A reader asked me recently if they should attend grad school for directing. As with a lot of things, there’s no obvious, easy answer for everyone.
I wanted to put my answer in the context, and I accidentally wound up writing enough for two articles. So, in this first part, I’m going to talk about film schools generally in the undergraduate sense. In my next post, I’ll tackle the reader’s specific question about grad school.
Two Good Reasons for Film School
The best way to learn how to make movies{{1}} is to 1) watch what the greats have made and 2) make a movie yourself.
Sixty, seventy years ago, when the Baby Boomers were growing up, you might catch old movies if they were playing on the late, late show, or if you happened to live near a revival theater. The only way to get a comprehensive, thorough history of film was to attend film school, where they screened prints of classic movies in class.
As for making movies? Forget about it. Few people could afford an 8mm camera, much less lighting equipment and sound gear. It was physically impossible to shoot something without the resources of a university.
So, they went to film school, studied Godard and Hitchcock. They were the first generation of filmmakers to not remember a world before feature films in color and sound. These were the Movie Brats, the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: Scorsese, De Palma, Lucas-before-Star-Wars.
Their children, Gen X, grew up during the proliferation of cable, and later, video rentals. It was much easier to become an autodidact, not only with regard to old films, but foreign and independent movies as well. It’s not a surprise that several filmmakers’ origin stories, including as Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino, involve working at a video store.
Video cameras were becoming more common, but their picture quality left something to be desired. Not that it’s impossible to create a high-quality, low-fi film, but it is very difficult.
Of course, there are legends of self-financed, independent films around this time, like Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi, or Smith’s Clerks. But those were few and for between, and besides, most of the time they were seen as stepping stones towards becoming a studio filmmaker.
For most people, going to film school in the 80 and 90s meant access to equipment you otherwise wouldn’t be able to get your hands on. Plus, you’d be working with professors from the older generation who had actually worked in the business and could give you legitimate, real-world advice.
Two Bad Reasons for Film School
That was then. Now, you can find pretty much any movie in history online, either through a streaming service or by sailing the high seas.{{2}} You can shoot a movie on your phone and edit it on your laptop. There’s very little you actually need from a film school anymore.
Some people (i.e. your parents) will tell you that you need to have a degree. That’s just credentialism, and let’s face it, we’re not doctors or lawyers. No one’s going to ask to see your transcript if you make a great short film that wins a lot of awards on the festival circuit.
There are a lot of assistant-type jobs in the corporate side of the business that require a degree. But honestly, I don’t know how much longer that’s going to be the case. Many of those jobs are going to go away due to automation. If you want to work on set? Don’t even worry about it. Your list of credits is far more important than your degree.
The other value in film school, some may suggest, is a structured study environment. That’s just bullshit. First of all, half of your time in college is spent on classes that have nothing to do with your major. Secondly, there’s no stopping the spread of information on the internet, now. David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson literally wrote the book that most schools use in their intro to cinema class, and they write about their studies regularly on their website. So, which would you rather? Listen to a professor read from an already-out-of-date textbook, or read the latest film theories as they’re being created in real time?
And that’s just one blog. There are countless websites and Youtube channels where you’ll learn a lot more theoretical and practical advice, and learn it a lot faster, than at a university.
Only One Reason Left
So is that it? Is film school pointless nowadays?
Not completely.
As the original TAPA pointed out:
There is one thing you get in film school that you can’t get in your living room– other film students.
You’ll be surrounded by people who, like you, want to make movies. That comes in handy not only in the short term, but also the long term. As you go through your career, your classmates are going to be your co-workers. Maybe you’ll work in the same department, and they’ll put in a good word for you. Maybe they’ll take a different path and be your rep, or you’ll be theirs.
As long as films and schools exist, the potential for life-long friends is there.
Your goal should be to make as many friends and as many movies as possible in a four year span. Is film school the only way to do that? Certainly not.
You could save yourself tens of thousands of dollars in tuition and/or student debt by enrolling in a 1 credit community college course, and using that to intern somewhere. Build your credits working for free, and use the money you saved to shoot your own projects.
It’s going to be a gamble either way. Where you throw your dice is up to you.
Next up: grad school or not?
[[1]]Or TV, if you’d prefer. Or even some sort of awful, all-encompassing term like “content.”[[1]]
[[2]]Listen, I’m a firm believer in copyright; it’s the only reason Hollywood is even able to exist. But some movies just aren’t available by legitimate means.[[2]]
One Response
I would just add one more item: before you plunk down $50K for film school, or your parents plunk down that $50K, make sure that the school has an active and extensive alumni base that will help their graduates. Mathew Weiner of Mad Men taught at USC and hired one of his students, who went on to write what I think is one of the beset episodes ever of Mad Men. A U of Penn grad I met also got a list of people who would see her when she came West. And I also agree that you don’t necessarily need a formal program. UCLA Extension has produced a lot of top writers. And working on set is an education too of course!