Should I stay, or should I go

Is going to film school worth the trouble?

Ah, film schools — notorious for cultivating partiality, toxically competitive, and altogether a threat to one’s sanity. Yet, somehow, wannabe-filmmakers would take up ridiculous loans, beg from their old folks, or both, to only have that very experience of attending such a cursed institution. Are the advantages so worthy? Below I will try and answer this question based on my personal experience.

At 18 I was admitted to a film school in Poland. It was the first year they opened the international division, and (I suppose they were in need of people) they took me in despite my being of average ability and possibly too young for this vocation. I managed to graduate. Today I live in Luxembourg, and I am active in the local film industry. In 2022 I was commissioned to direct the first short documentary in this foreign county. In August this year, I completed a radio drama script for which I won a grant. All of this while pursuing a master’s degree in Philosophy. Things aren’t going too badly for me. Am I to thank the film school, though? Let’s break it down.

Film school students dueling after one of them declared Christopher Nolan the best director

Portfolio

Building a portfolio is one good reason to attend film school. Yet, not every school will be your best ally in this task. Some of my colleagues who studied in France, Belgium or the UK told me that their whole class only produced a single film at the very end of the program; while in Poland, besides numerous études, we were forced to direct a short film at the end of each academic year in order to be permitted to re-enroll. Obviously, when you do something over and over again, you get better at it pretty much inevitably.

Network

If you’re prominent and agreeable and passionate about 3 hour long sketches of the Greater Horseshoe Bat’s life — you might be picked out by a retired documentarian and introduced to a few people who will or will not employ you, and whether they’ll pay you is a whole different question. If you’re just prominent, you’ll need to look after yourself. As a person who had to re-construct their network from scratch upon relocation, it’s doable.

Now, what about your mates, fellow students, are they your network? Yes and no. I met some really special people through the school. I wasn’t able to build friendships so intimate and strong as I did with anyone I met on a film set.

Anyone care for movies?

As for working together. You were growing up together (as artists and craftswomen) — it’s valuable. You have mutual trust, and you can work much faster because you’re used to each others' rhythm. On the other hand, feelings and emotions do get in the way, if you know what I mean.

Also, it’s very important to NOT confuse your friends and colleagues with your audience and your clients/investors. Mark Harris in his interview with Film Courage (available on their YouTube channel) validly notices that a filmmaker shouldn’t be promoting content to their friends. Indeed, if you want to make a living, it’s all about what gets views, what sells, what gets funded and what takes awards and not at all about some pale-looking pretentious kid telling you they saw symbolism (that wasn’t there) in your work and its ethereal nature touched their miserable soul.

This one makes a killer espresso

Higher Education

Some schools but not the others will allow you to obtain a diploma equivalent to an academic BA or MA degree. My school was of the first type. It proved useful because it made my continuing education further possible, as well as it helped me gain legal permission to work in certain foreign countries. Yet, are you planning on ever moving abroad, doing a PhD in Philosophy or teaching? If not, at the end of the day, a paper is a paper, and not even once was I asked to show it before being hired for a job. It was always about portfolio, references and previous experience.

The final cut

Skills

At film school, they’ll teach you film theory and film analysis, lighting because that’s an actual science, screenwriting basics, pitching if their approach is grounded in reality, maybe copyright law. If you want to be a DP or a Sound Engineer, an Editor or a Screenwriter I suppose there’s something to be taught. If you want to be a Director, it helps to be educated and well-versed. Can one teach you directing? On par with being a CEO, being a director is a vague thing. What do these people even do? At my school they said watching Kurosawa plus winning festivals is what we needed to do. This misconception begs for a separate article, a book written by someone who isn’t me. For now, I will just say that studying directing and actually directing turned out to be two very different things for me. Independent film directing is a lot about sales and soft skills, and is only later about creativity, originality and being sophisticated.

Successful director's tool

The Answer

All in all, going to film school served my purposes, and FOR ME it was worth it. Still, if you feel depressed, if the teachers are bullying you (yes, that happens), if the school’s ideology or approach are in conflict with your beliefs or needs and you feel like you’re not lacking self-discipline to keep expanding your portfolio on your own — quit, or don’t go at all. There are other methods to enter the film business. We shall talk about them in detail in my succeeding articles.

P. S.: Already after I finished writing this article I met Govinda Van Maele, a Luxembourgish film director and one of the founders of Filmreakter a.s.b.l. His thoughts on the subject really resonated with me. “Going to a good film school is definitely worth it” — said Govinda. “You get access to equipment and you meet people eager to work on your projects for free. You can experiment together without worrying too much about being judged or failing, and this way you'll eventually discover your own way of telling stories. On the other hand, if the school imposes a rigid philosophy on you instead of encouraging what makes you original, then you might be better off finding your own way. Unfortunately there are also quite a few bad film schools out there.”

by sofiya_10billion