Alternative to film school?

Huh. Well, I don't know anything about them first hand, and certainly don't know anyone who went there, so that might be a sign. Normally I would suggest to avoid a trade school like that anyway, but I had read good things. But you never can tell how far the wily grip of PR can reach...
 
This is my first time posting -- reading this thread was why I registered.

I'm not sure what film schools you've been looking at, but 30,000 doesn't even begin to scratch the surface for most schools. I've recently earned an MFA in film, and it cost me roughly 90,000. Granted, that is the *high* end of the scale, but film school isn't cheap no matter where you go. AFI is more expensive than that, I believe. The best thing about film school is being able to interact with others who take film very seriously. There's a lot to be said for that. But it is a very expensive venture, and not one to be taken lightly. They can be a very positive experience, but they're not going to "make" you -- at best all they will do is help you along your way. If you go into it thinking they'll turn you into a genius, I think you'd be bitterly disappointed (that's your job.)

Regardless of whether or not you were to attend film school, the best way to learn is to do it. The first few things you make are going to be attrocious, but you learn from each mistake. It's like learning to play the piano, or just about anything else. It takes time and practice. The beauty of video is that you can make shorts and even features for relatively little. It's still a fairly ugly format and there's a fair amount of snobbery towards it in the industry, but at this point it doesn't matter. You're just trying to learn. Get your hands on *any* video camera, and start hacking at it. As you do it, you'll start to get the sense of your own sensibilities, and you'll start to find what "works" and what "doesn't."

Reading up on screenwriting can be very helpful -- check out books by Syd Field and Robert McKee to name a few. It's probably best to start with a script (Coppola said he'd never start a film until he had locked his script) you're confident in, but again, you're just starting so you can screw around with impunity.

Also, keep in mind that most films spend a LONG time in pre-production. I can't stress enough how important it is to plan what you're going to do. Storyboards, shot lists etc etc really help films to stand out. I've seen films that have been storyboarded up to the half-way point (at which point the director got tired of working on it, and just started shooting), and it falls apart visually after that.

DVD commentaries can be great, depending on who is talking. I've heard good things about the Rodriguez commentaries, though I've never listened to them personally. Ridley Scott also has very insightful commentaries on Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. I seem to recall Guillermo del Toro's commentary on Blade 2 to be very good as well, but it's been a long time.

In terms of southern film schools, I think everyone has covered them: NC School of the Arts (used to live in NC -- it has a good rep), Florida State, and FullSail (I have friends who went there, and they are very sharp -- so I wouldn't believe *all* the negative things you hear about it). There's another school -- Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), that I briefly looked at but didn't dig into enough to tell whether or not it was a good program. Personally, I think if you're gonna spend the money on film school, you should go for the gold and find one in Los Angeles. Just keep in mind, every school has its caveats. USC is widely regarded as one of, if not the best film schools in the country, yet I know quite a few people who are very bitter about their experiences there. When deciding on whether or not to go to film school the best (and coincidentally BS) answer is: "It depends."

Hope that helps.
 
At USC, it tends to be the Critical Studies students who are most bitter. I've never figured out a single reason why that is.
 
The alternative? Just do it. Start writing, shooting, editing. Hopefully you're motivated enough to work hard and keep practicing. Find people around you with similar interests and work with them.

As much fun as it is doing everything yourself, there are people out there more skilled than you with different talents. If you can find a lot of people with talents in different areas to help you then it'll improve the quality of your films.

Know your limitatons. Most people think they can do it all when they can't.
 
There are several successful approaches to becoming a filmmaker. I have meet plenty of successful people who "just do it" but film school also gives you many of great resources, the most important, which has already been stated, is networking.

As Luis said, editing is the place where you will learn the most. You quickly learn what does and doesn't work. That is one of the reasons it is not usually the best approach to start out trying a feature length. Do a bunch of shorts to quickly learn from your mistakes.

Books, DVD's, the internet, and cheap equipment so you can practically shoot for free make it a great time to be starting out as a filmmaker. Take advantage of all these resources.

One great way to get up to speed is to volunteer your services to work on a local film crew. It's great to make your own movies but working on other people's movies will quickly show what to do and what not to do.

School is not to be underrated. A full 4 year program is more then you need to start making films (but still valuable overall). One great program is the Maine International Film and Television Workshops. They have a summer program that includes intensive courses that can get you quickly up to speed on the basics as well as master level course for the more experienced filmmaker. I have taken several course there and you meet some of the top people in the field. Only issue for me was they are all based out of NY or LA and working out of Seattle I could not take advantage of the networking. If you plan to move to either location, Maine is a great place to get some opening contacts.

They also have a great program for kids to work there (maintain equipment, perform as actors for the other students' s films, etc) to subsidize their tuition. It's a great deal for kids to get a great education for close to free. If I were a young adult getting started I would sign up for that program tomorrow. :)

A ton of options are open to you, only you can figure out what you think will work best for you.

Good luck
 
my friend went to film school and he teaches me all thestuff he learned. second hand knowledge is good i guess.
 
I have to chime in and say I agree with all those here who've given the advice "Just do it!" My background is in journalism, and I was always interested in making a documentary. Then, I was consulting for a software company, and they needed a customer testimonial DVD. Although I had no "moving image"-related experience, I knew that essentially it would be the same as writing up a puff piece praising the software, just a different medium (video vs. print). So, my partner and I taped interviews that I conducted with users of the software, and put together a series of talking-head testimonials. It was poorly lit (the first thing we did), but the editing and content were right on-target. I realized that producing is all about establishing and meeting deadlines, and editing for video/film is storytelling -- just like editing an article -- and so forth. In other words, I learned that I had a lot more skills that were portable to this medium than I realized.

It was a huge confidence builder, and we've just taken every opportunity since then to learn by doing -- entering the DVX User contests and other competitions has been a big motivator, because you have to meet deadlines and once you declare publicly that you're going to do it, you put pressure on yourself to follow through. You make mistakes, and finish, and maybe you like what you did and maybe you don't, but you move on to the next challenge.

One thing that we definitely learned A LOT from was a local 24-hour film competition, and we've since discovered that a lot of these are conducted nationwide -- 24-hour or 48-hour or two-week competitions where you have to script, shoot and edit your entry within the designated timeframe. Those are like mini-bootcamps, and you will learn a tremendous amount just by rolling up your sleeves and plunging in.

Finally, try to talk to as many people as you can -- whenever you have an opportunity to try out ideas on someone of get information from people, go for it. My rule of thumb on that: There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers...

Good luck!
 
Just doing it is fine, but you will reach a limit of what you can achieve with that method. Books and videos are great, but they are not conversations. It is invaluable to be able to hear something taught and then ask, "Okay, but what about THIS situation? How does it work then?" That's hard to get outside of real-world scenarios. Forums like this are a big advance, but not quite there.

At the very least, if you're going it alone, and serious about it, you should find a mentor. Find someone who will teach you hands-on. Work (or volunteer, even) as their assistant for a while. You'll learn a lot more than the relatively low ceiling of what you can learn all by yourself.

One more thing to add, Boston University has a summer film program that is supposedely pretty good. NYU has a similar program. I know people who attended both in high school.
 
Books books books. You ALREADY have access to the best teachers in the WORLD through loads of fantastic books. Two years ago I put together my own "Film School" curriculum (based on real film school curricula) and researched books to serve as class textbooks.

Here's some of the better ones. (ISBN's in parens)

INTRODUCTION TO FILMMAKING
"Understanding Movies" by Louis Giannetti (0130408131)

MAKING INDIE FILMS YOU CAN AFFORD
"Rebel Without a Crew" by Robert Rodriguez (0452271878)
"From Reel to Deal" by Dov Simens (0446674621)
"How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10,000" by Bret Stern (0060084677)

SCREENPLAY WRITING
"Screenplay: Writing the Picture" by Russin/Downs (1879505703)
"How NOT To Write a Screenplay" by Denny Flinn (1580650155)
"Screenwriting 434" by Lew Hunter (039951838X)

FILM PRODUCTION
"The Complete Film Production Handbook" by Honthaner (0240804198)
"Film Budgeting" by Ralph Singleton (0943728657)
"Film Scheduling" by Ralph Singleton (0943728398)
"Uva's Basic Grip Book" by Michael/Sabrina Uva (0240804856)
"Killer Camera Rigs You Can Build Yourself" by Selakovich (www.DVcamerarigs.com)

DIRECTING
"Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics" by Michael Rabiger (0240805188)
"Directing Actors" by Judith Weston (0941188248)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
"Setting Up Your Shots" by Jeremy Vineyard (0941188736)
"The Five C's of Cinematography" by Mascelli (0187950541X)
"Painting with Light" by John Alton (0520089499)
"Film Lighting" by Kris Malkiewicz (0671766341)


There's a bunch more but these are the favorites I notice that I keep grabbing over and over again.

AND I agree with others who've also pointed out that you also have access to a tremendous amount of "Adjunct Professors" RIGHT HERE... and it's all FREE.
 
The best kept secret in Film Schools......

Oklahoma City Community College

The program was started up by Grey Fredrickson

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0292875/

Academy award winner for Godfather II, his credits are unreal. He still teaches one class a semester.

The school until recently was ran by Fritz Kiersch director of Children of the Corn.
Fritz left last semester to start a program at Oklahoma City University, which I'm sure will be a great 4 year program, but very expensive.

This may not be the best school for a director, it is very technical oreinted. However go on to a four year school and get the film studeis and you'll be set for directing.

This school is all about lighting, camera, production design etc. etc. I'm still a student there and have worked on 2 feature films one as 2nd AD the other as set construction, and a reality tv show as a lead man.

So here is my speil, go buy a camera and go out and shoot and learn by making mistake after mistake after mistake. Throw good money after bad learning from more of those mistakes. Go to film school and learn from those who know this business inside and out. Then get on sets of multi million dollar productions, where you learning curve will go through the roof, because you will work with top name actors, producers, directors and so forth.

The cost? I think last semester cost me @ 900.00 I made that on a two day commericial shoot last week. Oh yeah the contact that hired me for that was my sound editing teacher.
 
I can also recommend the University of Wisconsin:Milwaukee. It has an experimental
and documentary focus, but I went home with a 16mm camera (Filmo) on my
first day of classes, freshman year. I easily shot over 10,000 feet of 16mm film
there and they did have in-house b/w reversal processing that made it affordable.

You've also got access and rights to your own work as well.

http://www3.uwm.edu/arts/programs/film/bfa_prod.html
 
Another couple of good books that I've read and heard of are:

Filmmakers Handbook - by Steven Ascher & Edward Pinkus (I own this and it almost invaluable in terms of all the knowledge that's in it)

Ross Lowell's Matters of Light and Depth - I've heard it's a good book, but I haven't got a chance to read it.

Also, Rebel Without a Crew is a very good book for motivation and it really shows how much can be done with a little creativity.
 
I disagree with all the above as an alternative to film school.

making your own films, watching DVDs and reading all these books is essential to all of us regardless of Education. These should be budgeted for before considering if you can afford film school.

If then you still want to go then why not? I would love the chance to spend three years talking and reading about movies and making my own with other like minded people. Personally I can't afford the tuition or to give up my job.

OK you might ask why not spend that 50K on a feature? But I believe that with a good film education behind you and some very good indie movies under your belt you'll have a much easier time of raising the money from investors.

Just my thoughts on the subject.
 
My tips for directing is reading the following books:
*Robert McKee's "Story" (You GOTTA know how to write)
*Judith Weston's "Directing Actors" (directing actors is 50% of your job)
*Nicholas Proferes "Film Fundamentals" (finally an aesthetic book on directing)
*Stephen Covey "The 7 habits of highly effective people" (you GOTTA balance yourself)
*Robert Rodriguez "Rebel Without a Crew" (Good for morale)

All these books were completely mindblowing to me. If you can learn 100% of the information in these books, and then apply them to your work 100%, then you will in practicality be as good as the best Hollywood players today.

Myself I went to Bond University in Australia. They had a "Directing Actors" class and a "Scriptwriting" class which were INSANELY helpful.

Oh and yes: Stop watching other people's movies and throw away your magazines, so that you have time to read classical literature. Classical literature is classical for a REASON. I were kinda down and depressed since I could'nt seem to find interesting articles that inspired me, until I started to read Ibsen. It completely blew my mind. 150 year old literature, and as relevant today as it was then. And what about 2500 years old literature? Read Aristotle's Poetics. Other writers to check out: Dante, Lovecraft (personal favourite), Poe, Dickens, Nietzsche, Marx, Dostojevskij and lots and lots others... From the nordic countries you have Ibsen, Strindberg and even Snorre (Icelandic Viking-tales, hopeless to understand :)

I know americans don't like checking out this old european pompous stuff, but believe me when I say classic literature is classic for a reason. You won't find today's magazines standing besides Aristotle in history.

Good luck!
 
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