The thing that got me thinking about it was the recent thread on Mythbusters which referenced M5. And, well, I have a long history of building things, sometimes crazy things (steel drums through robots), and I really like problem solving, and I thought - hey! I could do that! Then I thought - waitaminnit. I minored in theater, doing tech stuff - mostly lighting design, but also stage management, set design, and random tech crewing. Why did it never occur to me that maybe some of what I loved about that would apply to film production?
Anyways, my main gig is problem-solving - I love always having to do something I’ve never done before. I’ve also got some background in (really informal) programming, so that kind of problem-solving is cool too. Lately, I’ve also been doing a LOT of thinking about story-and-setting kinds of problems - critiquing everything I watch, having lengthy discussions about game design and story, that kind of thing. I’m certainly not ready to be a screenwriter, but if there’s anything allied, it might be worth looking into.
The other thing I appreciated about theater was the atmosphere of a bunch of people working long hours to get something done, using big, complicated machines. I don’t even know how to describe it, but just being backstage, or in the grid, was FUN. Even load-in and focus were great times for me. I’m assuming there’s some sort of stage-manager analogue for film, and I think I might like that kind of assistant-manager of theatrical-madness kind of job.
So, the things I’ve sort of thought about from my position of ignorance are: special effects, especially building crazy things, pre-visualization (puzzles + 3d modeling? Yes, please), doing some sort of lighting/photography/whatever design, doing prop design/building, and doing some kind of stage-management-analogue.
Question 1: Are those good areas to look into for someone with my background? What are other good avenues of inquiry?
Question 2: How would I go about doing that? Is it a move-there-and-hope kind of thing? What/with whom are the entry position for the industry?
Question 3: Where are the big locuses for this kind of thing? Do I need to move from the Bay Area?
Please feel free to comment on whatever you know about - like I said, I don’t really know the industry, so I don’t even know what questions to ask. Any and all answers and advice appreciated.
Oh, and mods, I wasn’t sure if this should be in GQ, CS, or IMHO - I have factual questions and subjective ones about media. Do with it what you will, please.