Read This Before Spending a Lot of Money on Film School!

Posted by William Schwarz

Every year there are lots and lots of new movies produced and released throughout the world. If you’ve ever sat through the end credits of any of these films you have a good idea of the large number of people employed by this industry. Several film schools have opened in recent years to help supply studios with new technical and creative talent. Many of the graduates of these institutions are now enjoying successful careers.

But there are a lot of people with plenty of desire and potential who don’t have the financial resources to attend film school. Should these people give up on their dreams and get into some other line of work, or can the enter the business by some other means? Is it even possible that film school might not be the best route, anyway?

Whether or not to seek training at a school is a decision that only the future filmmaker can make, but it’s always best to weigh all of the options first.

I’m telling the following story in the hope that it will be helpful for future motion picture professionals who are trying to decide whether or not to attend film school. It’s about an acquaintance of mine and the way he got started in the movie business. I don’t know his current whereabouts (he travels around a lot) so I haven’t gotten permission to use his real name. I’ll call him Paul.

One day Paul learned that he would be receiving an inheritance. It was his mother’s job to decide the way this money was to be spent. The only condition was that it was to be used in the furthering of his education. She asked Paul what kind of career he wanted to go into.

He said that he hoped to someday build a future in the movie industry and that he thought going to film school would be the best way to get started. His mother figured that his goal was reasonable, but she had a suggestion for a different route to take.

What if he used the inheritance to make his own short movie. That could be his film school.

Paul liked the sound of this idea, so he got to work. The first thing he did was look for a local special effects technician to get involved with this project. He found one who also happens to be a friend of mine. I’ll call him John.

Here’s the deal that Paul and John made: John would go out and find a bunch of his fellow special effects people and ask them if there were any effects that they had always wanted to create but had never found a project that needed them. A list would be made of these effects and Paul would put together a screenplay that would call for as many of these effects as possible. They would then all collaborate on the film that would be made from this story. There wasn’t enough money available to pay the technicians for their time, but Paul would pay for all of the building materials.

Everybody in the effects crew agreed to this plan and were very enthusiastic about the project. They all had lots of fun with the project and Paul learned how films are made. In the end he had a really slick looking short movie that he could use as an impressive portfolio piece when seeking work in the future.

Paul is by no means the only person to enter the film business by making his own movie. A lot of successful people in the industry learned the trade in film school, but there also many self educated professionals in the crowd.

There are quite a few directors(Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, John Waters and Robert Rodriguez are just a few examples) who have been known to publicly state that they learned filmmaking on their own and that in their opinions this is the best way to go.

With the availability of affordable video equipment and helpful software, just about everybody has access to all of the resources they need to make independent films. They can even get their movies seen by uploading them to the internet.

Once again, there are a lot of people who have found success in the motion picture business by going to school to learn their skills. At the same time, plenty of folks have made it to the top via other routes. Check out as many options as you can before making up your mind. Best of luck to you all in the future!

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Tags: Entertainment

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