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General Film Chat Recommendations

To film school... or not to film school

3 weeks, 1 day ago - Andy Hudson

Hey everyone - looking for a bit of advice.

I’m a Leeds-based camera op, done some helping out on friends’ shoots but no paid gigs yet, mostly juggling a day job in retail. I’ve been thinking about going back to film school or doing a diploma to boost my chances, but honestly, I’m pretty lost when it comes to understanding course fees and what options are even available around here. On top of that, funding it feels like a whole other headache - grants, loans, bursaries - I’m not sure where to start.

Has anyone been through this? How did you figure out what courses were worth it and how to pay for them? Does getting a qualification actually help with breaking into paid work, or is it more about building your own projects and connections? Would love to hear how it worked out for people in the UK indie film world or any tips you have.

Thanks!

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3 weeks ago - Franz von Habsburg FBKS MSc

Hi! Interesting that you are in Leeds. I lived there back in 1963 (In Bramhope) and applied to the West Riding Education Department in Leeds for a grant to attend the London Film School. They were delighted as it was the first time anyone had requested that, so I got my grant and started their course in September 64. It changed my life and I’ve been in films ever since, starting with Rank Distribution (distributors are permanent, unlike production companies which start up for a film and close once finished) and employ more people! You also learn from the inside how the industry works. Read also “My Indecision is Final” (Amazon!) to learn how it really works. I then went on to Associated British Pathé working on a rich variety of productions: commercials, documentaries, features and even The Avengers. Then back to Rank Advertising! If you want to play with cameras, get with a camera rental house. You’ll learn about REAL cameras you could never afford yourself and go out with the kit and meet top people. Be prompt and efficient and you’ll get noticed! Can tell you a lot more! Think a lot bigger than limit yourself to shooting weddings! Welcome to contact! Best - Franz

3 weeks ago - Ray Brady

Hi Andy, instead of spending your time on a course paying tuition fees, rent and your living expenses, I suggest you focus for a far less expensive route in committing to a year of intensively working for free as a camera assistant applying and taking any job working within the best pro or aspiring to be pro camera crew that you can get experience working with. Make sure that you collect and carefully keep a list of all the contact names and numbers and email addresses of all the people you are working with, making a private note next to each of how good they were and anything else that might help you to decide whether you should work with them again. Hopefully after working hard, after always being punctual and never letting anyone down, and committing to personal study in your free time using YouTube training tutorials, in a year you should start to be getting paid work on a regular basis, paid expenses long before that. Enrollment at a dedicated training school might be helpful but practical experience on sets, building trust learning relationships and a large contacts list is in my opinion far more valuable than any piece of paper qualification to add to your CV only then to start looking for practical experience and building up a contacts list.
Best of luck.
Ray Brady

2 weeks, 2 days ago - Franz von Habsburg FBKS MSc

But you need to know a lot more than the long queue of applicants in front of you, including good contacts… both of which you get from a film school!

1 week, 6 days ago - Richard Jordan

I agree with Ray here. Just by being punctual, motivated and keen will make you get noticed. After 30 years in the business I’m amazed at the number of beginners/trainees who ostensibly want to work in film, but when on set behave as if they would prefer to anywhere else but there.

1 week, 1 day ago - Ray Brady

Thank you Richard. Skill can be learned anywhere and a lot less cheaper than at an expensive film school. I speak from personal experience having taken a BA in Film and Media. Two thirds of what was being taught was film appreciation, either getting introduced to the great historical international filmmakers (invaluable before cable and the internet changed everything, allowing access to all world cinema and historical international films), screenwriting (if I wanted to be on a screenwriting course I would have taken a relevant course) very disappointingly leaving less than a third for practical filmmaking. Prior to taking my BA, having been left with a video camera to play with for a weekend, I was hooked, I quickly acquired my own video camera, then switched to super 8 film and made my way up through to the very best Nizo Super 8 cameras, moved up on to acquiring a 16mm Bolex, then on to a Beaulieu R16. I then attended and filmed any event that I heard about, from filming bands like the Shamen, dozens of protest marches, pride and union and civil rights marches. Met John Maybury several times, since we often filmed the same events, was mentored and greatly encouraged by the late great Derek Jarman, all of this before signing up for a year long media foundation course to be ready to get enrolled in a film degree course, which I thought at the time would be the best way forward only then to be disappointed at how little practical filmmaking there was allowed on the course. So I organised and made, with friends that I met on the prior years foundation course, a feature length film. When my film school found out what I was doing they called me in to the heads office and cautioned me not to use any of the school's equipment, which was a joke as for the first two years they expected the students to only shoot on video, only to finally get small windows of access to actual film cameras in the third year of the degree course. Having shown and talked about the finished feature film at numerous prestigious international film festivals, and cinemas all around the UK, in the third year of my degree course the school actually paid me to convey my experiences to the first years attending my course, which I was still attending to finish my degree. So, in a very roundabout way, I'm saying that whilst on my film degree course I had so much free time that I, with friends, could plan, organise, shoot edit and then promote our own independent feature film. I paid for my degree fees and for my own room rent, food and travel so needed to hold down two part time jobs to keep out of debt. So Andy, if you are super passionate about being a filmmaker (or crew), just start filming using your phone or any other recording device as much and as often as you can, go and seek out like minded people whenever the opportunity arises, ally with friends, shoot lots of short films or docos, learn from your mistakes and repeat, put the hours in, more than anyone else wanting to do the same thing as you. Use free software to edit your own films, not to become a professional editor but to teach yourself, get a real sense of what you really need to shoot to be able to economically shoot your future film projects and you will be halfway there to becoming an accomplished film maker. Enter your films into as many free film festivals as possible, attend as many film festivals as possible to make lots of contacts and meet like minded people (carefully keep all their contacts). All these skills and practically acquired knowledge will very quickly get you lots or requests to join in other people's shoots, learn from their mistakes and very quickly people will start paying you for you.
Bon chance Ray
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002916/

5 days, 14 hours ago - Linda M James

What an amazingly generous response, Ray, to someone starting out. We need more people like you in the film world.