For students wishing to pursue film as a career, Labid Aziz '98, Jelani Wilson '04, and Arnon Shorr '05 offered some important advice on Saturday. These panelists represented Brandeis alumni who have found their way into the world of film. The 40-minute session began by each panelist briefly introducing himself and the work he has done. The moderator, Julia Crantz '06, then immediately opened the floor to questions from the audience. Although the panelists discussed their film-specific experiences their advice serves as a lesson to anyone nervous about "making it" in the real world. Some key advice was as follows: Boston is a great place to start out making films because it is a great location and there is not as much competition as in New York and Los Angeles. Although these cities are movie-making hubs, friends of these recent college grads who pursued work in those cities ended up spending four rigorous years in college only to find themselves licking envelopes and serving coffee to production staff at important companies. If you try too soon to find work with a prestigious company, there will be many more people with more experience than you.

The panelists, who all reside in the Boston area, have much more experience than their production-slave peers in New York and Los Angeles. As is the case with any career, being a big fish in a small pond can give you more initial work experience. When asked about how to best sell oneself in the business Aziz proclaimed: "Hustle.. No, I'm serious. You've gotta be a hustler."

Since all panelists are recent graduates, they were unable to address anything beyond getting a foot in the door. They have all finally gotten past the grunt work of starting out, and are just beginning to have the opportunity to delve into the aspect of film that interests them most. But no one can say whether their hard work will pay off, because they are just beginning to climb the ladder of success, and it can fall for them at any moment. The panel would have benefited from having at least one alum who has been successful in the industry: not necessarily someone who got lucky and has struck stardom, but anyone who has worked hard and has had to scrape around for success, and has ultimately made it.

Such a point of view is especially important considering that one of the panelists explained that as a freelance worker, every time he finished a project, he was essentially "unemployed." Also in regards to film being a difficult career path, Wilson said: "I'm not sure that this is really what I want to do.. Many people bail out after one or two years." A more seasoned Brandeis grad could have delved farther into the ultimate benefits of the hard work required at the beginning of the career.

Two of the panelists asserted that Brandeis played an insignificant role in preparing them for a career in film. Shorr partly disagreed, stating that he was grateful for the film theory and history classes that he had taken at Brandeis. However, he did concur that there was very little hands-on training in the Brandeis film department.