5 Reasons you shouldn't go to film school!

Should you go to film school? Short answer: No!

I am a self-proclaimed advocate for skipping out on art school. Here are all the reasons why.

*DISCLAIMER: This is just my opinion, this is not matter of fact! The decision is ultimately yours to make and you should always do what’s best for you!

1. Waste of Money!

You can make your movies independently and gather all the assets needed to do so for the money you will spend going to school. Another way you can repurpose that is to get a small video studio and rent it out for shoots, which will be a return on your investment. You can rent all your equipment to local filmmakers, creating easy income. Everything I learned in film school is online for free! There's no real reason to spend $50,000 to $150,000 to learn things that you could learn online for free or at a low cost. YouTube is a great free source, as well as Vimeo. But other sites like LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, MasterClass and Coursera offer free courses or an affordable monthly cost.

2. No one in the industry cares about where you went to school!

Dekel Berenson is an award-winning director and filmmaker. His short films Anna (which premiered at Festival de Cannes in 2019, and was nominated for Palme d'Or), and Ashmina(premiered at BFI London Film Festival 2018 and later won two Oscar-qualifier festivals in Krakov and Jerusalem) are both critically acclaimed. He claimed in an interview that "producers respect people who produce their own films, mainly because these people who didn't go to film school are more independent by nature. Producers look for people who they can trust and know that they won't have to be managed and be taken care of," he says. This is 1000% correct! This is why a degree will not help you advance any further or skip steps. In my years working on different sets, no one has ever asked me about my educational background. In fact, during a production assistant boot camp I attended, someone told me that it's better to leave your education off on a production assistant resume. For one, when someone from that production sees that you just got out of college, it's an automatic turn-off. They see that as "this person is green and knows nothing about the industry and will come to set play around and won't know how to handle themselves properly, which makes you a liability. Secondly, they are more interested in what you've ACTUALLY done. What hands-on experience you have acquired is what they look for. Lastly, people hire based on trust, not education. Any on-set job I've ever gotten has been through someone on that set throwing my name in. And that production manager trusts that person's opinion. So I would get that job pretty quickly regardless of whether I was qualified. And sometimes I honestly was not, but I learn fast and adapt quickly, so no one ever knew that I didn't know what I was doing! This industry mainly runs off of good reputation and word of mouth.

3. You learn NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING!

I have two degrees from two different film schools. And neither taught me anything valuable that I could apply to the real world once I graduated. I constantly found myself talking with crew members on set about basic film knowledge and lingo and wondering, "why didn't they teach us this in film school." Once I got on set and saw the knowledge needed, I was honestly furious that I had wasted my time and money. I learned more about film in 1 day being on an actual set than I ever did 4 years in a classroom. Film school will teach you about film and history. You'll learn basic knowledge about a camera and how it works, as well as lighting and editing. But they aren't teaching you industry-relevant knowledge that will get you ready to go directly from the classroom to a set. Film school teaches you the "what," not the "how." They will teach you WHAT film is but won't teach you ANYTHING about how to make money from it, which in turn means you won't get a return on all that investment.

4. You can't teach art anyways. It's subjective!

The beauty of being an artist is there is no right or wrong unless you go to film school. The number of times I got told by professors that something I created was "wrong" simply because they didn't like it happened more often than not, and it really crushed my artistic spirit. Some would offer constructive criticism, which showed they wanted to facilitate my growth and not just tear me down, but most of the time, my projects were ripped to shreds. Your art is YOUR art; there is no "wrong" way to express yourself. And teaching kids that there is a right and wrong way to create something subjective and then put them in thousands of dollars in debt is unfair to me. The conversation is always, do this and don't do this. It's never; here's how it's done, the technical aspects, and here is my perception and thoughts. Now, what do YOU think? How do YOU connect with this? How would YOU do this?

5. You can create your portfolio easily through social media.

Some will argue that film school helps you to get that portfolio that would otherwise be hard to create. I, however, don't think that's true. You can create and practice learning through trial and error for way cheaper. Thousands of artists are willing to help each other and play and develop films, so you don't need to build your portfolio in school. You can make that by connecting with other artists for free via social media if you use it correctly!

The Exception!

The only exception, in my opinion, is going if you want to network with future creatives. If your learning style requires you to sit in a classroom, that's ok too. If you get a scholarship and have a full ride, go for it! But honestly there are only 2 ways to work your way up. Money or relationships. So going to school to simply work on connecting with fellow students who just might become a big name can definitely be beneficial (but that’s a big if). The question is, is it worth spending that much? You have to make that decision for yourself. But again if your a trust fund kid or scholarship kid that’s different of course!

Lastly, some food for thought.

Ryan Koo, once said in a "NoFilmSchool.com" article that "Film school can refine what's already there, and it may accelerate your development (and debt) — but if you don't have the motivation and grit necessary to overcome the disappointments and failures you are sure to encounter, even the most prestigious degree won't help. If you've got what it takes, you'll eventually make it, whether you go to film school or not!" I couldn't agree more with this and highly recommend his article discussing the topic more.

Overall, I have had to unlearn that it's not about quantity or working none stop, and if you work long enough and hard enough, you will get to where you are going. I worked for free and worked 12-24 hour days. I filmed so many shorts and commercials and music videos etc. And I did that for a good 4-5 years. I realized I was getting nowhere. I discovered it's all about who you know and not what you know AT ALL! I have seen people who never spent one second in a film class and are way further in their careers. I asked myself for so long, what am I doing wrong? I'm working so hard and not seeing the results of that!

The final revelation I had was this. I am an introvert. I am not networking and making long-lasting impressions and connections. When I am in the room, I'm a wallflower 100 percent. If you aren’t fortunate to have come from wealth, the only other way in, is having the right friendships and relationships. Everyone is simply doing each other favors, leveling up, and bringing their friends along (regardless of credibility or talent). So having to unlearn how to be introverted was hard. I am much better at talking with people now, and unlearning the mentality that I have to shoot a film every week and mass produce projects to get somewhere. I now know quality, good relationships, and persistence are all it's really about. That was a huge learning curve for me!