Does Film School Kill Talent?

By Author: Che Robinson
Total Articles: 1
Comment this article

Tom Stoppard once said that he thought Film school was a complete waste of time.

Tom Stoppard is the Oscar winning writer of such films as Shakespeare in love and the acclaimed play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead that was recently turned into a motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Tim Roth.

Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Milos Forman and Woody Allen never went to Film school to learn the film craft. Many of them have even been quoted to say that film school numbs the wits and it places restrictions on creativity. "In film school, they teach you to write like everyone else... they tell you to create a meeting on page 10, get them into a car accident on page 25, and make the character kiss on page 55 - or better known as the mid-point," says Frederick Constanza, a film student in Los Angeles.

Billy Bob Thornton never went to school to learn his craft and he's one of the most prolific and popular actors/filmmakers in the business.

Then again, there are the ones who did attend film school and have become some of the most successful filmmakers in the industry. George ...
... Lucas used to share a room with Francis Ford Coppola and while one of them created the Star Wars franchise with most recently Revenge of the Sith, the other made the Godfather - believed by many to be one of the top three best films ever made. Ron Howard (Cinderella man, Da Vinci Code), Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids), Shervin Youssefian - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1352346/ (Machiavelli Hangman - http://www.hangmanmovie.com) are also byproducts of the film school system.

So where do you draw the line? Is it a particular film school like USC that shapes winners in the film industry? I guess you can't. It really falls on the individual and how talented and determined she is. What film school does is only polish the rough ends and prepare the person for the real world.

"Film school simply helps polish a natural gift that our students bring in from their own backgrounds. We have kids who are naturally better than others when it comes to dialogue. They have an amazing ear for it, and others come in with artistic backgrounds. Some of them have numerous drawing and painting awards and that fuels their understanding of lighting and camera angles," says Professor Klint of Artin School of Art and Design.

While Machiavelli Hangman and Memento may not have the standard screenplay structure taught in film school, writing professors stand by their word that brilliant Hollywood scripts like these two have definitely developed out of the three-act structure.

Again, film school is not there to teach but to develop, discipline and polish an already existing talent.

About the author:
Che Robinson is a movie reviewer.
Machiavelli Hangman
http://www.hangmanmovie.com