Filmschool to get into business from abroad..

Z

ZzBog

Active member
Hello,

My friend is a foreigner to US. He's got his degree in his home country (ex-USSR). He speaks English perfectly, has some experience in production (TV films). He wants to get into the movies.
Entering a film school seems like a good idea, to add some technical skills, but mostly he calls that filmschool experience a gate into filmmaking.
Is that true, that there's a certain career mechanism, which allows film-school graduates enter the filmmaking business. Something like scouts from studios, recruiting graduate students, who show potential...
Is it something like a general rule? Is filmschool really a ticket into the club of moviemakers?
We're speaking about filmmaking in USA. The friend is about to go for directing programm.

Otherwise, filmschool seems like a two-year $90000 debt affair, my friend wants to suck himself in..

I'm kinda worried about him.

Also can anybody provide a link to the reliable list of the better filmschools?

Thanks a lot.
 
ZzBog said:
Is that true, that there's a certain career mechanism, which allows film-school graduates enter the filmmaking business. Something like scouts from studios, recruiting graduate students, who show potential...
Is it something like a general rule? Is filmschool really a ticket into the club of moviemakers?
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I'll answer the questions in order. No. No. No. and No. :cheesy:

Especially since your friend already has work experience (as well as a degree) I'd tell him just to hit the job market and use the money he wants to spend on film school to help cover living expenses.


-A
 
Disclaimer - No, I don't think ALL film schools are this way but most are. Whenever I hire crews, when I interview people for crew positions, if they tell me that they are a film school graduate unsolicited, I tell them, "that's okay, I won't hold it against you".

The majority of Filmschools = pretend school where kids with rich parents decide if they want to delude themselves into pretending they will have a career as a "Big Hollywood Filmmaker".

Good way to kill a couple of years if his parents are rich. He might actually meet someone while in school who could help him actually have a career in films but statistics show that the majority of film school graduates do not go on to have successful careers in film or television.

There are a few worthwhile film schools but it's like everything else in this business, it's who you know, are you a people person, can you sell yourself? I have three friends who all graduated in the same class from Art Center with BFAs in film. In their class were some people like Larry Fong, Tarsem and a few others. People like Tarsem would have been successful in the business regardless of whether or not they attended film school. At the time, the average film graduate from there was finishing his/her degree typically with about 120k in debt. None of my three friends have finished paying off their loans and debt from Art Center and they graduated in the mid 90s.

All three are in the business and make a living but all three have told me that if they knew then what they knew just two years after graduating, none of them would have gone to film school. Fun, but probably only smart if you have wealthy parents who will pay for it.

Dan
 
And which filmschools are the most notable for their graduates getting a job easily?

And the general idea my friend's hooked on, is that if he tries to break into the industry by just finding a minor job at some studio, he'll have to start over - as he had to do in his country - from assistant to screenwriter.
He thinks that as a film school graduate he'll shorten that path, because he'll get a higher level job - something like an editor for the bigger studio or even second unit director....
Is that true?
 
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Getting a job doing what is the question. If you mean entry level executive, there are some opportunities. If you mean working on a set, little to none. Still totally depends upon who you know. I will say that I know that UCLA/USC graduates do seem to make more high-end connections, probably because of the distinguished alumni. They also do seem to have more connections with the studios for people coming out of film school to get into their management trainees programs, but keep in mind, that is not making films, has nothing to do with directing or creativity. It might be reading scripts, working for an executive, etc. Not really very much directly to do with filmmaking.

On the studio side, the majority of people involved with filmmaking are at quite a distance from the set and might as well be doing an accounting job for a Wall Street accounting firm.

Dan
 
So are you saying its hard to get a career job in the filmmaking industry? What you're saying is scaring me, haha.
 
tkdx2 said:
So are you saying its hard to get a career job in the filmmaking industry? What you're saying is scaring me, haha.
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Your chances of getting a job in the film industry are inversely proportional to the amount of people you know in the film industry who will hire you. It's a simple formula. You don't know anyone in the industry, you will have a hard time getting a job.

That's the one thing you can possibly get through film school (the right film school in LA or NY). If you know nobody in the business and go to a prestigious film school, by the time you graduate, if you have played your cards right, you may know someone in the film business who could hire you.

I don't know why any logical, sane person would want to try to break into an industry that is in decline anyway. Theatrical gross is down, DVD sales are down, strikes, a lot people losing everything, sorry folks, the filmed entertainment industry, in a whole is in decline. It will always be around but its not getting any bigger and there are too many people who want to work in it for the amount of jobs it can provide. What a horrible time to try to "break in" to an industry that already overglutted with supply and a decreasing demand.

If I were young and wanted to try to do something creative, I would put all of my efforts and study into the video game industry. Growth is through the roof, technology is getting better and better and obscene amounts of money are being made. There is a ton of opportunity in the video game business as an industry. At some point in the future, I think the video game and filmed entertainment business will somewhat merge, more than they have already.

Dan
 
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I agree with everything dan has said. when i moved here I didn't know anyone. had to start out as a PA for a trailer house, driving tapes to clients around town. eventually worked my way up to editor, quit and went freelance, started my own company, used the money to finance my own features and shorts. and that's where i am today.

that being said, I have noticed a huge network of people from FSU (Florida State Univ) helping each other get work. no matter what company i'm freelancing at, there seems to be some FSU almuni.
 
Interesting Zak. When I was doing a ton of industrial about ten years ago, my biggest client was a California-based huge pharma company. We used to laugh because about 40% of the staff of about 3,000 at the time came from New Jersey and some specific schools in NJ, we called them, "The Jersey Mafia". And they kept hiring other Jerseyites.

You should have seen them react when we had the '94 Northridge quake, about half of them moved back to New Jersey that week, seriously, they were totally freaking out and thought it was the Apocalypse. People from the east coast really don't like earthquakes at all. ;-)

FSU, huh? I have not ran into any of those.

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
If I were young and wanted to try to do something creative, I would put all of my efforts and study into the video game industry. Growth is through the roof, technology is getting better and better and obscene amounts of money are being made. There is a ton of opportunity in the video game business as an industry. At some point in the future, I think the video game and filmed entertainment business will somewhat merge, more than they have already.

Dan
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Ahh. Offtopic, sorry:

Videogames are really stupid for now, unfortunatelly...

The "game" component of videogames is really taking over.
No grown-up art there, alas, it's a kidult realm.

I mean, can you name 5 games, which are not childish in design or don't appeal to some sex/violence interest, teenagers develop at a certain age?

I, personally, wouldn't enjoy myself as a 30-yearold teenager - video game creator.

Moreover videogames are an ethical choice... I, myself, was a hardcore gamer some 5-6 years ago... Can't imagine anybody wanting to waste his talent on sucking other people into the web of virtual entertainment. Videogame industry is like drug industry (think cocaine & heroin) for now: the aim of any videogame is to get the player hooked on. I've seen careers and heard of families, ruined by World of Warcraft......... And it's PabloEscobar-esque creators are probably icons for most of videogame makers. That's even more frightening, than childish design mixed with gory naturalism.

Those are my thoughts, don't know about my filmmaking wannabe friend... Anyway he's too serios for VG, I guess.
 
While I agree that the odds are against anyone wanting to make it in the entertainment industry I don't see that as a reason not to do it. At least to me that is part of the attraction. Where is the sense of accomplishment doing something that everyone else can easily do? I came out here in '01 a few months before 9/11 and had just about no luck. I had to move back to the Midwest for a couple of years and then I came back out here again in '04 and so far, so good this time around. It's definitely not for everyone, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a shot. I have a friends from back east w/commercial editing experience and they had a relatively easy time getting consistent work w/in a year of moving to LA (bastards:cheesy:). There are lots of facets to the industry besides working on big name feature films.

The video game industry has tiers as well. Yeah, getting a job working for an unknown developer making shovel-ware for cell phones is easier than getting a gig on a big budget Hollywood film but good luck getting on the next God of War game. And the budgets for triple A titles have been getting cut back the past couple of years as companies are trying to curtail 'runaway' budgets. PC gaming is getting kicked in the nuts which is why everyone and their brother is releasing MMOs. What used to *the* platform for gaming just a few years ago is really having a tough time these days. And sure there are break-out 'indie' games like Geometry Wars or Flow but those are about as common as break-out indie movies.

As far as movies and games merging, I think more hybrid-type stuff will continue to come out, but neither form of entertainment is going to disappear as they are fundamentally different.


-A
 
BTW, can anybody recommend the best way to look for a job in the industry from abroad?

Like any reliable site or forum, where the "Job offered" ads are placed for the filmmaking industry? Not the occasional freelance offerings, but something more solid?

A place to send CV etc..?

I mean with all the legends surrounding "breaking in" process, googling for the general terms is inefficient - too many scams.
 
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