IS FILM SCHOOL A WASTE OF MONEY?

Over the years that I've been in the cartoon industry, I've had several colleagues who made some extra money teaching at one of the local film schools. The students at these institutions often put themselves deeply in debt and spend years paying off student loans in order to attend.

Occasionally, one of my animator/instructor friends would give some pupils a tour of the studio we worked in. I used to anticipate seeing a lot of these eager young people working beside me within the following few years, but so far that hasn't happened very much.

Recently, I asked an animation teacher how many of his students eventually find employment in the industry. He estimated that about 30% of them got jobs. From what I've seen, most of these new professionals drop out of the business after (or even during) their first production.

At the same time, a lot of the "superstars" I've worked with have never set foot in a film school. Their talent and drive is what got them in the door, and their ability to adapt to the constant changes in the movie business is why they've lasted.

One of my employers used to moonlight teaching at a film school. He liked the easy money but confessed that he thought a film student's time would be better spent seeking a job(ANY kind of job)at a studio.

I personally would suggest that you aspiring filmmakers embark on your own production. If you feel too inexperienced to go it alone, you could consider assisting somebody else on their amateur movies.

The availability of books, equipment, and helpful software these days puts film production within the reach of the average person like never before.

Even if you decide to get into film school later on, making a film or two of your own beforehand will put you way ahead of the pack.

And of course, you may decide after this experience that the motion picture industry isn't really for you. In that case you will have saved yourself a lot of money!

...with the stipulation that this money had to be spent on furthering his education. His mother asked him what he wanted to do with his life.

He told her that he wanted to make movies, so she suggested that he use his inheritance to make his own film. It seemed like the fastest way to learn how it's done.

This sounded like a good idea to him, so he contacted a special effects technician ( a friend of mine who told me about all of this) and made a deal.

The young director told the effects guy that he would make a film that was written to include all of the special effects that the effects guy had always wanted to do but had never had the opportunity. The job would be for free, but all materials would be paid for.

The effects guy went for it and rounded up a bunch of his colleagues who also agreed to work for free on this dream job. The result was a pretty slick short film that cost very little money to make and which got the star of this story a very good start and a nice portfolio piece.

I've lost touch with this guy since then(in all honesty, I never knew him very well in the first place)but I understand he received a lot of positive feedback for his film and went on to bigger and better things in the industry.

In his book REBEL WITHOUT A CREW, Robert Rodriguez described how he raised a few thousand dollars by volunteering for medical research studies and made his first feature, EL MARIACHI.

In the book and on many occasions since, Rodriguez has been telling aspiring filmmakers that film school is unnecessary.

His colleague and sometime collaborator, Quentin Tarantino shares this viewpoint.

The two links immediately below lead to sites that elaborate on Robert and Quentin's opinions on the subject of film schools. I encourage you to check them out (but please come back to this site, I'm not done yet!).

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ's 10 MINUTE FILM SCHOOL

and

TARANTINO'S ADVICE: DON'T GO TO FILM SCHOOL

Of course,whether or not you go to film school is entirely up to you. Before you make up your mind, take the time to check out as many film schools as possible. Remember that film schools are BUSINESSES and as such they're trying to make a profit. Bear this in mind when listening to the sales pitches from their admissions directors and reading their brochures.

Once again, I would also recommend that you check out the possibility of making your own films. Even if you eventually decide that film school is the way that you want to go, learning something about the process ahead of time is certain to accelerate your progress.

THE NO BUDGET FILMMAKING ULTRA PACK is a collection of e-books which I believe serve as an EXCELLENT starting point for anybody willing to get off their butts and start their movie making careers.

These e-books give straight-to-the-point instruction and advice on all aspects of film production. They have been put together with both the independent filmmaker and the Hollywood job-seeker in mind.

Also included is some helpful and easy to use pre-production software that will make the creation of storyboards and screenplays as well as the scheduling of your productions a whole lot simpler.

AND a collection of contracts and forms (Talent Releases, Location Contracts, Call Sheets, and more!) are contained in the package to keep everything legal and going as it should.

I've studied the material in this package and see it as an important resource for all new movie makers. Compared to the cost of film school, it's a real BARGAIN!

And for ABSOLUTELY FREE(whether you decide to purchase THE NO BUDGET FILMMAKING ULTRA PACK or not)you can get a copy of the report THE 7 SINS OF FIRST-TIME FILMMAKERS when you visit their website.



To check out THE NO BUDGET FILMMAKING ULTRA PACK and make up your own mind, you can visit the company's website by clicking on the image above, or by clicking HERE.