Will I need a camera for film school?

Abcde11
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 23:03:52 +0000

I’ll give you my advice.

You say you don’t have $5,000 to pay for film equipment. That’s completely understandable. But, how much would you be planning to spend at film school? Unless you got full financial aid, you’d have to pay something. I’m assuming you don’t want to pick up large loans (that would be incredibly foolish, especially since filmmaking is a - let’s be real here - useless major for the most part). Would you be willing to spend more than $5,000 on film SCHOOL, even though you aren’t willing to spend it on equipment?

I think you should assess what you want out of film school. I hear a lot of people saying how they want to go to film school to ‘get access to good equipment’, when they don’t realize that the ridiculous amount of money being put towards a 40k-60k a year education at a school like NYU or USC could buy you just that - great film equipment!

And the catch? These people don’t even own the equipment. They have to share it with other students. They can’t do with it what they please, and if they want to use it outside of school, they surely have to rent it out (they can’t just randomly take whatever they want for however long they want). I also hear most film schools need to approve any scripts before you can even shoot them (how frustrating would that be?). Many of these pompous kids you’ve been exposed to don’t realize that they aren’t doing themselves any favors by shelling out huge amounts of cash to get access to great facilities that don’t represent the working environment of an indie filmmaker (the branch they’ll almost always have to start out in), and even worse, once they graduate all of that equipment is going to go bye-bye.

I think its fine to come from humble beginnings - if anything, it’s BETTER to come from humble beginnings (at least you won’t have your ego inflated). Read up on Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith. Did you know that even Christopher Nolan started his career with a $7,000 independent feature? (a better use for $7,000 than any class, in his case). If you really feel this environment you’ve been subjecting yourself to is harmful, and surrounding yourself with know-it-alls isn’t conductive to your creativity, just leave. No one’s stopping you.

It’s possible to learn filmmaking independently. It’s certainly possible to learn screenwriting independently (in fact, I can say with confidence that a screenwriting degree is absolutely pointless, an utter waste of time in terms of learning the actual craft). The only benefits of film school is the opportunity for networking. While it isn’t impossible to meet other like minded artists outside of a film school - and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise - it’s certainly easier. That’s where your decision comes in.

Good luck. If I was in your situation and had a very limited amount of money, I would put all of it into buying my own equipment and how-to books, and skimp on the formal education for now. I’d get my feet wet, to see if college really is necessary to learn my craft (and if after a year or two I wasn’t able to learn through my own intuition, so be it - time for some classes). But that’s just me.