Let's not beat around the bush. If you are planning of going to film school, it is possibly because you dream of working in the film business. So you won't have false hopes, let's tackle what are to be expected from film school.
Creativity can't be taught. No film school can teach drive and determination, and no film school can teach you how to handle pressure. As you know, these are among the most significant skills that you must have, if you are to succeed in this business.
What any film school can offer you, however, are discipline as well as many production elements - the theories and history of filmmaking. The filmmaking industry can be likened to storytelling - using light, mood, action, music and images, instead of words, to create a story; this art, you can learn from any film school.
So, should you go to film school? If we look at the background of some of the top names in the industry, we'll see different things. Lucas, Scorcese and Coppola all went to film school. Steven Soderbergh, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater as well as Spike Jonze didn't.
Today, the primary reason of going to a film school seem to vanish as the film industry has started to enter the digital age. Before the digital age, film and editing equipment were highly expensive and film school was a good place for the novice filmmaker to gain access to it. Presently, however, there's already easy access to such equipment.
The digital transformation indeed made it easier for novices to get a shot - as in filmmakers who get discovered after posting their works on platforms such as You Tube. As Nike would proclaim, those who will succeed are those who "just do it."
With that as our basis, is film school even important, and if it is, what kind of film school makes the most sense if the objective is to make a career in the film industry?
This article was added on Wednesday 30 September, 2009.
