Film Schools: Where they Get it Wrong
Since Los Angeles is known as a host to a powerful film industry presence, attempting to find LA film schools to choose from isn’t a problem. Many of them have solid reputations, limited acceptance policies and long wait lists, and lots of of them will surely supply you with a quality film education.
However, before you decide to attempt to gain acceptance into one of these schools, you ought to understand that going to a well-known film school certainly not guarantees you success in the film industry. For every “success story” which comes through film school, there are many other people who never get their big break. In fact, you may need more than simply a quality film education to make it on this business, and there is a key factor in which most L.A. film schools not succeed in aiding their students move forward into successful careers.
What is this key ingredient which is missing? Connections.
The film industry and film school are actually two different communities and never necessarily connected. The fact that a film school is found within a few miles of Hollywood doesn’t automatically mean it has stronger ties to the movie industry than, say, a film school in New York. A prestigious program in Southern California for film will make you spend spanning a hundred thousand dollars only to be no closer to the film career you’ve set your goals on than when you started. Why? Because while many film schools perform a decent job teaching the technical skills of filmmaking, the majority of them really do not assist you in making the business connections you’ll need in order to land a job. The film industry runs on connections, and with out them, it can be extremely difficult to get hired. If your film school cannot help you make these connections, you will still have to form them for yourself somehow.
One fix for your problem is an innovative approach called the mentor-apprentice method. A mentor-apprentice film school actually places you for one-on-one training within a real film production company, in which you educate yourself on the ropes on actual film shoots and productions. You get the chance to educate yourself on the basic hands-on education filmmaking to make the connections you would be unable to make most in many other LA film schools since the training takes place in real-world environment. Also significant is the price tag: because training occurs in existing production companies, the expense of education for mentor-apprentice schools is way lower than most film schools charge.
Attending film school is no guarantee of success, but neither does it have to be a guarantee of failure. The mentor-apprentice approach fills in the gaps where many LA film schools fall short.
