1. Do Several Internships

Professional internships are an essential part of a film school education. Depending on the company, as an intern you will probably work under an assistant to a producer, executive, agent, manager, director, editor or cinematographer, often doing somewhat menial work. In exchange for your labor, you will be able to see how a film company actually works, as well as potentially make valuable contacts when you graduate and need a job. Spending time with people who make films for a living will also hopefully inculcate a sense of professionalism and a better understanding of how the industry works on a day-to-day basis. Most of these positions, again, are in Los Angeles.

If you embrace your internship as a learning opportunity, leave your ego at the door and complete each task given to you in a timely and professional manner, you will make great connections and increase your skills. There is no better way to learn how people “make it” in the film industry than spending a summer at a major agency or management company, to see how the power brokers in the film industry think, what kind of projects they find valuable and how they spend their days.

As I went through film school, I also realized that even at the intern level there is often a hierarchy of job experience. My best internship, at the biggest, most powerful company, came in my last year in film school. I applied for this internship twice, the second time with a recommendation from a previous internship.

Even if you don’t want to be a manager, agent or producer, time spent in a production company, agency or management company can be a great tutorial in how the industry works. As a young creative, it’s also never a bad thing to understand how the people on the other side of the table view you and what concepts like “representation” actually mean.

A good film school will offer opportunities to work at a variety of companies. Start interning early, so you can build a variety of experiences and contacts. If you don’t get your top choice company early on, don’t lose heart. A little perseverance and networking can go a long way.

2. Be Grateful (Always Thank and Update)

Any successful film career is built on a mountain of favors, personal relationships and goodwill. Throughout your career people will help you with their time, feedback and connections. It is essential that you take the time to thank and update those people, regardless of whether their help gets you where you want to go.

An expression of gratitude is a beautiful thing: a nice thank-you card or email requires no other action from the recipient than to feel good about helping you. Get in the habit now of thanking and updating the people who help you as you continue on your path toward becoming a filmmaker. If you get into film school, write a nice thank-you card to your professors who wrote recommendation letters. Write to the people who read over your essays for you. If someone does something particularly remarkable for you, a handwritten thank-you card and even flowers are sometimes in order. Any personal success is always the result of the people who helped you as well; invite them to feel good about your success, and they will surely want to help you again in the future.

Thank and update people even if you don’t succeed. The worst feeling in the world is helping someone, only to never hear from them again; it makes you feel used. Don’t be that person. The film world is very small, and the last reputation you want to have is one of ingratitude.

3. Learn to Make an Email Request

You will make thousands of requests via email in your life, so now is as good a time as any for some pointers.

4. Your Attitude is Your Life

No one, regardless of class, education or background, is entitled to a career in the film industry. As you begin your career, your attitude will be your greatest way to compensate for your lack of experience. If you approach each challenge as if it were beneath you, people will hate you. If you do what is asked with a positive attitude, they will give you greater responsibilities and more knowledge, and perhaps even their respect and friendship.

Be grateful for each day and opportunity, perform each task to the utmost of your abilities, and people will not only want to work with you, you will greatly enjoy life. That attitude and enjoyment will be contagious; people will want to help you because doing so makes them feel good. This is perhaps the greatest skill you can develop before you go into the ring. Why not start now?

5. Your Classmates are Your Film School

The miracle of film school is that you’re not going through the learning process alone; there is an entire cohort of filmmakers on the same journey with you. Your classmates will no doubt have some similar influences and make certain choices that are more and less successful. It’s important to observe your classmates going through the different processes, as well as yourself.

What do they do well? Not so well? What can you learn from them? How can you help them in turn? Which ones would you like to work with?

Some of the most valuable lessons you learn in film school will not come on your own shoots, or while critiquing your own work, it will come from those of your classmates. Be sure to pay attention to your classmates’ choices, philosophies, influences and work habits. Who’s good at giving notes? Directing actors? Writing dialogue? Using motion to tell stories? Cutting action scenes? Pitching?

When a piece of work is particularly successful, try and sit down with some of these people for coffee and ask them about their process. This is a surefire way to learn. People are always flattered to share their experiences, and you will have the benefit of their knowledge, which will complement your own.

6. Become a Talent Scout

Just as you try to learn from and help your classmates as much as possible, it’s also important to be aware of who’s good at certain things. As a young filmmaker with little experience and reputation to trade on, you will need to develop a sharp eye for talent. Which cinematographers get striking images? What directors know how to get a performance out of an actor? Who’s got the best sound design in their film? Which producer runs the smoothest set? Gives the best notes?

A successful film comes from the work of many people, and the better each of those people are at their respective crafts, the better the overall film is likely to be. Find the people whose taste and voice you admire, and try to collaborate with them.

Sometimes it’s important to go outside your comfort zone to try to work with someone you admire. Try to collaborate with the people whose work you respect, and their skills will enrich your work as well. Hopefully you can do the same for them.

Your ability to work with people well, to have and communicate a vision, to be humble and kind, will all help to compensate for your lack of a track record.

7. Don’t Compare Yourself to others

Thanks to the magic of social media, it’s now possible to compare an average moment in your life with peak moments in the lives of everyone you’ve ever met. It’s a very easy way to feel awful.

It’s important to remember what Hulk wrote in the Introduction, that

Even if you don’t directly benefit from someone else’s success, your school and its brand, which you are a part of, do.

It’s also important to remember that every filmmaker is unique; the only person you can directly compete with is yourself. When you feel jealousy of someone else’s accomplishment, a good question to ask yourself is:

Then get off Facebook and do that thing.

8. (Don’t Be Afraid to) Fall in Love

When I got to film school, a friend of mine said, “I’m not going to get a girlfriend while I’m here. My girlfriend is cinema.” This still bothers me, for one simple reason: cinema is the worst partner imaginable. Cinema takes all your money, leaves you in debt, and fills your inbox with rejection letters.

A human partner in a healthy relationship will be your greatest source of happiness, fulfillment, stability, feedback and solace when your other love borrows a hundred grand from you and tells you that your screenplay is shit.

Building a happy, stable life, including a relationship, will help your film-making and keep you motivated through the inevitable hurdles to come. And when that other partner sends you a hundred festival rejections, you’ll have someone to talk you off the ledge for the three hundredth time.

9. Choose Your Collaborators Wisely

When you enter film school, generally the first collaborators you have are chosen by the school. Quickly thereafter, though, you enter the quagmire of having to decide who to work with. Who you choose to collaborate with and why will be one of the determining factors of your film school education, as well as the success of your films. Here are some foundations for successful collaborations.

10. Who You Know Does Matter (A Strategy For Meeting People)

Opportunities in the film industry are funneled through endless private networks of people. Initially, you will probably not be a part of these networks. The good news? It’s completely within your control to join them. But you must start doing it as soon as possible. Treat it with the same seriousness as honing your craft, because it’s just as important. As you continue through film school and your internships, figure out who you know in the industry, or who your friends know, and ask if you can buy them coffee and get some advice.

The ideal candidates for this are assistants at agencies, management companies, studios or production companies (again, most are all in Los Angeles): because they have an intimate knowledge of the industry, and because they’re also beginning their careers, they’ll be more likely to grab coffee with a wide-eyed film student. You’d be surprised how many people in Hollywood are eager to play the role of the all-knowing mentor, so it never hurts to ask.

Make a good impression, but the conversation should be about them, not about you. Be humble, curious and gracious. You can tell them what you’re working on, but mostly just ask them questions. This is an opportunity to learn about them and the industry, not to brag about the script you’re writing. That will come later, because this is about playing the long game. No one wants to feel used, so if you ask them to read your script or to pass it along to their boss right away, that will be a huge turn off.

Instead, invest in the relationship. Email them when you spot their name or their boss’s name in the trades. Check in with them every once in a while. Grab lunch again at some point. You’re building mutually beneficial relationships here, because they need good material from writers as much as you need people to read your scripts. But if you get to know them first, they’re much more likely to want to help you when you actually need it.