ASK & DISCUSS
INDEXTraining in the industry - your experiences
11 years, 10 months ago - Tom McDaniel
Do you think there is enough good training in Film and TV?
What courses have you gone on and were they any good?
What would you like to see or want from training?
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11 years, 9 months ago - Tom McDaniel
Funny you should mention Ravensbourne as they have the lowest satisfaction of all Uni's in the country for 2012. Probably because they have now moved buildings.
Do you think students can be slightly bemused by the training on offer I.E not get what they paid for?
11 years, 9 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
Hard to know - the old buildings were a bit ropey but had a decent studio, very 'industry' even if all older kit. The training is (at least was) pretty vocational but it's so hard to tell what people are expecting. Many students have unrealistic ideas of the industry, maybe that's related?
11 years, 10 months ago - Dan Selakovich
I went to California Institute of the Arts, and wouldn't trade it for anything.
Having said that, it depends on what you want to do. If a writer or director or editor, I think it necessary to spend a lot of time learning the craft. That's a 4 year program.
I taught at a for profit school for awhile here in Los Angeles. It was a 6 month program. It simply wasn't enough time to teach directing and producing (my subjects). But for their other classes that were more technical, that was plenty.
11 years, 9 months ago - Dan Selakovich
Unrealistic ideas... man, you got that right. Half my students wanted to direct music videos. I had to explain that the 80s are long gone, and that there is no money to be made there. They seemed crestfallen! It didn't get much better when I explained the realities of features and the ever shrinking budgets. The money I've been offered in the 2000s compares to what I made in the 80s. It's a shit sandwich, and we all gotta take a bite!
11 years, 10 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
I think there is plenty of training, places like Ravensbourne offer decent short and long courses, have skillset accreditation, and respectable facilities. That covers technical skills.
Production isn't something you learn from courses beyond getting started - it's something you learn from doing it, working with other producers, getting things right and wrong. Aside from using a spreadsheet and maybe some business basics, most of day to day production is knowing the cost centres to use and have an idea how to cost a project.
Creatives - there are hundreds of 'write a blockbuster' and similar courses. Directors need practice, production and a competent crew.
Problem with many courses is there's a bit of core knowledge transfer and a lot of filler. Supervised experience/working on productions is probably of more benefit in what is a very vocational sector.
11 years, 9 months ago - Daniel Cormack
I've not really had any formal training apart from the odd short course. The course I would heartily recommend is THINK-SHOOT-DISTRIBUTE at the London Film Festival. It's not about gurus or teaching you rules for success, but giving real world examples of things going right and wrong, from the horses' mouths. And it's free (if you get offered a place).