Film school is the journalism school of people who can't write. It's a place where kids with vague dreams of "making projects" go to chill out for a few years and learn that you should never call a "film" a "movie." Then they come out and get a shitty job for little money that pays them purely in proximity to power.
Also like journalism, the job market for film school graduates is notable for its paucity, which rises in direct correlation with the amount of student loans incurred in said school. And, in accordance with the poor decision-‐making skills inherent in the group, the applications to these schools naturally skyrocket at the same time the economy plummets. Tying it all together: the absurdly unrealistic expectations of success that afflict students and potential students with wearying uniformity.
But today, the NYT reports that... yeah, it's still pretty much the same. Film school applications are way up! The film school graduate job market is crap! And everyone in film school is destined to be a big success, somehow!
"I've never seen a major start with so many students in it so quickly," said David D. Lee, dean of the Potter College of Arts and Letters at Western Kentucky University, which last year added an undergraduate film and television production program. It now has 84 majors, many with only a vague notion of the future for which they are training. "I'm going to make a career that probably doesn't even exist right now," was Mr. Lee's description of the prevailing ethic.
We're going to tell you the truth, purely out of a spirit of friendship: all of you Western Kentucky University film graduates will be failures. Only as far as the movie industry is concerned! If it makes you feel any better, you also would have been failures had you gone to the Western Kentucky University school of journalism. Or the NYU school of journalism, for that matter. Or the NYU film school. It's not you—it's the system.
I bet a story about disaffected young college graduates would make a great movie.
COMMENTS:
SarikaJalope For years, I've watched in dismay as young people spend money they don't have and years they won't get back getting specialized graduate degrees they'll never get to use. Whatever happened to learning on the job? I work for a company in the entertainment field (an awesome one, no complaints here), and most of my colleagues who are over thirty-‐five would never even get an interview from our HR department if they were applying today. And many of these folks are now respected members of the management group. Nope, now you have to have an MBA from one of the 'right' schools. Why, for God's sake? I was lucky; I was hired before the MBA fetish totally kicked in, because I could spell, write a coherent sentence, and I was willing to learn. Of all the people I've hired, the best ones went to city colleges and/or never got a bachelor's. What made these guys great? Their eagerness and ability to learn and grow.
I attended a great talk recently, given by a woman who has had notable success in the film industry. You wouldn't know her name, but people in the industry do. She started out as an accountant, until she realized that she needed to follow her dream. She quit accounting, took her savings and moved to LA. Her secret? She was willing to start out at the bottom of the ladder and "pick up cigarette butts" (her words) all day while she learned the business.
Sorry for the rant, but this has been eating at me lately. My godson is in film school at NYU, and I'm just so afraid that he's wasting his youth and mortgaging his future to no good end.
veronykah @SarikaJalope I think you are also glamorizing the idea of working your way up. Its pretty standard for businesses to hire "interns" now. Said internship isn't going to lead you anywhere but you do get the experience of picking up cigarette butts for free! Maybe there is a magical company that will hire the newbie off the street with no knowledge but a lot of get up and go but in my experience they want you to have ALL the skills of someone they'd pay AND they don't want to pay you with the goal of using you as free labor until they get another sucker (sorry, "intern") to come and do the job.
Ultraumatic @SarikaJalope It just doesn't work like that anymore. But you know that already.
SarikaJalope @veronykah You're absolutely right about the misuse/abuse of the 'interns' (aka gullible, unpaid labor). This is a disgrace that needs to be dealt with. If it's any consolation, it hurts everyone involved, including people already employed at the company. I'm proud to say that my company pays its interns a decently hourly rate, and only hires them during the summer as part of a defined, well-‐managed program. And I didn't mean to glamorize anything. The woman I mentioned really does exist, and she really did launch herself into a satisfying career after starting out at the bottom. I really exist, as do the people I hired. I just meant to say that it's frustrating to see people saddle themselves with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts that they may never be able to repay. And finally, there is a difference between 'skills' and knowledge. I truly believe that knowledge comes only with experience.
An ugly cycle has begun, in which the academic industry convinces people that they need to spend two more years in graduate school, as well as tons of money, to get the right letters for their resume. Once these people are absorbed into the workforce, they then need to surround themselves with people who have paid for those same letters. And a new class system is born.
rednrowdy @SarikaJalope i think that plenty of people are willing to work their way up, but cannot afford to do so within the entertainment industry.
talent and attractiveness levels aside, the people i know who stayed in "the biz" were able to 1)get a really lucky break early on which led to representation and subsequent well paying work 2) have insanely wealthy parents 3) have no unfortunate life circumstances come their way (illness of themselves or family members) 4) marry well/up 5) sleep at night knowing they had no form of health insurance at all. in most instances, it is still a combo of all of those factors with a heavy emphasis on 2 or 4. it's not news that the power of an unlimited bankroll can make things happen.
veronykah @SarikaJalope I'm not saying the woman that you mentioned didn't exist, its just that people who started in industries like this a long time ago think that its still the same as when they started out "with nothing but a good attitude" and its not like that anymore.
I'm in a similar industry and I wish there were more people like you and your friend, honestly. I did go to school AND have interned and worked in the industry yet STILL feel like I am never given the opportunity to say "I'll WORK from the bottom, I'll pay my dues but I don't have the 35 point checklist of skills you require for the job". I get paying your dues but it seems like the motivation to WORK and LEARN is not valued as much as who you know that can get you the job or the skill set certain jobs want before even talking to you. They want you to intern to get the skills so they don't have to pay you, and some of us are not in a position to WANT to do that let alone be able to afford to do it.
rednrowdy @veronykah businesses hire "interns" now, which not all people can actually afford to be since they are almost 10 times out of 10 unpaid or insanely lowly paid. you know who can afford to be an intern? people who are already wealthy and probably never needed the connections and contacts that come with being an intern in the first place. and thus the chain begins.
GingerVitis2 @rednrowdy While I agree that money and family connections are incredibly helpful, as someone who broke into the business with neither I will say that many of the people I started out striving with when we were all in our 20s were simply unable (or unwilling) to lead the life of a struggling artist for the length of time necessary to break in.
It's a crapshoot, and you're going to be poor and uninsured for a long, long time after all of your friends from college have houses and cars and clothes that aren't second-‐hand. It sucks, and you'll feel like life is passing you by and you'll never get what you're after and it's all been a colossal waste -‐-‐ but if it's truly what you want to do with your life, you have to just keep going. Most people simply don't want it that badly, and that's the truth.
Kolea @SarikaJalope Yeah, I agree with @veronykah. So few companies want to invest any time or energy giving a new hire applicable on the job training. Your resume needs to be pretty stellar to get peon admin work these days; and once you've beat out everyone else and landed yourself an office gig making $20/hr with insanely expensive "benefits," no one really bothers to see you as anything more than a human fedex label making /paperjam fixing/fridge restocking machine.
SarikaJalope @Kolea I think we're all agreeing with each other. The only thing I would add is my contention that the problem is less with faceless companies that require advanced management skills for even their entry-‐level positions, than with the very fallible humans on the front lines of the hiring process who want to screen out the unfashionable hoi polloi who couldn't afford expensive degrees. The combination of this snobbery with the grad school industry has helped create the situation we're all describing. To be clear -‐ I'm not saying that there is no place for post-‐graduate education. In certain
fields, it's a must. I'm just saying that too many people are being forced into buying a master's degree right out of college as if it were the final gown in a beauty pageant.
My advice to hiring managers? Require a writing sample (one that is produced in front of you), and ask the applicant to explain how they would solve a specific problem. Look for innovative and clear thinking. Also, check for a sense of humor. Stupid people are never funny; nor are people who believe they are entitled to the job you're offering.
DougieKern @rednrowdy What's going on in these comments is a fundamental misunderstanding of the industry. "Interns" aren't taking the places of PAs, which is still a way to work up from the bottom on spunk and pluck alone. You people are talking about these film jobs as though the majority of film work was full time employment. It's not. The majority of people in the industry are freelancers, and as I said, there is still room for a plucky PA to work up in that world. I'm sorry it hasn't worked out for you, but to make a blanket statement as if the industry has changed is just wrong.
kazillion @veronykah I realize this isn't how everyone does it, but I started as a temp receptionist to get my foot in the door for the publishing industry.
Sure, I get paid pretty much the same now as a Marketing Coordinator as I did sitting at the front desk, but now I have a regularly changing trio of unpaid interns -‐-‐ ahem -‐-‐ volunteers, to boss around.
rednrowdy @DougieKern of course the majority of work in the industry is freelance -‐ it is for everyone in the entertainment field -‐ in front and behind the camera. my point is that it's not just show business pulling the "interns" card -‐ every business is becoming like show business in that the intern work is plentiful and either very low paying or unpaid.