Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

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  • Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

    1) You need a low cost of living state, Ga for example

    2) An understanding Boss

    3) flights from Atlanta to LA are $197 round trip on Spirit Airlines

    4) use the money you're saving on rent to pay for your flights to LA

    5) The only reason you will need to move to LA or NYC is if you get a job offer for a writers room

    6) moving to LA (which is high cost) hoping you make make it seems stupid: Work smarter not harder

  • #2
    Re: Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

    Agreed. The internet has changed things. I'm sure it would help to be there but I don't think it's worth it until the writer can easily afford it/has to be there.

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    • #3
      Re: Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

      Originally posted by kdmccaskill View Post
      1) 5) The only reason you will need to move to LA or NYC is if you get a job offer for a writers room

      6) moving to LA (which is high cost) hoping you make make it seems stupid: Work smarter not harder
      Well thousands still move here every year and still manage to find career paths. The truth is the odds are nearly impossible no matter where you are trying to break in. Living in LA just gives you (slightly) better odds.

      Whether you want to work in features or TV, being in LA means you, hopefully, are meeting others in the industry. The longer you are here and, hopefully, putting the work into your craft, the more people you get to know who are doing the same. Eventually, one of you but more often several of you get jobs and know who else is looking for writers. And if/when you get repped, then you're plugged into another level of potential opportunities that might not necessarily be available to someone who isn't in LA. Yeah, it costs more to live here than Georgia or wherever but clearly many smart writers are willing to pay it as just another barrier to entry and the benefit to breaking in is great enough to make the cost worth it.

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      • #4
        Re: Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

        As someone who broke in outside of LA, I find one size fits all advice to be absolutely useless.

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        • #5
          Re: Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

          Originally posted by Satriales View Post
          As someone who broke in outside of LA, I find one size fits all advice to be absolutely useless.
          Same.

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          • #6
            Re: Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

            True. Being in LA helps, but - mainly thanks to the Internet - certainly isn't necessary. I've gotten an LA-based manager and optioned numerous scripts to LA-based producers and directors, all without leaving San Francisco.

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            • #7
              Re: Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

              I love this. I am one of those who lives in a lower-cost state and am out to prove that LIVING in/near LA is *not* a requirement for success.

              NOW all I have to do is find someone to have a meeting with out there so I *can* book one of those Spirit flights!

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              • #8
                Re: Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

                Re: "NOW all I have to do is find someone to have a meeting with out there so I *can* book one of those Spirit flights!"

                Amen to that.

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                • #9
                  Re: Yes... It is possible to Start a Career Ouside of Los Angeles

                  IMO, there’s one very simple way to get a meeting or a read and I think we know what that is. There are many avenues *after* this One Simple Easy Trick You Won’t Believe - but write something great. That’s it. No mystery. Either you’re going to write a super compelling contained high concept/low budget story and garner query reads, or a super intelligent/smaller story that will place in Nicholl or you’ll roll a bunch of 8s on the Blcklst. (I’m simplifying here - maybe you find a Creative Exec doing paid reads on Stage 32 or Roadmap Writers...but you get the idea)

                  Focusing on meetings and not the page is the biggest time suck there is. When you’re ready and the market (and I don’t mean the $ market) will let you know.

                  How many writers are there, right now in America, that are undiscovered would I crawl over broken glass to sign were I a manager? I have no idea. But if I answer *MORE* than 100 I think I’m setting myself up for a lot of not ready for prime time sh1t.

                  The good news is that all of those “it’s a one in ten million shot blah blah” facts you read on Screenwriting Reddit are bs. High functioning amateur competence immediately puts you in the conversation. You tell me you got four 8s on the Blcklst, as flawed and arbitrary as that is? Feels like you’re in the game, at least.

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