What do you do for a living?

[Radek Svoboda]

I'm film student.

[Brent Ray]

Originally Posted by Radek Svoboda

I'm film student.

Same here.

[Heath McKnight]

I'm a film teacher and a filmmaker.

heath

[Paul Gray]

I've been a physical therapist for the past 30+ years.

[Heath McKnight]

That's pretty cool. Do you do video or film on the side?

heath

[Bob Safay]

I am an Environmental Health Scientist with the Feds. I am assigned to EPA and do emergency response work, site visits to hazardous waste sites and also do educational videos for my Agency which is now part of CDC in Atlanta. Lots of travel and fun. In addition to that, my wife and I do eco-tours overseas. I had the XL-1 and now the XL-1s with 16x, 14x qnd 3x. Edit with Vages 5. Bob

[Thomas Thoren]

Hi,
I did 2 years of chef school, but that was more than 10 years ago now, time flies...
I never worked as a chef other than spoiling my family once in awhile.
In 1998 I bought an old Mercedes van and drove down to Austria for a season of snowboarding. 6 weeks into the trip my friend broke his arm and we decided to go home. But I felt that there was more to see in the world. So I saved up some money and a few months later I left for Australia and south East Asia. I got a camera for the trip (mostly so that I could put my parents in front of the TV and push play when I came home 4 months later). When we came home, my ex-girlfriend wanted to get a house etc. But nono. More to see.
The TRV that I had for the first trip was too big I told myself and got a nice little pc-3. That camera came with me to Nepal 3 times, Central & North America a few times. Egypt, Africa and south East Asia (I lived in Thailand for 2 years).
I got an ikelite housing for it and took it on a few (thousand) dives.
In 2000 I met this strange girl from Alaska, in Honduras. It was meant to be a few week fling, so I don’t know why we are married, have a house in Sweden, and have started a company together ?? Traveling, diving and filming were the biggest hobbies (same for eimi, the wife, except that she is a photographer) so we combined the hobbies. Right now I just got an xl2. Saving up for a gates underwater housing and then it’s off again. for my last trip I used a panasonic nv-gs, and i put it in a eqinox housing (i do not recomend this housing!), and epoq 1225 lights (only strong enogh for macro).
Been “home” for a week now. At the present I’m editing up a divesite DVD about Tioman, Malaysia. Check it out http://www.scubatoe.com/tioman/index.htm
Well that’s me. The plan is to stay “floating,” making promos and dive dvd´s.
We were doing only underwater work till 2 years ago when people started asking if we could film on dry land as well. We did, but man it was hard. I had only filmed the oceans. But you’re never too old to learn a new trick…

Thomas thoren
Scubatoe productions
http://www.scubatoe.com

[Keith Loh]

Thomas that's a wonderful story. You seem to be living your dream or getting there.

[Mike R Long]

My name is Mike Long as you can see and I live in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. My Business partner and I have been in business for about 6 months now and we are currently filming our first Horror film called Morrow. You can see the teaser at http://morrow.princemikepictures.com. Right now we are finishing up the shooting for the movie and the editting will take about another 2 months. A trailer and a new website will be put up for morrow soon. We are also in works for 3 new Horror movies and also a TV series. Any crew in the Cape Breton area are welcome to help us out.

[Tracy Graziano]

I've just completed 9 1/2 years of school. I have undergrad degrees in cinematography and biology and a masters in science & natural history filmmaking.
After taking three photo classes as an undergrad, my prof urged me to take a film course. She said she saw stories and sequences in my stills...and it's been all downhill ever since! :)

I did preliminary projects on a Bolex (sigh), and quickly outgrew the schools equipment room. I couldn't decide between biology (the environment) and art--so I did both and in 1999 racked up a huge bill on a credit card and bought an XL1. I started filming wildlife at a local state park, and haven't quit since. That resulted in an internship at the park where I was a program director for an invasive plant control program (my biology side).

Magically, the master's degree program appeared as I was preparing to graduate from my undergrad university. It was just what I wanted to do: wildlife and science films. *yay* I did three promo films for the National Science Foundation, a second year 15-minute film, an edit for a Montana PBS one-off, and a one-hour thesis film.

The grad program took a grueling 4 years (60 credits) to complete - but was a complete blast. I was a teaching assistant for a Cell Biology class for three semesters. I wrote, raised (insufficient) grant money, shot, and edited all my projects. I shot on HD in Yellowstone for over 80 days, and then returned home (Pennsylvania) to shoot wildlife for the other half of my thesis film.

Now that I'm graduated, I feel terribly overqualified and certainly in the wrong place. By overqualified, I mean - how can I find appropriate work that will pay all those high student loan bills? (I'm not implying that I have nothing to learn, I'm actually very egar to learn as much as I can from all people on the set.)
Currently, I'm in the negotiating phases to do a "video encyclopedia" for that very same local state park that started me down the path. What I really want is to shoot, and at the moment I won't be too particular what I shoot (though there are some things that I can't do ethically...do those things go together? ethics and filmmaking? :) just kidding)

If I had my say, yes, I would shoot wildlife and science films full time. But for now, I am a "administrative assistant" for a local children's learning center. I work six hours a day, so I get up at 4 am and trek out into the woods in my camo toting my new XL2. I regularly film turkey, deer, eastern coyotes, and a never-ending variety of birds. I then go home to de-tick myself (uh, ticks-- they give me the creeps) and head off to work. Noone pays for this shooting, but I figure building up stock footage is a good thing for an aspiring wildlife camerawoman. The time with the camera is good practice, too. Not to mention watching the sun coming up every day - my stress level is way down because of it. The mosquitos test my ability to sit absolutely still despite their terrible onslaught for about an hour after first light.... Ohh, west nile....

So I guess the thing I'm debating now is to move or not to move. If I want to film wildlife, then moving to NY or Boston to get experience on any ol' set seems almost counterproductive. I have a great state park five minutes from my house... I donno. I'm also trying to get my three big projects: Spirit Dog: America's Little Wolf, Chasing Coyotes, and Japan's Lost Wolves out to festivals. Withoutabox.com is helpful, but I'm overwhelmed!
I've also been contacting many production companies to submit my reel and resume. I've narrowed down who does science & natural history films and focused on them. On top of all that, I may just continue taking classes at my local Small Business Development Center, develop a business plan, and start a production company.

I currently live with my husband and in-laws, hence the little freedom I have with time and $$ (no rent, no utilities...). Really nice on the one hand, but then again...think about it.
Cheers to everyone, good luck, and follow your gut and listen to your heart. Above all, you should have a job that makes you HAPPY!

[Jay Rodriguez]

I'm an IT guy as well. Sucks!
Ex-hip hop producer going back into movies.

[Rich Shivers]

I bounce about from office work to sales and customer service. I've done nearly everything except industrial work. I guess I'll really take on anything more interesting that what I am currently doing. I recently took on a freelance Quickbooks and general paperwork contract job for a friend. I have a definite preferance for working for people I know. I buy things cheap and sell them. I make money where and when it presents itself.

[Jared Thomas]

well i guess ill give my 3 or so cents....

im jared thomas. i live in bridge city texas. im 18 years old. im a p.a. at an ABC affiliate station in beaumont texas. i started a small video production company called rhythmic productions. you can check it out at www.rhythmicproductions.com . im really into shooting short films. i like putting together collages of clips ive gathered and i like shooting alot of time lapse sorda stuff. i wanna make documentaries and would like to shoot a feature film one day on dv. i convinced my parents to go in half on a xl1s about a year ago and thats my weapon of choice for now. i live about an hour or so northeast of houston and i would really like to meet people around here that are into videography cause im sorda lonley...oh and i also shoot alot of live music stuff and i also shoot some super 8 stuff when i can afford it, but i dont have a projector to telecine which sucks. but...yeah. thats me.

[James Coia]

Hello All,
This is my first reply to this great board. I am a A/V Technician for Visual Sound of Broomall, PA (Formerly Camera Shop INC. Headquarters). I perform a lot of various tasks in my position, from setup of small sound systems and video projection, to full scale concert arrays and live camera I-MAG ( image magnification). I found this site looking for a solution to a problem with one of our older Sony PD-150 DV cameras.
I used to be a Graphic Artist for some years, while in college, however I was doing alot more than what they were teaching me. Thanks to our wonderful economy it became harder to keep a GA job, and so I returned to my first love of Video Production. I had learned tons of hands on learning in my high school, Upper Darby class of '97, learning all aspects of A/V in our school wide TV news club/ now class. We made our show so good that we were noticed , interviewed, and subsidized by Philadelphia WCAU Channel 10. I made that studio my home for the remaining days of my high school career and wanted it to continue toward a future career. And so even though I am starting off small, I am back into the world I love and perhaps I can help our company grow or I will find a company that I can make my career flourish. Thanks for reading and talk to you later.

[Steven Davis]

I'm Steven Davis and I live in Richmond, VA. I'm busy as crap at the moment with various personal projects and trying to kick my video/webdesign carreer along.

I started out as most of my friends just playing a lot of video games with a computer, from there I learned web design in college and only as of the past 3 to 4 years got into videography. I started using Pinnacle 8 with a palm cam to produce my church's weekly television special. Boy did I learn a lot from that.

I enjoyed the creativity of videography so much, when I was asked to do a friend's wedding, I jumped at the chance. Even though I had to borrow most of the equipment to pull it off. My first wedding was done with three cameras. Yeah, I know, I was nuts. It turned out well, except for the audio which was over shadowed by the freakin highway that was beside the outside courtyard. (Imagine saying your vows to someone's rap music driving down the road. Yikes)

Full time, I'm a social worker for a local county government. I've been a social worker / group counselor since 2000 after I had gradiated from college.

So between all the geeky stuff I do and my full time job, I stay very very busy. Just wish more of it payed better. hehe.

So that's what I do for a living.

You can visit our personal website at www.stevenandsusan.com or our business at www.droptodesign.com

Steven Davis