From finance to movies
One of my biggest passions has always been cinema. When I was in high school I was watching old movies, I knew everything about actors, directors, inside things of the industry, etc.
My dream was to become a movie director, I also considered joining a film academy after high school. Instead, life brought me to study economics and get into finance. Don't get me wrong, I love finance, but I feel like it is not "my thing".
Now, after some time in IB, my old passion woke up again. I am pondering how I may exit the film industry. I am no anymore interested in the creative side, but I would love to be a producer, reading screenplays and choosing which projects are worth going on screen, choosing the right actors and directors, finding financing, etc. This role would be in my preferred industry and has some relation to what I've been doing so far.
Does anyone know if this would be possible? I have no idea what the first steps could be. Maybe I should look at job openings in producing companies such as Warner Bros, Paramount, Disney, etc., and work my way up or do you think there are more direct paths?
If anyone can share some advice or stories of people who did it I would be extremely grateful.
Completely feel this. But those guys are out there making films and trying to create everyday before they break in.
If I was you, I’d take a lighter job out west and try to break in aggressively anyway you can.
-banging on doors
Actually sound advice. When pursuing any type of passion career and/or starting your business, always start it as a side-gig first. Then scale from there.
Take a lighter job in corp fi, the glory about IB experience is that you’re competitive across all sub-verticals in finance. A hard 9-5 in Corp fi where you’re still making decent coin, but more than enough time after work to pursue your passion.
I wish you the best, genuinely.
bump
This is a path well traveled… After you are done making movies, then you can help found a right wing news website and get aquatinted with right wing dark money donors. Then you can use these connections to help fund and manage the presidential campaign of a right wing populist candidate, get a role in the White House, get fired, and start a right wing podcast. Easy!
This is a reference that I am too European to understand
That was basically Steve Bannon’s career path- went from IB to movie producer to running trumps campaign.
I have no idea about the film industry, but maybe try to move to the TMT group in your bank and gain industry knowledge/contacts in the media sector? Might be easier than diving straight in.
I do know someone from HS who went from Big 4 work --> acting (creative side). Has an insta page that is probably 20K followers. He did move to LA and legitimately looks like he's constantly picking up some skills or is finding new work every few weeks (dancing, new modeling / acting gigs). Dude's blessed with great aesthetics and has been a gym rat for years.
I think pivoting over to film production is way tougher. My best guess would be to try to cold email contacts in the space. If you're thinking maybe an MBA, UCLA / USC would probably make sense. I'm pretty sure USC places a lot of their graduates in the media / entertainment space. Good luck on following your dreams.
Another anecdote but I do know an alum who went the opposite direction as you. Started out I think at CAA or Endeavor pre-MBA, pivoted to finance post-MBA about ~10-15 years ago and recently sold a company for ~$250M in a space totally unrelated to media and entertainment. Take your chances as early as you can. Gets harder as you age and get more responsibilities.
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