Can I Get Hands-On Experience Through Online Film Schools?

First, Why Listen To Me?

Why hear what I have to say about film school? Two reasons. First, I attended The LA Film School in the heart of Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard. Private school. $32K for one year of education—not including room and board in LA.

Secondly, I’m an active filmmaker. Just finished a film called RECKONING. In production on a sci-fi and have another feature film in development. I’ve also worked on a couple studio films. You can hit up my IMDb. So with that out of the way, let’s cut to:

The Rising Cost of Film Education

Why would anyone even consider an online film school? A good reason is the rising expense of film schools in 2025. Simply hit up your favorite AI (mine is Grok) to get fast estimates on updated tuition costs for popular film schools. Current stats:

USC Undergraduate: $71,647 per year
UCLA Undergraduate: $49,354 per year
AFI MFA: $68,795
NYU Undergraduate: $86,073 per year
Full Sail Undergraduate: $88,000
Liberty Undergraduate: $46,910
Chapman Undergraduate: $67,490
UNC Undergraduate: $24,231

Due to this a growing consideration for many aspiring filmmakers is online education. But it’s film school, not an accounting program. Doesn’t film school need to be hands-on? Don’t you need to network with others and all of that jazz? Don’t you get access to all kinds of cool gear in film school?

The Real Purpose of Gear

I’ll never forget graduating from the LA Film School only to hit a sobering reality: All the film gear, sound stages and school access were instantly gone. I was jobless, no access to gear and not sure how I was going to pay back my $62K film school loan.

It was super cool to have access to gear at LAFS: Cinema cameras, Sound Devices field recorders, Fisher dollies, Sennheiser shotgun mics and Avid workstations—to name just a few things. But after I graduated, all of that shiny gear went bye-bye. And this goes against everything an aspiring director must do. The true purpose of film gear is not just to teach the craft, but to allow new directors to continue making movies after graduation.

The Truth About Networking

What about networking, right? Isn’t that a huge plus of film school? Not really. Think about it: All the other directing majors in your class wanna direct movies. You all will be spearheading your own films after graduation.

One of the students in my class was related to a major Hollywood producer. My directing teacher was an honorary member of the DGA. My editing teacher had cut studio films. My sound design teacher actively worked on Law & Order. Did any of those cool connections help me out? Not a one.

If you want to be a director, your objective after film school is to begin making movies. But it’s on your dime. You have to do a lot of it Rebel Without A Crew style, because you won’t have money for crew day rates. You also won’t have access to all of that hands-on gear you had during school.

The Hands-On Online Film School Solution

This is what Write & Direct was created for. We teach aspiring filmmakers the craft of filmmaking from development through post production.

You will actually make a movie from idea through final sound design and color grading. Everything. We show you how to do it step by step. And you’ll purchase the gear you need to do it. Now wait—that sounds expensive! Actually, it’s a no-brainer:

To purchase all of the film gear needed to make movies will ring in WAY LESS than attending a single year of film school at most schools.

Make Movies Post Graduation

With our online film school and equipment model, once you’ve completed your thesis project and you graduate from Write & Direct you’re JUST GETTING STARTED. The gear doesn’t go away. You can continue to do the single most important thing for your filmmaking career: Make movies.

What About Networking During School?

But what about networking? Teachers with industry connections. Fellow students—what about all of that?

Another important topic. One of my teachers was an honorary member of the DGA. He went to school with M. Night Shyamalan. Another teacher worked at Universal Pictures (Law & Order) and taught us at the school at night. My editing teacher had cut major studio films.

Cool connections! Did nothing for us. Teachers see WAY more students than there are jobs available. And often, teachers have their own dreams cooking. Teaching is just paying the bills.

But networking with fellow students, that’s good right?

It can be. If you want to crew on their films afterwards. But if you’re wanting to direct? Networking with other people who want to direct isn’t going to help you. And the students in your class who want to crew? They’ve gotta make rent too, so they’ll want to get paid.

I’m not saying there can never be a connection through another student—that absolutely happens. When I got an editorial PA gig on a Bob Odenkirk film, Universal Studios called me because they needed a PA on Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift. I was already working, so I hooked up one of my classmates. But as cool as that sounds, it was a PA job. Had nothing to do with directing.

You Can Network Anywhere

My latest film RECKONING is an example of how you can network anywhere. I shot this film in the mountains of NC. My crew was made up of local teens who thought it would be fun to work on a film set. You can network and find wanna-be filmmakers ANYWHERE now. You don’t have to go to LA. You don’t need to go to film school. When you’re the director, you’re a creative magnet. People will flock to your passion. To your drive.

The Ultimate Online Film School

You can’t go wrong with Write & Direct. It will teach you the craft in a unique way that I believe will open your eyes to the process AND the lack of need to attend a film school in person. And we back our school with a guarantee you will not find anywhere else in the industry.

Hope to see you on the other side!