A Tale of Three Filmmakers
Why Snobbery Destroys
Duration 9m 37s
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The biggest mistake anyone can make is to evaluate something new in the terms of something old. This episode looks at three very different responses to emerging media from three different filmmakers, and what those differences express.
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Your point is well taken. I just hope you are able to resist the currents of a stream that tends either to carry all before it, or toss those who resist to the sides, like so much flotsam.
Charles, I totally agree with everything you say about film schools. I go to film school myself and I think you're right on most points. Having said that, I would just like to offer you my own motivation for going to film school. I knew from the start that I was not going to be taught how to make films as an unlimited - personal - artistic expression but rather, how to follow a certain formula. I knew I would be surrounded by people with limited taste or knowledge of film - let alone people willing to challenge its possibilites. But for young people like me with limited access to equipment or with no friends that are willing to help out, or no deals to get cheap 16mm film - or no free insurrance deals that allow to get authorizations to shoot pretty much wherever... making films is a little harder. On a pure practical basis, and provided one does not get sucked in the totalitarianism of modern academia, film schools have a lot of advantages.
Yes, the more you look at who has done what, and which of them went to film school, the punier the contributions of a film school education seem.
Off the top of my head, the only major filmmakers I can think of who went to film school are Coppola, Lucas and Scorsese, although there are probably a few non-American filmmakers that would be added to the list if I had a more encompassing knowledge of foregin film schools. (I know that Polanski, for example, went to film school in Poland.)
The simple fact is that even the biggest names from film school do not compare to the truly great filmmakers like Griffith and company. Film schools provide what any professional education gives, an introduction to the field as it exists at the time you study, with a set of values to use to judge other people. They do NOTHING to encourage creativity. At best, they allow already creative people to find new skills in themselves by exposing them to models they might otherwise never see. (Even that limited contribution is fast diminishing in importance, however, in the rush to turn out hacks who can make money to give back to the school.) Overall, their outlook is very, very narrow and even more short-sighted.
Off the top of my head, the only major filmmakers I can think of who went to film school are Coppola, Lucas and Scorsese, although there are probably a few non-American filmmakers that would be added to the list if I had a more encompassing knowledge of foregin film schools. (I know that Polanski, for example, went to film school in Poland.)
The simple fact is that even the biggest names from film school do not compare to the truly great filmmakers like Griffith and company. Film schools provide what any professional education gives, an introduction to the field as it exists at the time you study, with a set of values to use to judge other people. They do NOTHING to encourage creativity. At best, they allow already creative people to find new skills in themselves by exposing them to models they might otherwise never see. (Even that limited contribution is fast diminishing in importance, however, in the rush to turn out hacks who can make money to give back to the school.) Overall, their outlook is very, very narrow and even more short-sighted.
