LA Film School

An Ideal Film School Location

Hollywood is all about movies. The billboards in town showcase the latest films. Studios inhabit city blocks. LA county is home to a vast network of production facilities, talent agencies, and post-production houses that span from seaside Santa Monica to the desert heat of Burbank and Pasadena. The Los Angeles Film School is perched on Sunset Blvd, directly across from the famous Arclight theater and surrounded by the creative energy of LA.

How I Chose the LA Film School

It took me 27 years on this planet before I realized a sudden truth: I wanted to make movies. It was lunch break at my current information technology job when the thought crashed into my brain like a falling ceiling tile. I swiveled in my chair and Googled: “Los Angeles film schools.” The LA Film School surfaced and something deep inside said this was the place. You might consider this brash decision with so little research a bit absurd, and I wouldn’t disagree. But in the end, it worked beautifully and protected me from the debt of many traditional film school options.

The Film Industry is Different

College of any sort offers no implicit guarantees of work after graduation. Yet conversely, with many industries there are in fact certain guarantees if you spend the time and money to get a degree. For example, many large companies like Amazon and Google might not even look at your resume if you don’t have a degree. You can’t be a doctor without going to med school. You can’t teach at an accredited school without first receiving a certain level of education.

So even though a degree may not guarantee a job, a degree is required to even have the hopes of landing a job in certain industries. This makes paying the exorbitant amount of money to attend a prestigious university about more than just your education. It will increase your chances of landing a quality job after graduating.

The film industry doesn’t work this way. There is no degree from any school that will help you land a job as a director. You can attend USC, UCLA, AFI or any other university and the degree will nothing for you. What you spend on your education is for the singular purpose of your education.

The Actual Objective After Film School

It doesn’t matter whether you attend USC, UCLA, the LA Film School or any other education source out there. If you want to be a filmmaker, meaning you want to direct movies, you have one objective after film school: To make movies.

But you have to fund them.

There are no studios that will hire you because you graduated top of your class and have a killer directing reel. There is no amount of networking you can do to conjur up money from investors either. LA is packed to the gills with people trying to network their way in.

Yes, you need to learn the craft. Yes, you need to network. But more important than all of that? You’ve gotta be really good at making movies. If you finally do find that investor and step up to the directing plate only to strike out, it’s back to flipping burgers for you.

My Experience at the LA Film School

There’s a lot more to say, but it’s just too much for one page. My advice? If you’re an aspiring filmmaker, book a free call with me. Let me help you sidestep a few landmines. If you wanna pace yourself and read more, then please do so! Next up I’ll go into detail with my experience at LAFS. See you there!