What they don't teach you in film school.

in #filmmaker8 years ago (edited)

So I've been making "films" since I was 12 years old. After highschool I went to film school for two years. From the time I went there I noticed something they didn't spend much time on. What they didn't teach was how to do everything by yourself. I grew up doing it all by myself, and they make it seem like you need a ton of money to produce a video/film.

That being said, I understand they are teaching how to do things like they do in the professional industry. BUT that is not always the most practical way of doing things. For example, you want to make a music video. The school teaches you to get some money and a crew to help you to do it, costing you more money. When in reality all you need is the band, a location, camera guy, and maybe a few friends if any. Not to mention the less people you have with you the faster it will go.

I noticed my friend from film school was making an IndieGoGo campaign for his new "short film" he wanted something like $3000. He made the video pitching his idea stylized to be as low budget as possible for comedic effect. It just made him look like he had no idea what he was doing, wasn't funny at all.

The point I'm trying to make is, film schools are making students think the only way to make a film is the industry standard way when it isn't always the case.

Here is a little example.

I made this 100% by myself. I acted, edited, camera operated, lit, wrote script, etc. I did everything in this small video in about 5 days. If I was working with a crew it would have taken two weeks to finish.

I talk about all this in this Vlog I made:

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OMG, you're video is hilarious. But I agree with you. It's just a LOT of work to do everything yourself, it is also pretty hard to light things well and to get movement to work (practically impossible) on your own.

But you are right that the foundation of good story telling is just telling the story and doing a good job of it. In the end, you can't do everything to the best possible degree on your own, everybody is better at some things than others.

I think the most important thing is to not let anything stop you. Just move forward with what you have and do the best you can. This will take you where you need to go.

This is really inspiring to me as an aspiring filmmaker... Thank you so much!