My Child Wants To Go To Film School

Your child wants to move to LA…

LA is still the mega hub of filmmaking. Yes, productions tend to bounce around based on local tax incentives and Hollywood 2.0 is gaining traction in Nevada. But the film infrastructure of LA isn’t going anywhere fast.

But here’s the thing and there’s really no getting around it: Packing your bags and running to where the studios are provides zero guarantees. Trust me on that. I hope the information here helps you decide on the best educational future for your aspiring filmmaker.

The First Thing Parents Should Know

If your son or daughter wants to go to film school know this: The entertainment industry does not care about your child’s education. The entertainment industry is saturated. There are 8000 directors in the DGA. Film crew all over LA scramble to network and find work. Often vexed by the amount of low budget productions which simply cannot afford crew day rates.

Productions hire based on skill, referral or use the crew they’ve used for years. Graduating with honors, a polished reel and thesis film from a prestigious film school will not move your child to the front of the director line. Hollywood doesn’t work that way.

How Do You Get Hired?

First you have the miracles we all know about: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon show up as extras in FIELD OF DREAMS in 1989. By 1997 they co-write and co-star in GOODWILL HUNTING. Stories like this set fire to any creative dreamer. We pack up our life and move to LA hoping for the same. But these stories are not the norm. Plus, it was a different industry back then.

Surely there’s a way in, right? Yes. Of course. But it typically requires 15-20 years of hard work. And after that? There is still no guarantee. If that sounds shocking, I get it. But a quick interview of the directing majors in my class and in the classes above and below me will show you how difficult it actually is.

What makes this even worse? The 15-year path isn’t defined. You can’t start at a PA level on productions and be guaranteed a directing job 15 years later. If anything, working on studio films will take so much time this might delay you even further.

What you pay for film school is a tiny percentage of the overall path to any type of career stability in the entertainment industry. The problem? Some wanna-be directors dump money on film school like it’s the golden ticket into the industry. They graduate, realize the truth, and lose a decade or two working side jobs to make ends meet. Some get depressed. Some give up. It’s not pretty.

What Does Matter?

If studios and productions don’t care about degrees, school pedigree or thesis films, what does matter? The two primary things are who you know and what you can do. Yes, networking is important. And so many pitch this about film school…but who are you networking with at school? Other wanna-be directors? Teachers that a boat load of students each year?

When I was in film school my directing teacher was an honorary member of the DGA. Lighting instructor worked on films like Gremlins. Editing teacher cut famous films. Sound design teacher worked on Law & Order during the day and taught us at night. A classmate was related to a major Hollywood producer. Great networking right? No.

LA is jam packed with young and old people alike trying to network their way into a job. If you want to crew or act, networking helps a little more. But when you want to direct? You have to make movies and build an audience. Networking alone doesn’t do it.

You have to show what you can do. Build an audience. Credits. And hone your craft to a point where a studio or investor wants you at the helm vs the thousands of other directors who have already proven themselves.

The Post Graduation Objective

When your child graduates from film school they have a singular objective: Make movies. But they have to fund them. The problem? With the traditional film school model, aspiring filmmakers spend all of their money on film school and after graduation not only have very little money left, but they lose access to all the gear, sound stages and editing workstations of film school.

This is an extremely bad situation to be in. LA is packed with such individuals. Waiting tables in Malibu just to make rent. Networking and networking like everyone else in town while their 20’s and 30’s slowly slip away. Never to return.

So what the heck? How are film schools still in business if this is the current situation? I’m not sure. I think the days of many pricey education options are numbered. But this entire situation is the reason Write & Direct exists. It’s a film school with two major objectives:

1) Remove The Crushing Weight of Tuition

We offer a monthly or 2-year access option to our training. All for less than the parking tickets you’ll end up paying in LA. Okay…slight exaggeration, but parking is brutal! Removing the financial weight of tuition allows your child to purchase the gear they need to make movies. We tell them what to purchase. And instead of all of the gear vanishing after graduation they have what they need to keep making movies.

2) Learn Everything

In the past, directors could break in without understanding the entire filmmaking process. Those days ended a LONG time ago. When your child has to self-fund films after graduation, paying crew will sky rocket the cost of production. But if they can wear multiple hats, things change overnight.

Robert Rodriguez talks about this. He famously said, “Anyone can become technical, but not everyone can be creative. And there are a lot of creative people who never get anywhere because they don’t have technical skills… if you are someone who is already creative, and then you become technical, then you are unstoppable.” Rodriguez nailed it.

The Write & Direct training begins in development and teaches your child how to do it all. From writing to pre-production tasks to operating a cinema camera, lighting, running sound and of course post production skills like editing, sound design and grading.

This allows your child to control their future vs waiting on favors from technical people.

The Film School for Aspiring Directors

Write & Direct is an answer to the film school dilemma. It’s an online yet hands-on school and private community that will save your son or daughter a lot of time. Plus we have a guarantee that is unmatched in the film school space.

If your child works through our training and completes the assignments given, they will write and direct their own film. One they can submit to festivals and IMDb. If that does not happen, we will give a full refund on tuition! That’s how much we believe in this training.

Book A Call…

If you have a child that wants to go to film school, we hope this page has been helpful. If you have more questions simply schedule a free call with the school’s founder and lead instructor to discuss further.