I want to go to school for filmmaking, however there are no schools in my city. How do you think majoring in theater will help me in filmmaking? The major has 2 video production classes, but that's it.
Filmmaking and theater
- Thread starter wparrish24
- Start date
If you want to go to a film school, would it not make sense to go to one instead of doing the second best? If you want to write, act or direct it could be quite useful… if you want to be a dolly grip or visual effects supervisor, you're wasting your time.
This is (kind of) the route that I'm taking. Having done lots of theatre- acting, directing, writing and producing- I'm more interested in moving pictures at the moment.
There are lots of ways in which it is good and helpful, but they are very different disciplines. I think that theatre is as useful to filmmaking as running a building site is. It will teach you leadership and how to bend people to your will, but really there aren't many similarities.
The acting in film and theatre (whilst, obviously, more similar than being a builder) is totally different, so learning one won't necessarily help the other.
The way I think about it is that they are like squash and tennis. Both raquet sports, both good for people with decent hand eye coordination- but, at the end of the day, they are sufficiently different that it's almost impossible to be really good at both, without bad habits from one or the other carrying over...
There are lots of ways in which it is good and helpful, but they are very different disciplines. I think that theatre is as useful to filmmaking as running a building site is. It will teach you leadership and how to bend people to your will, but really there aren't many similarities.
The acting in film and theatre (whilst, obviously, more similar than being a builder) is totally different, so learning one won't necessarily help the other.
The way I think about it is that they are like squash and tennis. Both raquet sports, both good for people with decent hand eye coordination- but, at the end of the day, they are sufficiently different that it's almost impossible to be really good at both, without bad habits from one or the other carrying over...
It won’t.
Getting a major in something is a fine thing to do. If you want to
major in something that will help a career in film, major in
business. Having a major in theater will not help at all towards a
career in film.
Of course there are crossovers. I started in theater and am still
both a stagehand and occasional theater director. I suspect you
aren’t asking if a theater major will help you with a career as a
director of photography, a dolly grip, a costumer, a makeup artist
or a gaffer. You want to be a director, right?
If you feel film school is important and there isn’t a film school
in Seattle then you need to move.
