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In this article I discuss my thoughts on film
school and its place in the film industry. There
is, and always has been a debate on this topic
from those who have gone and those who haven't,
the fact is that both have valid reasons!
How kickass would it to be able to go to school
for making movies! Man, I felt just that way
when I was starting to hate life as a Computer
Science major at ASU. The fact is my friend,
film school is in many ways unique to the normal
major, if there is such a thing.
Unfortunately a couple factors came into play
preventing me from going to film school when I
was tackling my other career path. Well, it was
really myself that was the main preventative
factor in going to film school, I will not blame
it on the world. There are a couple things that
could make or break your experience with film
school, and well that's exactly what I am going
to discuss in this article.
First thing is first, and this is something you
will see me stressing heavily in all of my own
recommendations to friends who have the interest,
you must also have the passion. Sorry if I am
beating a mildly injured horse here, but man most
people don't get it! This is indeed different
from selecting a cool sounding elective in high
school, this costs SERIOUS money too. I would
ask you first how much film has played a role in
your life so far, I mean besides owning all 7
seasons of Seinfeld so far. If you can honestly
say that this is something you have been
interested in, seriously, for a while now then
great! If your like the other 98% of high school
graduates who think, "oh crap, time to make a
decision and fast". Well who knows how it will
work for you, but I am not going to give a very
bright outlook.
I mean I guess you could go to film school just
to get a degree and then after graduating go work
up the ladder at Office Depot, and while there is
nothing really wrong with corporate Office Depot,
just think about all that knowledge you just
acquired, what are you doing with it?
Ok, so you may or may not have the passion in
film, but none the less want to go to film school!
Awesome you have made a good choice, well that
too depends. First thing is first, a degree in
film is not really something colleges have for
the most part? Crap! Yeah that's how I felt
after finding out that the closest thing ASU had
to a film degree was Journalism. While I would
have had the chance to get in a mock film studio
and work with cameras, it would be to record
people talking about news and to be completely
honest I couldn't force feed interest in that.
Now if you find yourself luckily living in
California, or New York or by some random college
somewhere that does have a film program then your
options are better. Also if you find you don't
mind moving away from home, and if your parents
have the dough to support that then fantastic X2.
These states are more than film friendly,
especially California. Unfortunately for me I
was never a straight A student, and most of my
extracurricular activities included my
Playstation. That hurt me because I found out
that film school is blasted expensive man! Sure
there are cheaper degrees, like for Cal State
Fullerton and what not, but still we are talking
big bucks.
I never wanted to be the guy paying for his
degree into his mid thirties, so I was a bit SOL.
But don't let that stop you if you're really
interested, because if you're academic enough
about it you may be able to sport a scholarship
and that would be totally sweet especially for
the mega-expensive schools such as USC, the
school George Lucas went to.
Then on to the kick in the pants part of this
whole deal. Do you really need a film degree at
all? Well the short answer is definitely a NO.
The fact is that if you want to make a movie,
well who is stopping you? Even more so, if you
want to be a production assistant on a big budget
feature film you will find that most of the
people working on it in fact did not go to film
school, imagine that.
Even more so, I can most definitely recall
spending time with my boss reviewing resumes for
prospective production assistants on a feature I
was working on. Ever time we got a resume that
was full of Producer and Director credits we
would just chuckle and move along. Hey if you
have produced and directed your own feature
length short in college then great, but
unfortunately I don't give a rat's ass! I want
to know how much experience you have had as a
production assistant, and if you don't have any I
want to know why we should hire you.
Unfortunately we don't hire people so that they
can stand behind the Director and give him
pointers, we hire production assistants to work
and work hard!
Alright now that I have most certainly gone over
why you don't need to go to film school, maybe I
should make a stand from the other point of view.
Well for one if you want to learn the technical
side of film making and get real hands on
experience with 35mm film cameras, lighting
equipment and everything in between then you're
in the right place.
You will most certainly get a chance to make some
movies, and learn a lot about how to make them
look nice. Not only that but you will get to
network with a group of like minded individuals
who also want to become the next big timer in
Hollywood. This is very much an awesome thing
and will help you in your quest. Keep in touch
with these people and you could very well have
free help in making the movie that separates you
from the crowd of cookie cutter film directors.
Unfortunately for the production assistant crowd,
not many are really passionate about making
movies. On top of that, your going to get a
chance to learn about filming, but your going to
be working so hard half of the time your probably
going to be to brain dead to take away any solid
gems of information.
I guess in the end, going or not going to film
school is okay. One route is not intrinsically
better than the other, and you can most
definitely work in the industry sans a degree.
Is one really worth it? I don't know I don't
have one, and I have done just fine. It sure
sounds like it would have been fun though.
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