Part of TheWrap's series on how the economic crisis is affecting the Industry.
In the summer of 2010, Miles Fineburg, an aspiring cameraman, got his first big break. He worked on the set of “The Double,” a film starring Hollywood bigshots like Richard Gere, Topher Grace and Martin Sheen.
Fineburg was still a year removed from graduating college, but the Philadelphia native figured spending his summer working on a set would be the best way to prepare him for his next step, employment in Hollywood.
Though he worked as an intern to get college credit, he performed the duties of a production assistant, meaning he got to make connections with various lower-ranking Hollywood professionals -- assistant cameramen, assistant directors and so forth. What more could he ask for with his big move out West a year away?
Other Voices From the Job Trenches:
USC Screenwriting Grad Ben Cohen Works at Best Buy to Pay His Bills
Actress Christine Lakin 'Hustles to Make a Living' During Slowdown
Post-Production Vendor: 'All Our Business Models Went Out the Window'
Production Manager: 'I Used to Wander Through Musso & Frank’s to Get Work. Not Today'
Screenwriter: 'I Just Don't Want to Answer Phones at Some Place I Used to Pitch'
Well, “The Double” debuts in select theaters this Friday, but Fineburg is no closer to cashing in on that experience. Since moving out to Los Angeles in August, his body of work consists of a three-day stint working on the set of a Radio Shack commercial.
Where's his next work going to come from? Right now it looks as likely to be bagging groceries as behind a camera.
“One of the reasons I took the job was because half the people working on it were from L.A.,” Fineburg said. “I tried to get in touch with some of them, and haven’t heard back. I’d like to think it’s gotten me more looks than most people, but it hasn’t turned into anything.”
Fineburg decided shortly after his arrival at Vassar, a liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., that he wanted to pursue a career in the film industry working behind the camera.
His mother is a photographer -- thus his affinity for the device. Combine that with his love of film and the choice was became one of both logic and passion.
He decided that after graduating he would be moving out to Los Angeles, sight unseen, to pursue his own version of the Hollywood dream.
He had reason to be cautiously optimistic.
“I knew a few kids from school who lived out here so I wasn’t afraid of learning the city,” Fineburg said. “I also heard of a few kids who graduated a couple years before me who came out here, pursued jobs and are still out here, and they are surviving, so it seemed quite possible.”
