The 3 Worst Reasons To Go to Film School

Because it will get you a Career

There’s an idea that if you go to a film school, particularly NYU or USC, that you’ll be guaranteed a career. That you’ll meet all the right people, make all the right connections and will walk out with a career. That somehow, going to film school is this glamorous experience that will forge you into a filmmaker, that you just have to pay the money, sit there and you’ll walk out a bona fide storyteller.

The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. You need to work, learn, and perfect your craft. You need to be able to show up with an actual skill-set, a working knowledge of how movies are made. Believe it or not, film schools don’t give you that and they come at a very hefty price, costing about $60,000 or more. You’re going to need to take out a massive loan in order to have this so-called “glamorous” experience. Ultimately, paying off the debt you incurred while going to film school ends up being the very thing that keeps you shackled to a day job you don’t like and actually prevents you from getting to work on films. If you truly want to work in film, it’s getting the skills, making the connections, and proving your worth that matters–period.

So You’ll Understand the Movies You Watch

There are two types of people in the world. Those who are curious and go in search of knowledge themselves, and those who don’t. Attending film school so you can have some 70-year-old instructor give you the same historical context that searching on Wikipedia can get you is a fool’s errand. Long story short, anything you’ll hear in a lecture you can just as well watch on YouTube or read in a book. Knowing how to think for yourself is what really matters when it comes to film analysis. Delve deep, think, and yes, read and you’ll find you probably already understand much of what’s going on in the deeper layers of a work.  In this day and age, all the film criticism education one could hope for is out there and most of it is completely free. Going to school for this kind of schooling may have had its place and time but that’s long since passed.

To Say You’re Struggling

There seems to be a rite of passage that comes along with being a young and struggling filmmaker–Debt. Do you have a metric boatload of student debt? If you do, that means that you went to film school. This is so common nowadays it’s basically cliché. And, believe it or not, some people are actually attracted to the drama of being a starving artist. Don’t let that happen to you. Be smart and make art without sacrificing the next decade to depression and barely getting by. It loses its charm, quickly. Imagine a world where filmmakers could spent the $60,000 they otherwise would have spent on film school on their first feature film. We would have a mountain of new and interesting films being made. Taking on debt is just one of the many reasons that young filmmakers shouldn’t go to film school. Instead, they should get informed about the real nature of the film industry and how careers get made. They should invest in themselves, get real filmmaking skills, and become contributing, active filmmakers.

Learn how at www.filmconnection.com.