<p>You’re welcome. And in all seriousness, I meant it. If you are curious, nothing like going to the horse’s mouth. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it is a good question to have answered. </p>
<p>@philosofish From the Bios of some of the top young American film makers:</p>
<p>Lauren Greenfield - while still an undergraduate at Harvard, Greenfield traveled around the world on a nine-month long program created by the International Honors Program, entitled “Film Study and Anthropology.”</p>
<p>Benh Zeitlin - Film Major Wesleyan </p>
<p>Jeff Nichols - studied filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.</p>
<p>Clenét Verdi-Rose - Wheaton College - Art Major</p>
<p>Andrew Bujalski - studied film at Harvard’s Department of Visual and Environmental Studies</p>
<p>J.C. Chandor - College of Wooster -designed his own major in cultural film studies. His senior Independent Study (I.S.) provided the young filmmaker with the challenge of developing and producing a feature length film, </p>
<p>Barry Jenkins - Film - Florida State University</p>
<p>Lena Dunham - She graduated in 2008 from Oberlin College, where she studied creative writing.</p>
<p>Jonathan Levine - Art-Semiotics Brown U.</p>
<p>Ry Russo-Young - majored in film at Oberlin College.</p>
<p>It’s very strange. People on this board seem to think film is a trade and therefore look down upon it as a college major, the thinking being that they can always learn the mechanics of a trade on their own. And, yet, most of their back up plans almost invariably entail - learning some other trade. Forgetting for a moment all the college dropouts who went on to great film careers, I defy you to name a single successful filmmaker under the age of 70 who majored in business or electrical engineering. It just doesn’t happen. It has nothing to do with what looks better on a resume. A good resume is not going to help you land that first job. You will either have product to sell or have a connection, or both. In order to bring even a half-way decent product to fruition, you should already be putting in your “10 years, 10,000 hours” business plan. Putting that on hold while you complete a degree in a “hard” subject is like adding another 5,000 hours to the task at hand. Filmmakers who do attend college are no different than anyybody else; they tend to major in what interests them and as a corollary, whatever allows them to practice their trade - even if it’s just on the side. </p>
<p>Lawrence Bender - Civil Engineering</p>
<p>^^^^ I suppose if you dig deep enough, you can find film makers with a wide variety of majors, but I think successful young film makers today are using college to hone their skills and launch their independent projects. For example, Matt Damon wrote the screenplay for Goodwill Hunting as a class project while he was an undergrad at Harvard.</p>
<p>Who dug? I saw an interview many years ago with Bender. But you are correct in that many use college to hone skills. The real problem with the film business is the intense competition.</p>
<p>^In the end, who gets the creative credit for Reservoir Dogs and for Pulp Fiction? Lawrence Bender or Quentin Tarantino?</p>
<p>What does it matter?</p>
<p>Because so many producers arrive at their positions after washing out on the creative end, that I wouldn’t necessarily advise to someone to follow their example. </p>
<p>You brought it up. All you could say “defy to find” and I gave you an example. End of story.</p>
<p>Oh, okay.</p>
<p>@circuitrider, putting the “defy” part aside, your post did make a lot of sense.</p>