Cinema Cemetery
Should You Go To Film/Art School?
Disclaimer:
The following is my own opinion and not the opinion of any studios I have worked for in the past or will work for in the future. All specific information comes courtesy of publicly accessible articles, please see the bibliography for more information.
You’ve been bitten. The itch to make movies consumes your every thought.
Yet your parents are skeptical, is this a phase? Is it for life? Can you really make a living making movies? Should you research film schools or go to a state school and study something more financially feasible?
This isn’t a choice to be made lightly, but for the sake of simplifying the discussion, let’s assume that you’re 100% sure that you want to be involved in the film industry for your future career. How do you approach it?
First, it’s important to think past the goal most people have of being a writer/director with complete creative control. This position, while powerful, is not suited to every personality type and you may find yourself trying to plug yourself into something you ultimately don’t enjoy. There are SO MANY career paths on, off, and relating to a film set that you can be sure there’s something for you.
Actors need costumes and makeup, cameras need directors and operators, the film needs sound/music, and don’t even get me started on the gigantic array of possible careers in post production or vfx. Also, consider this, many of these roles have counterparts in animation or gaming. There’s a galaxy of future roles, so really explore and find things that most directly line up with your specific passion!
Once you have several possibilities in mind, you are faced with a choice. Should you go to an art or film school, or should you self study? Both options are entirely valid pathways into the industry, but both options are not right for every person. No matter which path you take, the end goal is still the same. You want to be good at what you do and you want proof of your skill. Each option I’ll present is a different way to build those skills and learn to market yourself and build a solid demo reel and portfolio.
Art/Film school
First we’ll talk about art or film school. A factor of supreme importance here is that you cannot go with the closest or cheapest option. Figure out what segment of the film industry you think you would like to master and do some homework. Research what schools teach that specific subset the very best. From this list you can reorder the schools based on price and proximity. Let’s look at some of the benefits of choosing the higher education option.
1) Structure
Your courses will be set up in a manner that facilitates a step by step walkthrough of the skills and techniques you will need. Before signing off on a school, ask about this path, see if you can get a breakdown of your learning arc. A good school will usually have this on their website and it’ll give you an idea of where the gaps in your current knowledge may be. A specialized school will pack more relevant courses into your degree rather than forcing things like foreign language or advanced mathematics upon you.
“Structured learning can be frustrating at times, people may not always agree with your artistic ideas, you may spend time learning things you don’t think you need. But, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll learn faster and learn more when you’re nudged to see things from different perspectives. Being able to see things from multiple perspectives is a critical skill you’ll need to develop if you want to be a great film director. Film schools also offer you the opportunity to get honest feedback. It’ll be frustrating to be criticized by an instructor or your peers at first, but this process sharpens your skills, thickens your skin and prepares you for the big stage.” (2)
“School was pretty conservative about the approach to production, which gave us a good sense of the way things are traditionally supposed to be done. I’ve often departed from the way we learned to do things in school, but having that foundation has informed my choices in a way that I’ve found very useful. The second, and most important thing, was meeting many of the people who have become my longtime collaborators.” -Aaron Katz (1)
2) Collaboration
Speaking of collaboration, later in life you’ll be hard pressed to find such a wide variety of diversity, talent, and the willingness to help out with your film as you will find while in school.
“Outside of film school you may never have the opportunity to work with so many different collaborators, or to safely make the many mistakes that are part of the process. Failure, confusion and strife cost you more in the real world, if only because they don’t have the candy shell of education around them.” (4)
3) Safety
Art or film school can be a great time to really experiment with your style and technique in a constructive environment. It can also provide safety for those who have already begun careers in other fields but would like to switch over.
“...if you look at all the major players and smaller players, many went to film school...I went to film school. Why? Because I already was married and I couldn’t afford to go down to L.A. and try and make it. Also, I wasn’t aspiring to make "Bad Boys 3," or make a $100 million in a weekend as a filmmaker. I think if you want your mind expanded, and want to look at film in a deeper way than Hollywood, then yes, film school is good. For those wanting to make the next big films, then NYU, USC, UCLA are the schools you need to get yourself into. The smaller schools are for people who want to be in control of their careers as they grow.” - Robert Machoian (1)
“Depending on who you ask, researchers currently contend that it takes anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Whether those numbers are perfectly accurate is moot; the takeaway is that filmmaking, like painting, athletics, playing the piano or being a rocket scientist, takes a massive amount of time and dedication to master.
In exchange for tuition, film school will give you structured time to practice your craft in a safe, constructive environment. This is perhaps the greatest gift a school can offer.” (4)
Those are pretty good reasons to choose higher educations yet, make no mistake, there are plenty of drawback too.
1) Echo-chamber
“one thing film school does not give you is an understanding of how audiences will respond to your work. I feel like that’s missing from a lot of folks that have the deep film-school-straight-into-production type experience.” -Negin Farsad (1)
What may work on student projects may be a strict taboo on a film set. What resonates with art students may not be appreciated by general audiences. There’s a pretty big gap between your university experiences and actual professional context. Also,
“(A) problem with (film school) is that you start at the bottom doing things that you may feel you’re overqualified to do after four years of higher education.” -Saar Klein (1)
2) Expense
“it has never been more expensive to go to film school, and it has never been cheaper to make a movie.” (3)
“Finally, unlike lawyers or dentists, the vast majority of filmmakers don't make a lot of money. Offsetting the cost of your student loan is a lot harder when you can't bill $500 an hour for a legal consultation or $2,000 for putting a crown in someone's mouth. Often it takes years of grunt/free/spec work to work your way up to a well-paying film gig. Paradoxically, what this means in practice is that a lot of more lucrative, non-film jobs are going to end up looking more attractive after you graduate from film school because of the debt attached to your expensive film degree.” (3)
“being forced to pay back huge student loans is the last thing an aspiring filmmaker should face.” - Doug Block (1)
There has never been a time in history where it’s been easier to make films with no formal education. Hardware is cheap, your phone has a better camera than consumers could afford in their wildest dreams ten years ago. Software is easier to learn than ever and most major packages have gigantic user groups, forums, and tutorials online available for free. Spending time shooting films and learning at your own pace without spending a bundle you don’t have on an expensive education may sound ideal, but it also has some pretty serious drawbacks.
Let’s start with a positive to this approach:
1) TIME spent not MONEY spent
“I am sure that there are lots of things that I could have learned in film school, and sometimes I’m jealous of my friends who went. I know I beat my head against problems that someone could have simply explained to me in school. And there are probably holes in my film education. But ultimately, whether you go to film school or not, there’s no substitute for going out and spending hundreds of hours trying to make a film.” - Marshall Curry (1)
“I believe the best way to learn how to make a film is, quite simply, to make a film. Not only will you have made something that can be a calling card, but you’ll meet your first set of real-world collaborators — it’s an invaluable experience that I’m not sure can be properly gained in the classroom.” -Tom Dolby (1)
“They can teach you in school how to say what you're trying to say, but they can't teach you what to say. With the six figures you're likely to spend on film school, what would happen if you instead spent that traveling the world, reading a lot of books, doing odd jobs or volunteer work, and meeting a lot of people along the way? Your perspective on the world is more important than any amount of craft or production value.” (3)
Conceptually this notion is really compelling! However, in practice, not everyone has the inner strength to focus on their chosen aspect of filmmaking in a manner that would compete with schooling in terms of final result.
“when you educate yourself without film school and without a mentor, you must create the curriculum, you must develop the ability to honestly critique your own work (good luck with that one), and you need to know when to shift your focus to another set of skills, constantly transitioning from the role of “instructor” to “student” and back again.” (2)
“The obvious cost of a self-directed DIY filmmaking study program is that setting up a study structure takes a lot of time and an exceptional amount of discipline. But the real costs could be the lack of opportunities that come as a result of not having a network of classmates.” (2)
So there you go, positives and negatives to both approaches.
As a final word I would personally caution anyone choosing the film school route not to settle on what is cheapest. You will waste your time and money. Find the right school with the right curriculum and the right teachers, do not settle. You’re already bleeding loan money, embrace it. Study hard, don’t party, don’t drink, don’t waste your time. Work on your craft as though it is the only thing that matters in life. Your future will thank you.
To anyone choosing to go it alone without formal education. Look at the demo reels of those in your chosen field. To be competitive you need to be at that level. Look at the qualifications for open positions at production houses, vfx houses, and animation studios relating to your area of expertise. You need to know all these skills. Pursue it doggedly. Work a part time job, live with your parents if you can, show them constant progress. Give them a lesson plan and have them hold you accountable. Seek out critique and become good at taking the opinions of others and improving as a result.
Regardless as to what you choose, best of luck, and I can’t wait to see what you do!
This has been Cinema Cemetery, digging six feet deeper into film and culture.
-Josh Evans