“When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, no, I went to films.”
Writer/Director Quentin Tarantino
“Ang Lee and I were in the same class. Also, another person instrumental in my development as a filmmaker was the great cinematographer Ernest Dickerson.”
Spike Lee on the benefits going to NYU film school with talented classmates
(As a DP, Dickerson not only shot Spike’s student films but Do the Right Thing, She’s Got to Have It, and Mo’ Better Blues for Spike. He then became a director himself.)
NOTE: Like my post How Much Do Screenwriters Make?, I will continue to update this post because it’s a common question.
“Is film school worth it?” is a simple question, but a complicated one to answer. But it’s best to ask another question first. What does the “it” in “Is film school worth it” mean? There are many layers there.
If you got into a top tier film school on a full scholarship, then the “it”could be just four years of your life for an undergraduate degree or 2 to 3 years for a graduate degree. In that scenario, I’d say yes it’s worth it. Ditto that if your parents are paying for school.
But if the “it” means going into going into debt for $330,000 (as I wrote about yesterday) then my answer is no. I’m sure there are exceptions, but why stack the odds against you in a field where the odds are already stacked against you? (Compounded interest can even make your student loan grow despite your making monthly payments.)
For everyone between getting a full scholarship and having $300K+ of student loans my answer is—It depends.
Over the years I’ve noticed that there are four major ways that writers, filmmakers, and content creators at the top of the pyramid got their education.
Top Film Schools: USC (George Lucas), UCLA (Francis Ford Coppola), AFI (Darren Aronofsky), NYU (Spike Lee), Columbia University (Kathryn Bigelow), University of Texas, Austin (Robert Rodriguez), Columbia College—Chicago (Jansuz Kaminski), Florida State University (Barry Jenkins)
Elite Private Schools: Harvard University (Damien Chazelle) , Stanford University (Alexander Payne), Wesleyan University (Lin-Manuel Miranda), Oberlin College (Lena Dunham), Northwestern University (Garry Marshall), Drake University (Jim Uhls), Carnegie Mellon University (Steven Bochco), Dartmouth College (Shonda Rhimes), Emerson College (Norman Lear), Syracuse University (Aaron Sorkin)
Miscellaneous Public Schools: Iowa (Diablo Cody), Michigan (Arthur Miller)
Little or No College/Self-education: Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Gordon Parks, Frank Darabont, Casey Neistat, Tyler Perry (net worth $800 million), Clint Eastwood, Sam Shepard, Steven Soderbergh
People come from everywhere. But those above schools have a higher headcount in Hollywood than most places. Some of this has to do with established pipelines to the industry. Many Hollywood executives come from Ivy League schools where Harvard and Dartmouth have deep ties in Hollywood making it easier to get introduced to the business.
It’s also true that the educational standards at most of those places are high— matching smart, talented, and driven people with a solid and proven education. But scholarships and grants aside, some of those colleges and universities are $50,000+ a year so it’s obviously not for everyone.
Of course, some people on that list went to film schools back in the ’60s, ’70s, or ’80s which was a different era. Back then it wasn’t as common for students coming out of school to have insurmountable student loans as it is today.
“The greatest obstacles to making films was getting access to equipment. And so my generation went to film school.”
Spike Lee on going to film school in the late ’70s & early ’80s.
American Black Film Festival
In the era before digital technology, it was expensive and complicated to get your hands on film equipment. In the ’60s, ’70s, and early ’80s VCR machines were either non-existent or too expensive for the masses—and there was no internet—so film schools were the best place to get caught up on film history.
The film school question today is a totally different question than it was 20 years ago. The film business is different than it was 20 years ago. I’ve heard it said for all the film school grads to have a job out of school, everyone working in the film industry today would have to quit. I can’t quote the source, but it should cause you to at least pause before you rush into film school.
The average 15-year-old in the United States today has so many resources available—for basically nothing. From blogs, YouTube tutorials, and streaming movies and TV shows to DVD/Blu-Ray discs with director’s commentaries. Toss in an iPhone and iMovie and you’re off to the races.
Let Scott Beck and Bryan Woods be your heroes. They met in middle school in Iowa and had a common love for movies and started creating things. In high school they made features that they showed at local movie theaters for friends and family. They both went to the University of Iowa where they majored in communications.
After graduating in 2007 they kept writing and making low budget films until one of their scripts found its way to producer Michael Bay and last year became the hit film A Quiet Place. Just last night Emily Blunt won the SAG Award for best supporting actress in that movie. Here she is thanking her husband John Krasinski for directing the film.
Now Beck and Woods are working on a script from a Stephen King book. Not everyone gets a Hollywood ending like that. In fact, most don’t. (One top film school professor reportedly said, “I prepare students for unemployment.”) That’s why I don’t think you go $300K in debt for film school. To paraphrase financial radio host Dave Ramsey—if you have $300K in student loans you better be able to operate on people. (You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to be a filmmaker, but you may need to be a brain surgeon to pay off a $300K loan. An indie filmmaker might not do that in his or her lifetime.)
I won’t give you a cut-off dollar wise but anything over $25,000 for film school should give you pause to ask—is there a better way of doing this? Be creative looking for alternative ways to pay for school without having a large debt. Look into scholarships, grants, and diversity programs.
The main pluses for going to film school is you can compress your learning curve by benefiting from knowledgable professors who inspire you. Sometimes the right professor can pass on your work to the right person in the industry. You’ll work alongside talented and passionate classmates. They will push you to be better. (Both Ryan Coogler and Barry Jenkins built their core teams at USC and FSU.) You may have alumni connections through your school that open doors for you years down the road.
And a college degree (in anything) comes in handy outside of Hollywood. It’s kind of the threshold that human resources use at companies to sort out people looking for jobs. It shows that you’re well rounded and have studied a variety of disciplines. One of my professors told me when I was questioning my education, “You don’t go to college to learn how to make films, you go to learn what to make films about.”
That answer by Professor George Capewell is even a better answer today than it was when it was given to me back in the 1980s. College is a great place to do a deep dive into humanities, history, literature, business, psychology, sociology, biology, religion, etc. Black Panther writer/director Ryan Coogler’s undergraduate degree is in finance. (I’m sure that helps him count all that money he’s making.) But it was a creative writing teacher in college that changed his life.
“She said, you should consider being a writer. . . . You should maybe even consider going to Hollywood and writing screenplays. I thought she was crazy. I didn’t even know what a screenplay was.”
Ryan Coogler on novelist Rosemary Graham who teaches at St. Mary’s College
2017 interview
Let me default back to Beck and Woods who in an interview talked about getting the roots of the idea for A Quiet Place while students at the University of Iowa.
Beck: As a filmmaker—as important as it is to study film—it is also important to get enough life experiences. For instance, we took this nonverbal communication course. So much of [A Quiet Place] is about the nonverbal or what’s being said behind the dialogue. That was a really interesting study into human nature and applying that to writing and directing. There were a lot of foreign cinema classes that we took that exposed us to different cinema experiences around the world. Those exposed us to new forms of storytelling.
Woods: We always felt it would be advantageous for us to get a well-rounded education. It never felt like we were making movies outside of class. It was all one thing. Class was informing us as people—how you are as people impacts how you are as writers.
So while I am anti-$300K debt, I am pro-college. Even pro-film school . . . if the conditions are right.
But . . .
You’ll find established filmmaker after established filmmaker—from Spike Lee to Sean Baker— today just encouraging you to make films with whatever digital camera you can find. Even if that’s with the phone in your pocket. No film school needed. Just talent, guts, drive—and an incredible work ethic. But don’t just take my word for it . . .
P.S. I did my undergraduate work in Cinema and have a graduate degree in Digital Journalism. It didn’t make me the next Steven Speilberg—though I do have a signed certificate from him for my work on the Shoah Project—but working in production in one form or other has paid my bills for over 30 years. It’s been a good ride.
This is a great time to be a content creator. Colleges all over the country are offering degrees in film, digital production, multimedia journalism, electronic arts, and the like. And those grads are working on corporate productions, in broadcast and cable TV, in education, with internet companies, and their own start-up production companies. But most of them are not pulling in salaries that could make a dent on $300K.
As I think back over the people that I’ve personally worked with in production over my career and I’d estimate that 85% of them do have college degrees—and studied film or television. So I imagine they’d all say it was worth it. But I don’t think any of them have student loans over $40,000. But not everyone is built for college and if you look at the above list of people who have little or no college you’ll find some incredibly accomplished people.
Related articles to check out:
“$182,000 in Student Debt for a Film Major?!”/Money
“Credit Risk: Student Debt’s Impact on Post-University Film Careers”/ Filmmaker mag
“My Film School Degree Ruined My Life”
Is it worth it to go to USC Film School for $200K?
“10 Reasons to Not Go To Film School”/No Film School
“Despite Expense, Film School Remains the Best Option for Cineastes”/Variety