Make Movies Faster, Smarter, and Better Than Film Schools

Film Schools are considered a joke within the film industry.  Paying $30,000 a year to crew on somebody else’s film or use equipment you could buy for a fraction of the cost of tuition is a bizarre financial move. Yet film schools have become very popular, because most people don’t understand how film works as a business. And they also don’t understand that nobody, absolutely nobody in the film industry cares about your degree.

While New York Film Academy claims to teach you how to “Learn Filmmaking”, it should say:

film schools

That goes for NYFA, NYU, USC, and all other film schools. In 2011, it’s never been easier to produce your own movies with incredibly high quality sound and images. Editing equipment and software that cost $25,000 in 1996 (AVID) now costs under $2,000 (Final Cut Pro) and is widely used in the industry. “The Social Network” was shot on digital with a Red One Camera. The price of HD images keeps dropping and the quality keeps rising. Boom poles and shotgun mics cost only a few hundred dollars. Take these guys:

Both of the photos on this page feature young people using the same camera and the same sound equipment. The only difference? Nobody in this second photo is paying thousands of dollars in tuition to make this movie.They’re using their own equipment and making their own movies by their own rules. No grades, no professors. And the other difference? Pete Atencio, the director in this picture, is being paid to make this movie. Pete, has been a working director ever since he dropped out of film school, used his tuition to buy a camera, and started shooting.

That’s how most successful filmmakers start out. They pick up a camera and start making things.

Period.

If you really want to go to one of these film schools, then go. And after you graduate, come back to the site and we’ll be happy to fill you in on what you missed. While you’re paying $42,000 in tuition to borrow beaten up equipment being shared by 100s of other students, our students will be shooting their own movies on their own equipment, getting on real film sets with real filmmakers, and coming up with a game plan for their directing career.

We talk to you about things like financing your movies, the biggest mistake people make in film school, the new model of distribution so that people will actually see your movies… and much more practical, no BS advice you won’t get in school.

If you’re daring, EXTREMELY hard working, dedicated, responsible, and crazy enough to want to direct your own movies… then check out Film School Secrets.

 

One comment

  1. This is something film school won’t tell student.Make it more loud so many can hear.

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