Does Film School Kill Talent?

Copyright © 2005, Che Robinson

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
(Machiavelli Hangman) 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.

Writer's Resource Box:
Che Robinson is a movie reviewer. Machiavelli Hangman http://www.hangmanmovie.com

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