DOING THE HUSTLE

I actually shot a bunch of conceptual "comedy" ish campaigns for Hustler Hollywood... but this is not one of them :)!

I'm not a schmoozer, or a fantastic social network kind of guy... but I do make an effort at least to do the obvious. People constantly say it's "who you know"... which in some cases is true, but what I never liked about this statement is that it implies you have to already know them... it says nothing about "meeting them". It should be "It's who you meet and follow up with". Case and point, a few years ago I was at a friends birthday party... not at all in networking mode. Suddenly I was pulled into a conversation about commercials, and I met a young woman who worked for "Hustler Hollywood", the retail store branch of the Larry Flynt empire. She explained they wanted to do a broadcast TV campaign for the stores but didn't know where to start. I'm not an ad agency, but I do direct commercials, so I gave her my card and told her to call me on Monday so we could discuss... not thinking that much about it. A few days went by, and I started to feel like I should have gotten her number or email or something. One phone call to a mutual friend and I had her EM address.

I sent a link of my work along with my contact info, and then felt at least I had given this opportunity 100%. I got a response quickly from her saying she would pass it along, and 2 HOURS LATER my phone rang with an unrecognizable area code. The next thing I knew, I was talking to Jimmy Flynt Jr., Larry Flynts Nephew, who was in charge of the HH stores. A week later I was on a plane to Kentucky (on my own nickel) with story boards to pitch a campaign to Jimmy Jr. This is not what a commercial director usually does (the campaign is usually created by the agency) but the opportunity was real, and I stepped up. This led to a 2 year run with Hustler Hollywood. It wasn't the financial bonanza I had hoped for, but we did make some good money and had a lot of fun creating and executing the campaigns.

How does this relate to you? When you take a class and there is a guest teacher, send a "Thank You" em to that person. Put them on your EM list so you can inform them of any showcases or shows you are doing. When someone casually mentions "you should meet so and so".... follow up, don't let it slide. A lot of times in this town you just have to be on someone's radar so they think of you in the future. In other words, you don't have to slam them with job inquiries or multiple reels/ headshots etc. just keep and touch and follow through. You never know where the next opportunity will come from.

- Scott Young

Commercial Success/ Shoot a Scene. Edit Your Reel