The Film School Decision

One of the side effects of the increased demand for a film school education has been an increase in the number of film schools offering what they claim is a professional-quality level of education. While some programs are indeed respectable enough, it is important to remember that the best film school programs will employ active (or at least recently active) members of the entertainment community. Since those members almost always live in Los Angeles or New York -- primarily Los Angeles, which remains the capital of the entertainment industry -- most reputable programs will be located in striking distance of these two cities. In this regard, screenwriting is unlike fiction writing; Iowa and Stanford garnered glowing reviews for their masters' programs in fiction writing due largely in part to the novelist's proclivity to live in less urban surroundings, but with few exceptions this is simply not the case in the world of screenwriters, most of whom live in or around L.A. Even writers whose careers have tailed off a bit tend to stick nearby with the hopes of a -- not entirely unlikely, given the natural ebbs and flows one tends to find in most screenwriting careers -- comeback, a disproving thumb-of-the-nose to Fitzgerald's once-widely-accepted notion that "there are no second acts in American life."

So where can, or should, you go to film school? Well, before you take that step, ask yourself this: are you ready to drop everything and treat this career change with the same discipline and determination you would a new career in law or medicine? Because if you are not, then you truly have no business attending film school. Which is not to say that there isn't a writing program in which you could enroll (more on that later), but film school itself is a serious commitment; even if you are attending with the express purpose of becoming a professional screenwriter, you will be expected to take classes in all film-related subjects (production, critical analysis, television and video, etc.) in pursuit of earning your MFA -- Master of Fine Arts -- degree.

Yes, there are tremendous rewards to attending film school; not only will you invariably find the education fascinating, you will also come into contact with some of the best and brightest film minds in the country, all of whom have been subjected to the same rigorous admission requirements that you faced on your way in. Forging a successful film partnership with a simpatico soul is not only a realistic goal, it should be one of your primary objectives; one need look no further than the example set forth by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, who shared the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for their work on the film Sideways several years and successful collaborations after both were MFA students at UCLA.