Fast Forward

Every freelance cinema artist is looking 5 years ahead. By 30, you're here. 35, you're there. 40, here, 45, there.

Now how about leveraging your real-world social network to get there?

Last week, over drinks and grub, I met up with a fellow filmmaker, on one "five year plan" ahead of me. I've worked with him twice now, but this meeting need not be about business. We were just kickin' it. Just this month, he tells me about his work on Michael Mann's new Nike Football commercial. I'd like to be where he is, at least, in five years time.

There seems to be a tendency to only use your gut feeling, or tried-and-true close-to-home methods (because they pay the bills). But try meeting up with people outside your own social network, and you can consider a few more options.

So, what's required? Action. Trial and error. Think: what have I done this month?

My collaborator and I both come from very different backgrounds but both actively hustle in putting yourself out there. We both call and e-mail our regular leads, but he's had luck with cold calling whereas I've had luck with show up with my portfolio. We're both aligning ourselves to get ahead, a better-fit course for the next five years. It may never feel like enough, but that might be a curse of the creative.

6 social networking options for filmmakers, from easiest to hardest:

• Calling or e-mailing everyone you know
  Pro: you and your friends hire one another and their direct recommendations
  Con: bounded group
• Writing ads or responding to them
  Pro: plenty of options, like Craigslist, Mandy.com along with web and design gig/job boards
  Con: less-bounded social group, trust/credibility issues
• Market yourself and your site or pay someone to
  Pro: control in defining yourself and plenty of options, like trade magazines and newspapers
  Con: wide net to be cast unless you've got a niche market in mind
• Networking at gatherings or festivals
  Pro: like-minded individuals, either by profession or industry
  Con: not job-centric, but could lead there with perseverance or luck
• Show up, with or without your portfolio
  Pro: boldness can impress, like offering to mop the floors, for free
  Con: vulnerable position, so don't work for peanuts for too long
• D.I.Y.
  Pro: you're in charge
  Con: you're in charge

Which methods do you use?

"We Need Girlfriends" is one of the best shows online today. Good writing, regular programming, professional sensibilities and online commiserating bring this independent sitcom to the top of your inbox.

The series follows Tom (Patrick Cohen), Henry (Seth Kirschner) and Rod (Evan Bass): recent college graduates, all dumped by their college girlfriends, and living together in Astoria, New York.

"We Need Girlfriends" embraces its limitations. The series is self-aware and thrives best in poking fun at its niche audience, who know all so well about Facebook feeds, MySpace photos, and the like. In embracing the platform, the filmmakers have not only done the pre-requisite — incorporating independent musicians into its soundtrack — but really engaged its online audience by responding to it. Special episodes include holiday wishes to fans, mid-season bloopers and a clever teaser when the season finale, which went online yesterday, was going to run a couple weeks late. Their official site and MySpace account do their jobs showing the big picture, where YouTube and other video syndications focus on what they do best. Their visual style makes cheap T-shirts look good.

It's got all the ingredients for viral marketing done with the right intentions. Just knowing you can join "Team Henry," friend "Rod" and "Tom," or reply to each episode feels fun. WNG engages its community, who then evangelize it. This show, on its own qualities, feels like the kind of thing you immediately forward to friends (or future boy/girlfriends). They've taken what's good on television and what's unlike so much online: quality entertainment that delivers.

WNG is a project by filmmakers Steven Tsapelas, Angel Acevedo and Brian Amyot and their group, Ragtag Productions. Despite no mainsteam media attention, it's still no surprise that they got signed recently with UTA (United Talent Agency) when some notable bloggers say things like this:

• "It's smart, it's genuine — and, oh yeah, hilarious." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• "It's a funny show. Characters get trapped in all kinds of modern dating problems: MySpace ex-stalking, abnormal parties where people are only allowed to wear blue… bizarre things that anyone in their 20s who lives in an American city has experienced to a certain extent. Funny and realistic. What's better than that?" — Tilzy.TV
• "The HBO of online video… Amazing." — Media, Technology and Rebel Filmmaking
• "[WNG] is an online web-series, in my opinion, better than anything on TV these days." — Drive A Faster Car

With 11 episodes in its first 12 months, and each around 5 minutes, you should start from the beginning: