Film School: Is That $120,000 Worth It?

You remember that Colin Hanks movie, “Orange County”, where his guidance counselor screws him out of the supposed college of his dreams?  I feel like someone was watching and writing about me that year, because that’s kind of how the end of my high school days went down… except I didn’t get to have a heart to heart with Kevin Kline, and my dad looks nothing like John Lithgow, more like Kenny Rodgers (love you Pops).

Senior year of high school, I could not WAIT to find out which film school I would be gracing with my comedic genius.  NYU.  UCLA.  USC.  The Ivy League of film schools, I applied to them all and waited with baited breath for their full ride scholarships to come pouring in… until I found out my guidance counselor hadn’t sent out my SAT’s…  the one thing she was supposed to do for me in 4 years, she dropped the ball.  And people say majoring in Film is useless.

Scrambling, I got them out, but was wait-listed at most and rejected from others.  Ithaca accepted me into the college, but not into their film school…  figure that one out.  I ended up going with Drexel University in Philadelphia…  you probably haven’t heard of its film program, but I doubt I would be writing this blog or have half the successes I’ve had if it wasn’t for my years spent battling bums in West Philly.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a puff piece for Drexel…  unless they decided to erase my student loans, then I’ll sing their praises from every rooftop I can find.  The truth is, I don’t believe that you have to go to film school to succeed out here.  Plenty of my bosses have been high school dropouts, recovering addicts and/or idiots.  They’ve just been hungry for what they want and have gone after it stubbornly and without distraction (except for, you know, the drugs).

BUT, at Drexel I had two key experiences that helped me a lot in my professional life:

1.    From the first day of class, I had a camera in my hand.  That beats the hell out of other schools, where you spend two years masturbating to Hitchcock movies, then finally get cameras in your Junior year…  at that point you’re screwed if you decide this isn’t what you want to do.  At Drexel, I made my OWN mistakes and triumphs from day one.  Working on your peers’ film sets really made the transition into the professional world a smooth one.  I remember the Senior Film Show my freshman year, I had worked on a handful of the projects and was so excited to see my name in credits for the first time.  At the very least, four years of free equipment pays for itself.

2.    A 6 month co-op in Los Angeles.  Basically, at Drexel, you get 6 months off to intern anywhere that will hire you.  I moved to Los Angeles and interned with Ghost House Pictures (Evil Dead movies) and Anonymous Content (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Babel).  I did coverage, wrangled extras for music videos and was a seat-filler for the Pam Anderson Roast (Lewis Black kissed me, that was awkward).  Then I flew back to Philly, reinvigorated and ready to kick my senior project’s ASS.  Knowing that, no matter what, after 6 months, I would be going home, really made working in LA with a safety net a much better experience than I think just blindly moving out here would have been.

Let you in on a secret…  when I first moved to LA, I HATED this place.  I was always lost, stuck in traffic and missed my family and friends.  It took me a few months to get used to it…  but because of Drexel those months were spent with 5 other film majors who moved out to try their luck as well.  It’s scary to pick up and move cross country, but knowing you’re not doing it alone made all of us feel a little better.

Film is a collaborative medium, and Drexel always encouraged that spirit in us.  Do you need to have film school?  Nope.  Does it help?  Hell yes.