The split consensus on Film School
Students have many different options to choose from when entering college or university. Some students may go into a business program, some may join a communications program, and others may enter a film program. The students who enter a film program have many resources available to them that could help them achieve their dreams of becoming a filmmaker. However, not all students who desire to become filmmakers go to film school. Some of the students who enter a business or communications program could very well end up becoming filmmakers in the future.
The Film School Path
The path of going to film school is all up to the student. There are many options for film school at the disposal of a young filmmaker. In North Carolina alone, two of the top film schools are at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). As it pertains to Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) offers a film minor.
UNCW’s film studies program offers courses in film theory, film production, and post-production. These courses provide the tools to help young filmmakers along their college careers to ultimately come out of film school with plenty of experience in the film world.
Felix Carlson is a UNCW alumnus who graduated from their film program this past spring. In an interview with Felix, he spoke on the importance of learning film theory rather than just film production. “At UNCW, I spent most of my time learning critical studies in film theory,” said Felix when describing what he studied at UNCW. Felix continued to state the importance of this kind of study, “I think that’s the most important thing you can get with an undergraduate degree in film studies. Learning film theory, rather than film production.”
Felix also says that an essential tool you can get from film school is the tool of self-teaching, “Each student wants different sets of ‘tools,’ but if you just push them far enough and teach them how to teach themselves, I think that’s the most valuable tool. If there’s anybody in the industry who thinks they’re done learning about film studies, I think they’re not going to be a good filmmaker. Any film should be learning about something new.”
Felix is currently working on post-production on a film he co-wrote entitled Milk Money. Milk Money tells the story of two friends who find success in selling marijuana-infused milk to the residents of Wilmington, North Carolina. Felix is also working on a few other small projects that he hopes to produce once Milk Money is complete.
There has been a proven success of film students going on to have great careers. Filmmakers such as George Lucas and Martin Scorsese have graduated from film school and have become some of the most influential filmmakers of all time. They took the tools that they learned from their time in film school and applied it to the films that launched their careers. George Lucas’ student film THX 1138 was the launching pad for his career. That was the film that put his foot in the door of Hollywood. From there, Lucas went on to make American Graffiti, and then he went on to release one of the most impactful films in American history: Star Wars.
Those who do not go to film school…
There have been many cases in which a successful filmmaker who did not graduate from or attend film school. Many people who have a desire to become filmmakers ultimately do not go through film school. Renowned filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino did not attend film school and have ended up with massively successful careers in filmmaking. Nolan is the mastermind behind the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception, while Tarantino has built a legendary career with his films such as Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained.
Dani Rabinowitz, co-writer and director of Milk Money, went to UNCW with Felix, but he did not graduate from their film school. He instead graduated with a degree in business after completing only one semester under the film program. He still pursued his dream of becoming a filmmaker.
When talking about his decision to not finish with UNCW’s film program, he cited a lack of independent work as a reason, “If you are paying thousands of dollars to go to a film school, I feel like there should be some program in place to foster you to do projects on your own.” Dani then expressed his desire to make his own projects, “I want to do projects on my own. I didn’t want to wait for a class project to do something.”
Dani has gone on to credit Milk Money as a more educational experience that what he would have experienced through film school. With the film, he oversaw pre-production, production, and post-production. Even though he got more experience in that than from a film program, he does not blame the UNCW film program itself for creating a lack of experience, “It’s not a fault of film school, that’s just a structural thing.”
Currently, Dani is overseeing the post-production process of Milk Money with Felix and hopes to have it completed by the Spring of 2020. Other than that, he does not have any additional projects in the works.
Film School and the Industry
There has been some backlash from filmmakers against film school throughout the years. Many of them have said that a person doesn’t need to learn how to become a filmmaker. Those who think film school is not necessary, agree that there are certain things that you cannot learn at film school.
When asked about the future of film schools, filmmaker Werner Herzog told The Verge in a 2016 interview, “No, unfortunately, they are not going to go completely extinct; I wish they would.” Herzog is one of many renowned filmmakers who would rather the future of filmmaking to be self-taught. At the time of this interview, Herzog was a film schoolteacher himself, and he also had a film course released online through Masterclass.
Ridley Scott has been on record saying that film school does not teach young filmmakers everything that they need to know about the production process. When speaking at BAFTA’s A life In Pictures event honoring his career, Scott specifically talked about filming on time and budget, noting, “Film school never teaches you that. You’ve got to budget, and you’ve got to be there on time. Otherwise, you’re going to get replaced.”
Other notable filmmakers in the industry have supported film schools through multiple means. Steven Spielberg has donated millions of dollars to the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematic Arts on numerous occasions. He is also the founder of the USC Shoah Foundation. As much as Spielberg supports the USC film school, he did not attend that school. Spielberg did not get into the USC film school due to his grades in high school. He dropped out of college during his youth, and he did not graduate until 2002 from Cal State Long Beach.
USC alumni George Lucas has also donated to the school on multiple occasions. Due to his support of the school and his alumni status, he is one of few filmmakers along with Steven Spielberg to have a building on campus that is named after him.
Film school has support from many established filmmakers who are fond of the system as it is. Other filmmakers, however, are not fond of how film school currently works and either want it to change or be gone. This argument seems to be similar among young filmmakers, as well, and while the fate of film school is yet to be determined as far as how it operates, as long as there are aspiring filmmakers, film school will exist.
