Film School 101: The Principals’ Office

A round-table discussion with school administrators on the value of a film school education

by Jennifer M. Wood | Published February 3, 2007

We know you have questions about whether or not film school is the right choice. So we went to the experts. In part one of our roundtable discussion, New York Film Academy's Jerry Sherlock and Michael Young, Vancouver Film School's Marty Hasselbach, AFI's JJ Jackman, UCLA's Stephanie Moore, Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Charlie Humphrey and Digital Media Education Center's Jaime Fowler give some insight into whether a career in film is right for you.

Students at the New York Film Academy

Jennifer Wood (MM): There's been such a long debate between moviemakers about whether or not film school is a necessary step to success in the film industry. In a sentence, why do you think film school is necessary?

Jerry Sherlock & Michael Young (NYFA): Film school is not necessary to success in the film industry. However, it can inspire and nurture you as you make your first movies, develop confidence in the craft and work with challenging instructors and classmates.

Marty Hasselbach (MH): Film school gives people the unique opportunity to learn, under the guidance of industry experts, the filmmaking process from the inside out in a nurturing, collaborative environment—one that cannot be synthesized or bettered by the do-it-yourself school of filmmaking.

JJ Jackman (JJ): A film program can provide a safe environment in which a filmmaker can stretch their creative legs, and also provides access to resources (equipment, insurance, etc.) that a young filmmaker might not otherwise have access to. In addition, the contacts made at a film program can be invaluable to future work as a filmmaker. The people sitting next to you and the people teaching you are also filmmakers, and hopefully will be working in the profession too.

Stephanie Moore (SM): It isn't necessary, but if you don't have access to everything a film school can provide, it's highly recommended as a way to success in the film industry.

Charlie Humphrey (CH): Film school provides vocabulary and history. Both are important. It also helps a young filmmaker avoid the cliché, and helps them to understand what a film community actually feels like. Filmmaking is a communal activity, the most collaborative of all the contemporary art forms. It helps to know how to work in this kind of an environment.

Jaime Fowler (JF): It isn't always necessary, but for most, it provides you with enough background and rudimentary knowledge to determine a path in your film career.

MM: Of those filmmakers who have found success without a film education background, people like Richard Linklater and Quentin Tarantino, to what do you attribute their success?

NYFA: Successful filmmakers who did not go to film school and successful filmmakers who did go to film school share the same source of success: their own drive, talent, luck and perseverance (not necessarily in that order).

MH: These people succeed because they not only have an intuitive understanding of what makes great film, but because they bring a passion for learning, a fearless attitude and a healthy array of street smarts to the table. It's a uniquely successful combination reserved for certain personalities. Others with equal or greater potential most often need expert guidance to fully develop their skill sets.

JJ: Filmmaking is a tumultuous mix of creative vision, artistic ability and business savvy. Excelling in one of these areas can give a filmmaker that needed "boost" to get a career off the ground, and the other elements are then learned through experience. Like any art form, success at filmmaking has a huge amount to do with luck, preparedness and the unavoidable "right place, right time" variable.

SM: Passion, persistence and luck.

CH: They are still students of the form. They consumed media voraciously. And they surrounded themselves with people smarter than themselves.

JF: Certainly people can learn film by watching film, so long as they're analytical enough to dissect it. Watching and dissecting film is a form of reverse engineering for filmmakers. Still, you have to read the books or watch enough interviews with directors to learn some of the secrets—and not all of the secrets are told. I remember when I cut "Behind the Scenes" specials for HBO that directors would ask me to pull out certain segments featuring effects or gadgets that they didn't want anyone to see.

I think of filmmaking as continuing education. You don't just learn how to do it, then stop. Directors are constantly learning on the set through experimentation and on the spot decision making. So once film school is over, you're just starting.

MM: Even the best film school cannot teach somebody how to behave in the various scenarios s/he will encounter when working in the film industry. How can a film school prepare a student for these inevitable occurrences?

NYFA: At the New York Film Academy, students write, produce, direct, shoot and edit their own short films with professional equipment. In addition, they work in all the principal crew positions on their classmates' films. This intensive production experience prepares them to handle many of the same situations, obstacles and creative choices they will face on professional productions.

MH: At the Vancouver Film School, we try to prepare students in two key ways: First, we directly immerse them in the filmmaking process and give them a great deal of autonomy over their projects. As students deal directly with the problems inherent in creating films, they come away with more than a set of rules or procedures that should be followed; they also develop a powerful set of problem-solving tools that be can applied to future situations.

Second, we provide students with a holistic experience of the filmmaking process. No matter their specialization, students rotate through each set discipline. So when students get into the workplace, they not only understand the impact their decisions have on their work, but they also comprehend how their decisions will affect others. This is critical to making sound decisions in a highly collaborative environment.

JJ: AFI prepares its Fellows for the professional filmmaking environment by mirroring that environment in its curriculum. Fellows in the AFI Conservatory find themselves collaborating with a wide variety of artistic styles, personalities and temperaments as they work on several short films over the course of the program. The Conservatory is designed to try to let them work out obstacles they encounter on their own, in a professional manner.

SM: Film schools prepare students to work in the film industry by giving them a solid foundation and the opportunity to interact with their peers, the school's faculty and with industry professionals.

CH: It really can't. School is, by definition, a nurturing atmosphere. The film industry is, by nature, vicious. But a good film school will help a young artist to see past their own narcissistic ideals and recognize the value of collaboration.

JF: Well, you can't "teach" behavior in any form. But we certainly try to suggest some strategies in working with the director when the students cut their films at Film Camp. The premise behind it was what I learned when I first came to Hollywood: editing is 15 percent technical and creative and 85 percent diplomatic. Being diplomatic can make or break a film career. People are always updating technical and creative knowledge.

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