What Film Schools Don't Put in Their Brochure

"Hello Filmmakers."

That is the greeting on my first day at film school at Los Angeles City College. The first week is full of basics like how to point a camera, what a close-up is, and how to use IMovie.

The students are milling around telling each other how they want to be directors, producers, and writers, but the all knowing professor tells us that we have to pay our dues with free labor.

The gleam leaves from some eyes, since it is one thing to work on your own film for free, but to invest countless hours on someone who has decided to do a remake of all the works of Shakespeare, is quite another.

People start buying Three Thousand dollar cameras, though they were advised not to. They are off to make their first school film, but generally they return with horror stories of how actors did not show up. They did not give them food or money, so the actor felt no incentive.

The lab is filled with students trying to make perfect editing cuts on a program clearly designed for the novice. So, the filmmaker drops a few hundred more to get Final Cut Pro on their home computer. Oh, but wait, they have a PC, so they also have to buy a MAC.

People start getting together and talking up free work deals for production companies that are online, but keep claiming when they get a real gig, "They will take you along." They try to make being a Production Assistant sound glamorous and important, when really you are a servant to all.

Films continue to be made, and classics are criticized by kids not old enough to buy a drink. Some drop out because they got a "real" job in the industry. The snake oil is sold on working your way up the Hollywood movie chain. Guests come in to tell how they got their start working for free. Most of them are unknowns, so that may be okay.

Professors, many who have not been on a set in decades cut down students, criticize their concepts, and their style. But then, that same professor will nominate the film he hated for the student film festival on campus.

Students are bored watching bad films by their professors, and their peers. They want to be like George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, and just go on to make a multi-million dollar film.

Free labor important element of film making

Credit: PD

Copyright: PD