Since a young age I have been passionate about film. It’s the only art form that has resonated with me naturally. I love it to death and would do anything to get a shot in the film industry.

Out of high school I went into Computer Science at University. After doing that for a bit I decided to take a break from uni and joined film school. As we approach the second half of the year, I realised that come December, I’m gonna be graduated and looking for work.

This is where it gets tricky. In indie films there’s no real discrimination per se (people are just looking for anyone who can do the work and do it well) and I’ll be able to find work easy enough (relatively) but as I move into bigger projects my prospects in terms of working in big roles (Director, Camera, etc.) dwindle significantly.

There’s a huge movement to have more female directors, cinematographers, producers, etc. and more power to them but it’s going to reach a point where producers and studios will just pick up any project with woman’s name attached to it regardless of quality. Meritocracy be damned. It’s hard enough getting work but this will make it even harder.

I’m not gonna compromise. I will work in the film industry, whatever it takes, and I will work until I have at least worked on a feature. I know I will hit various roadblocks. And I know I have computer science in my back pocket should (when) I need it.

But what I know for sure is, despite all this insight, it’s gonna hit me like a ton of bricks when I realise I’m not gonna make it. I just wanna know how to prepare for that because I don’t wanna breakdown and not function for a long period of time. I wanna get up and keep going but I don’t know how.