For a few moments, the thought crossed Jacob Pinger’s mind that he might actually die at the age of 19 on his very first job in the entertainment industry, serving as an ultra low-level production assistant for $50 a day on a low-budget commercial project. Pinger was tasked with driving a gigantic and poorly maintained motor home from Los Angeles to the high desert in Palmdale, California, when suddenly, while cruising along the freeway, the vehicle went dead. After somehow wrestling the vehicle to the side of the road and catching his breath, it quickly became apparent to Pinger that this incident had nothing to do with his interest in operating a camera and hardly represented the glamorous world of filmmaking he had imagined when he originally set his sights on “breaking into the business.”

Still, looking back on the event, he declares today, “I loved it! It was awesome.” Pinger’s harrowing ride not only didn’t sour him on his filmmaking goals but actually inspired him. He knew he was in for an exciting adventure no matter how things turned out. Today, he is a busy television cinematographer (The Real World) and feature film camera operator (The Lego Movie).

Lulu Zezza, by contrast, went to NYU Film School and always had some notion of getting into the business side of the industry. When, upon graduation, a friend handed her a napkin with a list of upcoming productions written on it, she wasn’t shy about poking around to see if she might find a gig with one of them. The best she could do was a $250 a week job serving as a production secretary on a small horror film, but rather than accept the notion that she might be destined for a career in the secretarial pool, she decided to strategically use the position to put herself through another round of schooling.

“Production secretary is not a bad job to have if you want to go into production management,” she says. “I learned a lot, because every document on the movie crossed my desk. I photocopied them for myself, read every contract and every cost report. [In the end], I probably gave myself a better education than film school, I have to say.”

Zezza is now a respected production manager and producer in Hollywood, working on such major feature films as 12 Years a Slave, Noah, and Factory Girl.

So what do these stories have to do with you? Directly, nothing, but indirectly, everything. The point is, there is no one correct or official path into the filmmaking industry. It’s a journey, and you have no idea where you will end up or even what your eventual interest or focus will be. You need to take risks, be bold, and try things that may have nothing to do with your core filmmaking agenda right now in order to make contacts, get your foot in the door, acquire additional skills, and broaden your horizons. You have, of course, started the journey by learning about the basic filmmaking process in this class. But learning about the process is a far different thing than coming to some sort of understanding about what role filmmaking will play in your future.

At this point, you might not have the slightest idea what that role will be, and that is fine—even expected right now. There is so much to the filmmaking paradigm, so many niches and disciplines and options, that you may well need more education and experience before figuring out if it is indeed the path you wish to travel, and serendipity and circumstances or events you can’t possibly foresee right now will likely play important roles in determining your eventual choice. But that reality brings up a final lesson to contemplate before you complete this course: filmmaking and the filmmaking industry are two separate concepts entirely. As you evaluate your interest in filmmaking and your niche within it, as Pinger and Zezza and thousands like them have done, consider for a moment that you need not be a film director or craftsperson in order to work within the filmmaking industry.

“The industry” is, when you break it down, little more than an umbrella label for a host of studios, companies, individuals, crafts, disciplines, jobs, functions, organizations, guilds, activities, and advisory functions that come together to act in a symbiotic way when it comes to making a movie—to fill dozens of niches, large and small, that need to be attended to in order to properly serve the needs of the greater project. Some of them are glamorous, like acting and directing; some are powerful and permit you to wield great authority, such as producing or running a studio; some are greatly artistic, such as production design, cinematography, editing, and composing; and others can be more technical in nature, such as working as a digital imaging technician or a visual effects artist.

Still other positions have nothing directly to do with the product that audiences experience on their screens. These positions are unsung, not glamorous, and in many cases, it would not even occur to most people that they are related to “the industry.” But they are, and they can offer you rich and rewarding careers. Before you finish your filmmaking course, let’s explore some of the industry options and paths beyond the core disciplines you have already discovered. Keep in mind, however, that no matter which of these potential directions you choose to go in, if any, the basic filmmaking foundation you have learned can help you get there. The more you understand about the process, the roles everyone plays, the necessary tools, and the methods, the more intelligently and effectively you will be able to play your own chosen role.