I'm going to offer the words of wisdom that helped me out.
First of all, it does NOT matter where you live right now or where you want to go to school -- depending on what you want to do. I live in Wichita, Kansas USA. Never worked on the coasts. But in my time here, I've gotten to work with two Academy Award nominees, and multiple Emmy winners. Heck, one of my good friends and partners won a BAFTA for his cinematography work. One of my other friends produced the Meg Ryan movie that came out last year, "The Deal." And right now, I've got a script in the hands of one of the top-tier boutique agencies in Los Angeles. Not one of these connections did I make at any school that I've attended. All those connections are the ones I made by simply going to film festivals and volunteering. Which goes to show that if you are outspoken, friendly, courteous, and genuine, people will get behind you. Yeah, universities and film schools may help with connections. But coming out of those, you are a student. Doing it on your own, you are a filmmaker.
But that's beside the point. Getting to what I was talking about. I started out in film school. I knew from the time I was 15 I wanted to go to film school. So, after three years, I went to the one I could afford and that was close to home. Not to mention it was ranked in the Top 10 public university film departments in the nation (among the Florida States and the University of Texas-type schools). I went there. I was miserable. I got so inundated with film that I just got sick of it. Aside from a separate group of issues that have since been resolved, I got so sick and tired of playing the "film school" game in addition to the "university bureaucracy" game, that I gave up and -- to make a long story short -- was ejected from the university.
I came back home, thinking that everything was done for -- ruined. I did odd jobs for two years -- worked on a christmas tree farm, taught at a special ed clinic, legal assistant at a law firm, resurrected former meth labs to be able to sell the houses to law-abiding citizens. Finally, after two years I decided I was sick of doing these kinds of jobs and wanted to go back to school. I went to go see one of my friends. She and her husband are older (he is one of the Academy Award nominees I described earlier), they both worked through the Hollywood of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and well into the 1990s. She worked closely with Robert Altman for years before she finally retired. I told her I was wanting to get back into school, but I didn't know if I wanted to go to film school. I asked her if I needed to go to film school, or if I could just get a degree in communications, or what I needed to do. Her advice blew me away at the time.
"Don't go anywhere NEAR film school." She explained to me that when she was working for Altman, they would get STACKS of resumes from people wanting to work on the movies, mostly as Production Assistants, since that's where you start out. She told me that if they got a resume from somebody who did not have professional experience and had just graduated from film school, their resume went straight to the bottom of the pile. She explained to me that the way films are made and taught in academia is COMPLETELY different from the way they are made in the professional land of the "real" film makers. She told me that producers did not want to take the time to have to re-teach everything people learned in film school, especially when the end result for the movie was a matter of box office success and not just a grade from some professor who couldn't hack it in the real filmmaking world anyway. She explained that there is a bias in the industry establishment heavily against film school grads and academia -- they think to be an Oscar winner you need a degree. Professionals know that to be an Oscar winner you need the most votes. They would rather have kids who got degrees in things that were entirely NOT film related or who had NO university experience at ALL! So, I decided to go back to school and get my degree in political science...
Film schools teach film as an abstract concept it seems. In the university system, they teach screenwriting and directing -- two "skills" that do not require training so much as they require raw talent. You can either write, or you can't. You are either a good director, or you aren't.
But the conservatory programs (like Full Sail or New York Film Academy) are different. They teach skills like you would get at a technical college. You learn cinematography. You learn sound production. You learn grip. You learn how to be a script supervisor, or an assistant director, or an editor or even the art of producing. They teach skills, not film. One of my cinematography friends got his degree from Full Sail. He didn't get a degree in "film." His was a technical degree in cinematography. One of my other friends did the One Year Producing Program at New York Film Academy and ended up getting to pitch several projects and producing two reality shows. Those degrees seemed to mean something, while the university degrees did not.
And if it is a question of paying to go to school, knowing that the degree in and of itself is not going to mean anything -- if it means going to a university because they have resources for a career path as well as production, and connections can be made, then GO THERE! Just go knowing that you are going for the connections and the facilities, not the education or the piece of paper.
If you want to get your foot in the door, find an area that you enjoy and find an apprenticeship.
If you want to be a grip, an editor, a sound mixer go to a conservatory like Full Sail.
If you want to be a producer, check out one of the One or Two Year programs at New York Film Academy.
If you want to be a producer, an assistant director, a UPM go into the DGA's apprenticeship program.
If you want to be a writer/directer, go to a standard liberal arts college and get a degree in nothing that has to do with film.
If you want to be a writer/director, go to a "film" school and get a degree in film on the condition that the film school you are going to has connections to get you into a job after you graduate.
That's my two cents, anyway.
. A lot of prospective college students will make their decisions based on campus, atmosphere, culture, social aspects, and what comes with the social experience of it all, and "where they will be living" for 2 to 4+ years. Some people consider the prestige of the school. For others, a huge decision-maker can be programs and equipment, and what kinds of equipment/facilities are available for students to use. Some prospective college students also look at the networking aspects, if there are any, and internship opportunities, and if any, career assistance.
