Film Schools

I’m not big on film schools because I like to teach myself. There are advantages, but the problem I see with people that get out of a film school is that they are taught “the way” you do things. Now if you are jumping right from film school to Hollywood that’s great, but that most likely isn’t the case. In low budget filmmaking “the way” you do it is any way you can. I constantly have to tell film students to unlearn what they have learned, and sometimes that takes a lot of time. Resourcefulness and ingenuity are the most valuable commodities in low budget filmmaking. You may look like a total goofball with your camera mounted on a 2 x 4 but if that get’s you the shot instead of spending 2K or more on a crane, that is 2k that can go back into the film in other areas.

This is a simple concept but very hard for people to grasp fully.

When I see a micro-budget or even low budget set and they have expensive dollies, cranes, RED cameras and lights that cost more than my car my internal alarm goes up. Equipment is just a means to an end, and in the end it means nothing. Unlike life, in film what matters in the end is what you have, not how you got there.
 

Unfortunately this is a mentality that permeates throughout our culture and happens just about everywhere, not just filmmaking.

Hollywood is now filled with people from film schools. That is why we don’t see anything really new come from there. If something new occurs, it is usually from an indie or a remake of an indie.  Instead Hollywood gives us remakes and sequels. We need indie filmmakers to think outside the box,

and unlearn if they have learned.

*ramble mode off*