Is Film School Worth It?

So for you that don’t know, I recently enrolled into a film school which personally I have mixed feelings about, yeah sure it great to learn from people that have experience in the film industry and getting to use some cool gear without having to rent it out and sure getting to meet other people with the same aspiration is good for networking but on the other hand its expensive and personally I don’t believe you need a piece of paper to show that you’re creative but I took the leap and went ahead with going to the film school.

Going into the film school I knew a few things about myself, I wanted to be a DoP (Director of Photography) after years of doing video work for multiple clients it was my main aim and it’s what I do best in and the other thing I knew was I’m terrible at creative writing as in writing films and scripts, but I have changed, I still want to be a DoP and outside of school I am making investments into gear and my craft by constantly practicing it every day, but I also realised I’m not the worst at creative wiring, in the last year I have written one or two shorts and have developed ideas for at least eight or nine feature length films – which for me is surprising as I wasn’t a huge fan of creating stories but now it’s one of my favourite aspects of filmmaking.

Now with all that great developments you would think maybe I’ll do film school or something like that… it’s not that simple to decide, not only are you incurring a debt for the tuition fees (in Australia) but you have to be 100% willing to put 100% of yourself into it, if film Is your dream you need to want to more than living because as I have seen its much more easy to just exist than it is to exist with a purpose. Going to a film school isn’t going to get you into Hollywood only you can do that. But I would say for me going to film school and working on a few student films in varying roles has led to me wanting to follow my goal of becoming a DoP or now a director, I would say if you are unsure what you want to pursue pick two roles and try them out while in film school you’ll begin to feel what you want to do most pretty quickly. But there is a HUGE issue I must address and I know a few people will hate me but it must be said, this is if you want to become a DoP and you don’t feel like film school is your thing, firstly ask yourself why do you want to become a DoP? Do you love cinematic movement and are constantly working on refining you skills, have you had a decent amount of experience with cameras and framing as well as working with video or have you taken a few decent looking photos and think yeah, I could be a DoP?

The one thing many professionals in the film industry don’t like is the second of the two, photography and cinematography are extremely different, the only real comparison is that there is a camera involved, now I’m not saying don’t work to become a cinematographer if you have only done photography but there are many other tasks and things you should do before attempting to become a DoP or cinematographer.

But the biggest and in my opinion the most useful reason to go to film school is you can collaborate with other like-minded people (more in a future blog post about collaboration)

The other thing is it also helps with networking and getting industry experience as most film school require an internship, apart from the networking aspect there is also a great benefit of having gear you can use without having to fork out hundreds of dollars in rental fees.

But on top of all that I would say the lectures are some of the best, they not only teach you important skills to hopefully crack into the industry but they are honest about the industry, finding work and your products that you produce if there is room for improvement they’ll tell you.

In my opinion film school was a great option for me and has helped me develop as a creative skills and narrow my focus on what role(s) I want to have it has also help me conduct myself in a more ‘professional’ way and hopefully ill have a few projects out soon to show of these new skills.

Thank you for reading, if you have any questions leave a comment below and I’ll get to them.

Andrew Petropoulos.

www.instagram.com/AndrewPetropoulos