Film Education, Film education, film Education

For me to talk about education in film or TV or media is maybe a bit rich, and do tell me to mind my own business if you like. Thus this is more of an observation. It is very UK centric I am afraid, because that's all I know. However the same rules apply. We in film and TV are the same the world over. 

I have been a professional actor, producer, writer, director and distributor since 1970 and I have not had any form of education in any of the above. I often think that if I had, I would be far more successful than I am.

Nothing beats a good education. 

What I do know is that so many of the employers of new talent have many times questioned what film students are taught at film school and on certain media courses.  We employers are frequently baffled at the out of date information some students learn on some of these film and media courses.

Some of these educational establishments never, ever engage with the industry.

Why ?

The NFTS, London Film Schools and MET are all in or around London, so are able to call upon so many top professionals to come and teach the students. All these lecturers who work in film, TV, online arenas can be future employers and contacts. However if you are not lucky enough to secure a place at any of these excellent centres of learning what else is available. 

I am told that there are well over 100 film/ TV and media courses in the UK. But can they help with a career in the media industry ?


I talked to someone who took at film course at the University of Buckingham. He is the only one on the course who has anything to do with any form of film/ TV/ online production or distribution or anything. He is only in his mid thirties. What are the others doing now ?

My information comes from what I am told by the ex students. One of whom works with me often and says that in his three years on a film course they did not have any working professional talking to his year. He went on to say that some ex BBC employees worked for the educational establishment he attended, but they had stopped working for the Corporation ten  years or so before. Others on the same shoot had similar experiences. 

I could never be a full time educator, it is a hard job and I don't have those skills but I was told that my talk at the Moscow Film School in 2015 to 370 students was inspiring and that some of those attending did learn much about life in the real film world. 

Recently Mark Goodall at the University of Bradford contacted me, and a number of other working film & TV professionals, to ask us what we all want, and need in potential new employees. This is what we want to hear, an exchange between educator and end user. Over the next year we will also be going up and talking to these students.

Facebook have said that by 2021 they want to have all their content on video rather than the written word. This offers huge potential for new filmmakers with all those corporations and companies needing people to make standout, thoughtful and dynamic content. What an exciting time to enter the industry. 

University of Bradford and the Met Film School are addressing this exciting new opportunity but is anyone else ?

There is one course that really stands out above all others at present and it is the way of the future.

Birmingham University runs a Film Distribution and Business MA. The students are from all over the world and most speak a number of languages, a serious advantage these days in the film business. 


Alan McQueen, a former cinema/ video/ DVD/ TV distributor undertakes regular lectures there and has helped ensure that a staggering 97% of all the students find full time employment in the industry after the course.


His brilliance is that that every year every single one of the students go to the Cannes Film Festival, or rather Marche du Film which is, let’s be honest, why we all attend. He fixes each one up with a work placement for the full ten days with either a sales agent or a distributor. 




This is pure genius. 


In that short time, they learn exactly how the industry really works, not the hypothetical many are taught. They make literally hundreds of contracts in the South of France working for top companies, and even though they work eighteen hour days they all enjoy it. Well the ones I have met have do.

This alone must be worth the tuition fees. 


His students now work for leading industry players like Film London, GFM and Kaleidoscope. 

 

This year there sixteen students on the course from Spain, France, Netherlands, Liberia, Germany, Greece and oh yes, the UK. 


I just don't understand why more educational institutions don't work with more of us in the film industry ?


It could be argued, that with my involvement on over 100 feature films as a producer and/or distributor, I am Leeds' most notable filmmaker. There are three Universities in Leeds all with film and media courses but they never ask me. One did but a long time ago and only the once. I have experience across so many different areas. 


Luckily Bradford does ask me from time to time and now Sheffield Hallam, who use many filmmakers to lecture, have made enquiries but it is sad that my home town, the city where the world’s first films were made, don't use me. 

Film and TV writer and director Len Collin felt that screenwriting in particular was not being taught by people with industry experience so he went back to college himself at the Huston Film School in Galway on their MA in Film Production and Direction to learn more, and how what he knew could be incorporated into media education. 

He now teaches at Northumbria University, where he holds a senior lecturer’s post on the Film and Television Production course AND he still makes films as a director and continues to write screenplays, SANCTUARY which I should be releasing next year, is his latest project. Two other lectures at the Uni Ian Cottage and Mark Chapman have also made films in the last year.

One of their students just got a work placement on DOCTOR STRANGE. A job I suspect all film students would want to be offered. 


There are hundreds of professionals in the UK who like me want to pass on our knowledge to those who are coming after us.


Those students want to learn from us, and not just from the academics. The two can work together so that the student gets the best of both worlds. 


These students are paying a fortune to attend these courses. Why are they not meeting more of us who can tell them more of what really goes on?


And then help them find work when they finish 


I don't know. 


Do you? 

No wonder the blog No Film School is so popular with film students (and those of us working in the film/ TV/ corporate) - it is written by people working full time in the industry who do know a thing or too. I certainly learn much reading their postings.  

You can too. 

Education, education, education is the key to success in all walks of life including the film & TV industry. 

PS. 

Since publishing this article I have been sent statistics for the MET Film School -

82% of graduates from the school’s undergraduate courses are now working in the creative industries in permanent, contract or freelance positions. 45% of its students are female. There are over 300 students studying full-time courses and over 700 students are enrolled on the school’s short courses. Between them these students will make 800 short films, 3 feature films and 3 TV series over the years.

© David Nicholas Wilkinson. 2016. All Rights Reserved.