Film School Shorts: Certificate Study No Cut-Rate Movie Training ...

By Claude Kerven?

Not everyone?s dad is Steven Spielberg. So not everyone has four years of tuition andtime to spend going to film school. That includes the thousands, perhaps millions, of people with a genuine, I-am-David-Cameron?s-replacement belief that a career as a filmmaker is in their future. So what do you do if you?re short of resources but want a career in the movie business?

It?s pretty simple to answer this question. Scale it down to the conservatory or certificate program. Lots of film schools offer it: New York Film Academy, LA Film School, Austin School of Film, The New School, and others. It?s a first step for many who give thought to studying film on a grander scale but just want to try it for the time being. A certificate program can also be the only formal study a future filmmaker ever undertakes. But beyond just getting one?s feet wet in filmmaking, a conservatory or certificate course can provide some very specific benefits to the aspiring auteur:

The technological advances make it more affordable ? and more demanding.
The cost of producing Hollywood blockbusters might grab the headlines, but a filmmaking revolution has ridden along with better and more affordable technologies. This has evened the playing fields considerably between the big studios and the garage-based operation. Where consumers were using VHS in the 1990s while ?Jurassic Park? and ?The Sixth Sense? were being shot on 35 mm film, today everyone, neophyte and old pros, are shooting on HD. There of course are many differences separating the two still (including the salaries of actors such as the Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie) but those differences have diminished in number and importance, and will likely continue to do so (except, perhaps, the salaries of Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie). Note that where it comes to distribution and exposure, the Internet does away with an absolute need for prints, projectors and prominent locations.

Now the bigger problem, perhaps, with advancing-yet-affordable technologies is in viewer expectations. A bad script is still a bad script, as are insubstantial acting and editing. The filmmaker who masters the technology has many advantages, but overall the standards of storytelling are higher. With greater knowledge of cameras, editing and other technological matters comes the need to deliver better films overall. Make sure you know how to put all the pieces together.

You need to build a resume. It?s virtually impossible to walk into a studio and get a job with no filmmaking resume (unless, perhaps, you?re a child of Spielberg, Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Tim Burton or someone similar). Intentions are good, but not good enough. School, even if in a single course program, is a place to start. You can make your mistakes here, stretch your wings, learn as you go ? and produce something that might be remarkable. (In fact, that should be your goal, because remarkable has its rewards).

You need a network. It takes a village to make a movie. So not only does studying film introduce you to people who might be your bead on where to find work, but those same people might be who YOU hire when assembling your own production. In broader terms, you have to accept the nature of working in the film industry is that you are largely working in a contractor world. You will always need to know people in order to get your next gig. Those contacts will accumulate over time, but the important thing is to start with your education.

You need to take it past talking about it. If there were a sound recorder somehow monitoring every conversation from every seat of your favorite coffee shop, it might be interesting to know how many of those conversations revealed some interest in filmmaking or screenwriting. But one imagines few of those conversations lead to much at all in the moving pictures business. The only way to rise above that is to take action and do something: Write that script, pitch it far and wide, take a class, join some writer and filmmaking groups. Be more than a talker.

Keep in mind this is all about first steps. Your career in film will involve opportunity mixed with challenge, disappointment, rejection ? and excitement. One other point: In case you worry about there being something ?B-movie? about certificate or conservatory course, rethink that. The New York Film Academy (nyfa.edu) has a whole list of people who could afford just about any program anywhere, but studied at one of that school?s dozen campuses in the U.S. and abroad. They include family members of Jodie Foster, Jamie Fixx, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese ? and yes, Steven Spielberg.

-A director and screenwriter by trade, Claude Kerven? directed over25 short films and commercial parodies for NBC?s Saturday Night Live, working with such celebrities as Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Jim Belushi, Martin Short and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as well as guest hosts Stevie Wonder, Lily Tomlin and Jerry Lewis. Kerven?s other directing credits include several Emmy award-winning and nominated ABC After School Specials, directing such notables as Viggo Mortensen and Sarah Jessica Parker. Kerven won an Academy Award for his student film, ?Candy Store,? and was nominated for a Cable Ace Award for his Cinemax Comedy Special, ?Birthday Boy.? As a screenwriter, Kerven worked as a staff writer for Sam Raimi?s Renaissance Pictures and was the co-writer of ?Mortal Thoughts,? produced by Columbia Pictures and starring Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel and Demi Moore. Kerven is currently the Chair of the 1-Year Filmmaking Program at the New York Film Academy, where he teaches directing and screenwriting.

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Source: http://abqarts.com/?p=11352

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