“Hustling” in film school as socialization for early career work in media industries

•“Hustling” describes the several ways filmmaking is a deeply social phenomenon.•It is a term natively used by film students to denote socialization in film school.•It involves constant networking and competition, but builds students' reputations.•Hustling in film school is anticipatory work for students' industrial careers.•Future studies of precarious creativity must account for early career socialization.

This ethnographic study contributes to the literature on the sociology of work and socialization, and the literature on creative careers in cultural industries, by describing the various grounded theory categories of “hustling” by film students in the venue of film school. Based on 18 months of participant observation of two student films at a Los Angeles-based MFA film/TV production program, I show that students “hustle” to form connections, work continuously across multiple projects, compete for production classes, and in the process, build their individual and collective reputations. I argue that hustling is a social process that involves an array of socializations, and is experienced subjectively as anticipatory work towards careers in the film/TV industries. Students come to realize that their hustling towards curricular and pedagogical requirements is a synecdoche for the larger industrial careers they aspire to, careers that demand even more hustling and precariousness, but careers that they are better prepared for than they know. Film students leave school with certain agency. Future research should take into account how early career socialization prepares aspirants for later creative work.