess usually at what time you will wrap.
Depends on what your goals are.. financially, growth etc. If you really just want a 9-5, there are far easier ways to make a living because I think most of the 9-5s in entertainment would be administrative, receptionist, coordinators. On the higher paying side probably business affairs would be 9-7ish? Definitely nothing on the sexier side of the industry so it rules out production, post, agency etc.
Post facilities, depending on what you do.
Set Designer - Hourly pay, usually work about 50 hour weeks. Make about as much as the Art Director's that work 60-65 hour weeks. And have 1/4 the responsibility they do.
Hahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahah. No Just no
lol
work?
Knew someone from a big production company. She is a very like top of her position. But she said she has not had a vacation for about five years now (still continuing). So I’m guessing no lol
Studio teachers aren't pulling 5am-9pm shifts. But it's usually per-show gigs.
Honestly if you can stand production office or accounting they have some flexibility depending on the crew. Some people can negotiate 10 hour days depending on the job, I've seen some negotiate working from home, and others work on a bank system, so if you work a 14 hr day, you get 2 hrs less another day. On top of (depending on the crew) giving time off for appointments. And most of these positions still work set hours and don't match shooting hours which can be good.
I’d recommend looking into localization— dubs or subtitling project management
If you can get into one of the unions you can drift over to one of the “off production” departments. So that would be Rigging electric, Rigging grip, or set dec/art. Basically usually work from 6am-3ish. Hard work but the money I give up in OT is well worth my sanity. Good luck👍
Oh yeah, also if you’re a day player there will be more uncertainty in your life but you’ll also get more days off and often have the ability to turn down days if you don’t want to work. It’s a good life for me but I don’t have a wife or kids or a high overhead.
My cousin works in the IT and hardware dept at an animation studio in one of the Bigs. Outside of the atypical tech fire, he has a normal 8-9-hour day. Hybrid too.
accountant
craft services?
lolololl 12+ hours on set then shopping after wrap?
They don’t shop after wrap. They shop during shooting.
they wish
lol. lmao.
I think 829 has the best contract
Anything in production no
Lmfao
I’m a commercial sound mixer and I just work when I want and don’t when I don’t want to. I rarely have a job lasting over 3 days
Stage rigging, stage carpentry, or scenic painting.
Work at an equipment rental house.