subject: Film School Secrets -- Why A Film School Guarantees Failure? [print this page] Film School Secrets -- Why A Film School Guarantees Failure?
One of the things that I wish I could convince young people of is that students aren't getting their money's worth when they go to film school. It's ridiculous how much money that the average student will spend to realize their dreams of becoming a filmmaker, but only a small percentage of them will ever make it in the film industry. I have my theories about why there is such a high failure rate despite the fact that students try so hard in their studies.
It's not the students fault. I think that the fault lies with the university system, and the way it trains students. If a person thinks about it, they understand that film making is a creative, entrepreneurial industry. Universities don't train students in school how to be creative thinkers or business people. While a student will learn about filmmaking history, theory and basic techniques, they learn too little that is applicable to how things work now in the film industry.
I believe that an important part of the problem is due to the history of public educational institutions. From earliest times top universities were filled with those who came from the upper classes. Common people didn't need an education for the menial tasks they need to perform.
At the start of the industrial revolution factories became employers of many people. When people worked at factories it became clear that some basic training was necessary so public education was set up to teach the minimum necessary to just be able follow instructions. Public education was originally financed and promoted with the goal of nothing loftier than having an obedient work force available for factories who possessed the ability to read and write well enough to be productive.
This is the basis of our modern universities where students are taught that the most important job is to please their teachers and it is only of secondary importance to think, feel, or create. The skills that make for successful filmmakers are creativity, independent thinking, entrepreneurship and a general ability to make waves and get noticed. It's no wonder why there are so many film students, other than the few successful ones, that feel frustrated because they spent so much time, energy and money on film school, and yet they aren't making it after they graduate.
Here's another dirty film school secret for you to think about; it doesn't take years to teach someone how to make a film. It only takes a few weeks to learn the basic skills necessary to work on a film set and most of these can be learned on the job.
However, the university system isn't going to advertise their horrible failure rate because then how would they get their money? The university system is just like the factory system; at the end of the day, it's all about the money.
