The difference between going to film school and not going to film school
- Thread starter Zachadoodle
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CharlesPapert
Director of Photography
Most people I know who went all the way through film school feel that assessing it years later, the greatest impact it had was by the alliances they formed with classmates, not so much their professors.
I'm a film school dropout. My subsequent learning process was not one of standing at a distance absorbing your illustrated droplets coming down from the industry, in that pre-internet era that would have existed on a fractional level. I starting working as a PA months after leaving university, learned by watching on set and asking questions. I got my hands on gear however and wherever I could. I learned enough to get myself hired at 22 as the on-staff shooter and editor for a tiny production company, then spent a few years churning out hundreds of local commercials and corporates. That was the best education I could have hoped for, and I got paid for all of it.
So...there are different stories.
I'm a film school dropout. My subsequent learning process was not one of standing at a distance absorbing your illustrated droplets coming down from the industry, in that pre-internet era that would have existed on a fractional level. I starting working as a PA months after leaving university, learned by watching on set and asking questions. I got my hands on gear however and wherever I could. I learned enough to get myself hired at 22 as the on-staff shooter and editor for a tiny production company, then spent a few years churning out hundreds of local commercials and corporates. That was the best education I could have hoped for, and I got paid for all of it.
So...there are different stories.
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Zachadoodle
Well-known member
I hope one day I can get a PA job.
Were you by any chance stuck on getting through your core classes unable to get to the real film classes, or were you going all in in your film classes before you dropped out? What was the most you did?
Were you by any chance stuck on getting through your core classes unable to get to the real film classes, or were you going all in in your film classes before you dropped out? What was the most you did?
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CharlesPapert
Director of Photography
This was NYU, and there wasn't a whole lot of core classes (honestly I can't really remember much, this is 40 years ago now). I had both photography and filmmaking classes. Was in the darkroom developing and printing, and also shooting and cutting Super 8 (would have moved up to 16mm sophomore year). The main issue for me was that NYU was avant-garde oriented, and I was more interested in mainstream filmmaking. So I struck out on my own, made some cold calls and got myself onto sets of movies shooting around town including Ghostbusters. Those experiences were far more inspirational than anything that I was experiencing in my classes.
cyclone
Well-known member
I went to UCLA Film School. I enjoyed it and felt that it was worth it.
Film school is great for the technical side of things (and for the contacts you make, as noted above)...not so much the creative side (as you would expect). Regarding the creative side (writing/acting/etc.)...You either have "It" or you don't.
Film school is great for the technical side of things (and for the contacts you make, as noted above)...not so much the creative side (as you would expect). Regarding the creative side (writing/acting/etc.)...You either have "It" or you don't.
paulears
Veteran
That video was the perfect explanation of what film school should do, but does not. First - the lip sync error wasn't fixed, which is very obvious, but the whole video rambles, the direction is a very wobbly line and an example of how film school failed that guy (assuming he did film school)
Education is always worth it if they provide the information and you are the right person to receive and process it.
Stepping back and putting my educator hat on - one thing I learned in my own post grad teaching qualification was Maslow's heirachy of needs. It fits really well with arts and media. You learn by very well understood pathways. Some people MUST be shown how to do things. Others would learn more from reading about it. Others must actually do things to learn and so on. What film schools, and the other dedicated arts courses like music and performance art do is allow people to experience doing it. Very often with teachers who have come out of the profession and gone to teaching, so some will be dated in our fast moving arena. They are also guilty of forcing methods of work - like DSLR on programmes. Everything concentrated on the gear they have. If they don't have Reds, or upmarket Sony products (add in the other flavour of the month stuff), then they justify it by saying that it's easy to move sideways - it NEVER is. Often their workflows are dated and even flawed, but that is how it is delivered to the students. They top end students understand this and make sure they individually consider alternate equipment and processes and understand properly the difference. The other students just cannot do this. They walk into their new job and discover they're on Arri Alexa cameras and they fall apart. They've never seen the lens mount, or touched the camera and the difference make their progress very poor and many move on. I've been guilty of this myself in the sound arena. A highly qualified student from a British university with quite a decent reputation. First day was a busy day, a truck full of flight cases arrived, I pointed him to the pile of audio cases and said "you get on with the sound, I'll sort the lights". Nothing prepared me for the silence when nothing he had connected he could get to work. Really basic ground level stuff. Clearly, he'd never come across dante - the common network audio system. He was unable to connect the equipment to talk to each other. One of the other guys was a straight into work tech. No university or specialist education. He was really a general tech, but he worked it out, got the gear talking and most of this was from prodding menus, understanding what he saw and making it work.
Film school to the really good people is icing on the cake. For others, a waste of money. NO use to me as an employer!!
Education is always worth it if they provide the information and you are the right person to receive and process it.
Stepping back and putting my educator hat on - one thing I learned in my own post grad teaching qualification was Maslow's heirachy of needs. It fits really well with arts and media. You learn by very well understood pathways. Some people MUST be shown how to do things. Others would learn more from reading about it. Others must actually do things to learn and so on. What film schools, and the other dedicated arts courses like music and performance art do is allow people to experience doing it. Very often with teachers who have come out of the profession and gone to teaching, so some will be dated in our fast moving arena. They are also guilty of forcing methods of work - like DSLR on programmes. Everything concentrated on the gear they have. If they don't have Reds, or upmarket Sony products (add in the other flavour of the month stuff), then they justify it by saying that it's easy to move sideways - it NEVER is. Often their workflows are dated and even flawed, but that is how it is delivered to the students. They top end students understand this and make sure they individually consider alternate equipment and processes and understand properly the difference. The other students just cannot do this. They walk into their new job and discover they're on Arri Alexa cameras and they fall apart. They've never seen the lens mount, or touched the camera and the difference make their progress very poor and many move on. I've been guilty of this myself in the sound arena. A highly qualified student from a British university with quite a decent reputation. First day was a busy day, a truck full of flight cases arrived, I pointed him to the pile of audio cases and said "you get on with the sound, I'll sort the lights". Nothing prepared me for the silence when nothing he had connected he could get to work. Really basic ground level stuff. Clearly, he'd never come across dante - the common network audio system. He was unable to connect the equipment to talk to each other. One of the other guys was a straight into work tech. No university or specialist education. He was really a general tech, but he worked it out, got the gear talking and most of this was from prodding menus, understanding what he saw and making it work.
Film school to the really good people is icing on the cake. For others, a waste of money. NO use to me as an employer!!
CharlesPapert
Director of Photography
The only time film school came up while I was interviewing for a job came within my first year working as a PA in Boston. I had written letters to all of the production companies asking/begging for work, or at least a meeting. A few granted me the meeting (and eventually, the work came). I remember sitting across the desk from this "scary" (i.e. established in the industry, local as it was) production manager person who looked at my typewritten resume and said "so, you went to film school. How was that?" I hesitated before answering "didn't like it much and dropped out after a year". He smiled and said "Good. A lot of the film school grads don't like it much when we put a broom in their hands". I said, gimme the broom, I'll start sweeping the studio right now.
Paul, I agree with the dated aspect of most film school professors. There are exceptions of course. AFI (American Film Institute) here in LA is very connected to the industry both through the fulltime staff and guest lecturers. It has always impressed me how dialed in to the working industry it is--many graduates have gone immediately on to very good careers. I also have a friend who moved from working DP to teaching at Syracuse a couple of years ago and he seems to be tearing things up there in a good way, starting up cutting-edge programs like shooting on a volume. So, there is hope!