Question about film-schools and is it worth it

[kenyappers]

Hello. First and foremost I'd like to apologize as this would be a long post, and also if there are any (which most probably be plenty) grammatical errors, sorry!

That aside, I'm a 20 year old student from the country of Malaysia who is currently studying my first-year degree in International Trade and Marketing in a local private university. Getting right into it, I'm very keen on switching my course into film-making (in a film school) as I'm really passionate and keen on working things creatively and I'd love to learn more about film-making/cinematography/videography. Though I have to admit that I have no background of working with any heavy projects in terms of filming/post-production. In fact, I've only played around with Premiere Pro no more than 10 times editing minor videos for any school work that required me filming a video presentation. Truth be told, I think it's just the passion that's really driving me, I hate to see myself continuing my studies in a business degree knowing all the time I find absolutely no joy in studying. Now, being your typical asian parents, they weren't so receptive to the idea of me switching courses to one such as 'film-making' as they could pretty much tell that it's not something that could 'support my future' and it was a tad bit risky (seeing circumstances in our local film industry). But I reassured them that creative work is much more (maybe?) appreciated in the western countries and that if I made connections during my studying it would benefit me more in the future. Even after saying that, I wasn't very sure if that was even true. On top of that, I even asked if I could perhaps even study in a film-school in the States. But as a Malaysian, it would be costly for me to even live there, let alone study.

With all that being said, I have some questions that I would love it if it could be answered in this forum, which are:

1. Is a studying in a film school abroad worth it?

2. Is creative work such as film-making/cinematography/videography really much more recognized and appreciated in the Western countries?

3. If so, are there any College/Universities you'd recommend worth checking out?

Additional question: Am I actually too old to start learning basics? (Age 20)

Thank you for your time!

 

[jrusso]

I'll tell you a little something about the school I went to. it was one of the top 10 colleges for comp sci in the nation.

my computer architecture class had tests that were 50 pages long and impossible to finish. Literally impossible. It was graded on a curve based on who could answer the most questions the fastest and your hand hurt like hell when the midterm and final were over.

You had to memorize the whole goddamn book. how a pipeline works, risc vs cisc. all that shit.

and some of that is what has paid off for me the most.
I've looked at code that people worked on for months and in 5 seconds spotted and removed their largest bottleneck.

and to think that other guy had a college degree too.
He probably just uses the book as a reference point

I've done that too. It's all a matter of will and skill combined. I've also memorized important elements of computer science for school and I've also studied a great deal without a teacher standing over me.

Your insinuation that I somehow have less knowledge than you because you think you've studied more than I on some level would be more insulting if I haven't reached near the top level of salary for a .Net developer and earned the respect of my peers/colleagues. Your attitude about software engineering is indicative of the "I WENT TO BETTER COLLEGE THAN YOURS... SO I AUTOMATICALLY KNOW MORE THAN YOU," is very similar to SkyCopeland's "I went to filmschool so automatically I know more than you do" assumptive mindset.

See, what you did in your college was to learn the "theory" of how things work, and you were able to apply that knowledge. That's what I was saying. Flashback to my earlier comment... "So, learn the theory behind everything and use your technical manuals/books as resources when you need them."

 

[sfoster]

Your insinuation that I somehow have less knowledge than you because you studied more...

No, no, you are misunderstanding me.
Sorry about that I will try to explain myself here.

A) I was saying that I memorized a bunch of facts: aka accumulated knowledge.
B)You were saying that most people don't memorize it and just use it as a reference point: aka accumulated reference material.

So on the one hand we have an accumulation of knowledge, and on the other we do not.

And now you're saying that I am making an "insinuation" that I have more knowledge than you. It's not an insinuation, I thought we just had a discussion here I frankly said I accumulated knowledge and then you responded by saying that you did not. A discussion about the merits of accumulating knowledge vs reference material. It had nothing to do with the school vs independent debate.

Here is my point that I am trying to make.

Because my attitude is is to accumulate all of this knowledge, even forcing myself to understand the most mundane details, this is why i don't need film school. People who don't do this, they do need film school because otherwise they'll miss out on these important details.

 

[jrusso]

No, no, you are misunderstanding me.
Sorry about that I will try to explain myself here.

A) I was saying that I memorized a bunch of facts: aka accumulated knowledge.
B)You were saying that most people don't memorize it and just use it as a reference point: aka accumulated reference material.

So on the one hand we have an accumulation of knowledge, and on the other we do not.

And now you're saying that I am making an "insinuation" that I have more knowledge than you. It's not an insinuation, I thought we just had a discussion here I frankly said I accumulated knowledge and then you responded by saying that you did not. A discussion about the merits of accumulating knowledge vs reference material. It had nothing to do with the school vs independent debate.

Here is my point that I am trying to make.

Because my attitude is is to accumulate all of this knowledge, even forcing myself to understand the most mundane details, this is why i don't need film school. People who don't do this, they do need film school because otherwise they'll miss out on these important details.

Yikes, I completely misread that. Okay, point taken. And, we actually agree.

 

[sfoster]

And, we actually agree.

Now that is something you don't hear very often on the internet
Awesome.

 

[jrusso]

Now that is something you don't hear very often on the internet
Awesome.

I agree. LOL

 

[SkyCopeland]

How many books have you read on film making?
I'm probably at like 16 I think. Not an astronomical number but I've covered every subject at least in some capacity.

There were a couple dry ones out there with important information.
The color correction handbook.. starts off interesting but then ooh man does it trail off into a technical land of boredom. if you can't force yourself to study it and absorb it irregardless then you're the kind of person that needs film school.

All I see is an endless amount of posts by you talking to yourself. I can tell this is going to be funny looking XD

AH! The Color Correction Handbook (edition 2 I assume), it's such a great book, all 600+ sum pages lol. Did you actually make it through all of the book? I've read the whole thing twice now, but I will still always keep it on me because it's a great book to be able reference back too if I ever get stumped on something.

16? That's a nice number of books. I read about 8 before coming to film school, but now I endlessly have read film books. Either I'm reading one from the library, check out, read, return, check out another. Or using Creative Edge's thousands of film making books.

I'm not sure how to get Safari Creative Edge? I assume it's a monthly subscription for those who don't have academic access to it? Kinda like Lynda.com. But I'd highly recommend that website, it's completely worth the huge database of filmmaking resources to learn from.

 

[sfoster]

All I see is an endless amount of posts by you talking to yourself. I can tell this is going to be funny looking XD

AH! The Color Correction Handbook (edition 2 I assume), it's such a great book, all 600+ sum pages lol. Did you actually make it through all of the book? I've read the whole thing twice now, but I will still always keep it on me because it's a great book to be able reference back too if I ever get stumped on something.

16? That's a nice number of books. I read about 8 before coming to film school, but now I endlessly have read film books. Either I'm reading one from the library, check out, read, return, check out another. Or using Creative Edge's thousands of film making books.

I'm not sure how to get Safari Creative Edge? I assume it's a monthly subscription for those who don't have academic access to it? Kinda like Lynda.com. But I'd highly recommend that website, it's completely worth the huge database of filmmaking resources to learn from.

awesome i will definitely have to check that out.
recently i was searching my public library and they don't have jack on filmmaking books.


unfortunately i didn't finish the color correction book. I got about halfway through and the frustration of my editing station was too much

I have a macbook pro and it can't run resolve. so I'm reading about all these cool things and learning about it but i couldn't play with any of them.

I think what I'm going to do is find a friend with a nice computer and just start spending a few hours here and there playing with resolve at their house.