So why not be a filmmaker? I was 26 when the light finally turned on.
It happened in my office at work. Out of nowhere something crashed into my head. Not a ceiling tile or light fixture. It was this radical idea: “I should go to film school.”
That thought eventually changed my life. Packed up everything and moved to Los Angeles. Just me, an old Honda and BIG dreams. My life had finally begun!
I attended school at the Los Angeles Film School on Sunset Boulevard. My directing teacher was a member of the DGA. Sound design teacher worked full time on Law and Order. My editing teacher cut Blazing Saddles back in the day. Needless to say, I learned a lot!
But there was a problem. Something school didn’t prepare me for.
What was it? That Hollywood doesn’t care about your education. Attending film school in the heart of the entertainment industry was not the silver bullet I thought it would be. I was a double major, graduated with honors. Had one of the most polished reels in my class.
But it just didn’t matter. After school I was sleeping on an air mattress, working retail to pay bills.
Fortunately I met someone who worked at Universal Pictures who got me on to couple films directed by Bob Odenkirk (Let’s Go To Prison and The Brothers Solomon). Working on the studio films was exciting! But there is no path from production assistant to director.
As fun as the studio sets were, I decided to jump into the world of independent film. But the challenge with indie filmmaking is that it just doesn’t pay. This means you need a full time job to pay bills, while working on movies nights and weekends.
It’s been 16 years since I graduated from film school. There have been many lessons, some learned the hard way. Mastering the craft of story telling for the big screen takes a lot of time.
Let’s circle back to the entire question of this blog post: Which film school should you go to?
I think education is definitely important, but the system is messed up. The entertainment industry is overloaded with people trying to make a living. Thousands of hopefuls journey to LA each year dreaming of their chance to “break in.”
But if you don’t approach your film education right, you could end up as yet another statistic. You know, that cool person who moved to LA from Ohio to follow their dreams only to crash and burn and move back home at the age of 37.
The entertainment industry is overloaded with people trying to make a living. Thousands of hopefuls journey to LA each year dreaming of their chance to break in.
Film school should teach the craft quickly without draining your bank account. Because the only way to becoming a writer and director is to in fact write and direct movies. But if you spend $30K a year on film school, you don’t have anything left to keep going.
And this is precisely what Write & Direct is all about.
Write & Direct is hands on, cohesive training that teaches the craft of filmmaking at an affordable price. Students begin in development and move through every phase of making a movie. They complete their first film during training — A film that can be submitted to film festivals, and even put on IMDb!
The goal of Write & Direct is to teach aspects of the craft that took me years to learn. While liberating students from financial bondage so they have the resources to do what every aspiring director must do — write and direct movies.
This online film school officially launches in 2022! Discover how to launch your filmmaking career!