Saturday, 1 October 2011

Film Students May Be Wasting Time And Money

By Carl Drotsky


Numerous young people seeking a career in film are doing whatever it takes to get into the most prominent film schools in New York City and Los Angeles. Aspiring students walk into their audition, as confident as anyone, determined to see their name in lights. Even so, these lovers of film would be clever to investigate what type of jobs the majority of that school's alumni are working in before they sign their life away to six-figure debt.

Highschoolers are told that a degree is the most definite means of reaching your career goals, and many of them plan to take whatever financial risk is necessary to get that degree. Banks make it easy for college students to take out huge student loans, most of whom will be paying this debt off for the next twenty years. These young people never imagine that it will take them this long to pay it all back but trust their career success will make it quite easy. The quandary isn't that film graduates aren't willing to work hard but rather that film companies no longer give film school graduates a chance when they need to fill positions. It's getting to where students applying for film positions need to put experience at the top of their resumes and education at the bottom.

Be mentally prepared to spend half a decade as an assistant after graduation. If this happens to you, you're one of the lucky film school graduates. Countless others would kill for your position as they carry on writing desperately and aimlessly, hoping to be discovered. Those who have spent any significant amount of time in the valley of unemployment know how overwhelming it feels.

It's not unusual for there to be literally a hundred times more applications than there are open seats in film programs; disappointingly that ration is getting worse all the time. Those trying to get into film school are not alone in this battle. Those who aspire to study graphic design for video gaming and web applications face the same level of competition. Universities try to keep their film programs up to par with the amount of young people seeking admission but to no avail; even if they could keep enough spots open for those who are gifted enough to be there, would it truly do those students any good? Perhaps a rejection letter from a film school will push you closer to your dream than you ever thought it could.

You may be surprised to find out that many of the most well-known film producers never even went to film school. Steven Spielberg, a prime example, was rejected not just once but twice from the University of Southern California's School of Theater, Film and Television. He didn't let discouragement ruin his future but rather chose to take responsibility for his career goals by deciding to work seven days a week for free at Universal Studios. This soon resulted in the creation of his first film, "Amblin." As fate would have it, the vice-president of Universal Studios liked the film so much, he offered Spielberg a contract which made him the youngest ever film director to sign with a major Hollywood studio.

More than ever before, talent and experience open the doors of opportunity into the film industry. Can talent be taught? Not really. It needs to be used independently and creatively in order to grow. Of course, learning camera techniques and screenwriting methods can boost your skill level, but that's not what will get you the job. Spielberg shows us that it's more advisable to seek out an internship where the experience will be far more beneficial to your future than years at a film school. By co-laboring with some of today's best talent, you're setting yourself up for success.




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