Tonight at 10:30 PM on IFC is the final episode of the first season of the channel’s great new documentary series Film School. Unlike IFC’s recent attempt at a game show – Ultimate Film Fanatic — I haven’t paid attention to Film School on this blog for two simple reasons. First, I got into the show about half-way through the season after having DiVo’d each of the episodes. And second, I never found the need to rip apart the program in the same way that UFF deserved to be consistently ridiculed and criticized. If you haven’t caught Film School yet and are thinking, “Damn, I don’t want to just watch the last episode,” don’t fret; IFC is airing a five hour marathon of all 10 episodes tomorrow starting at 2:30 PM.
I remember reading a review somewhere online before Film School premiered that essentially said the show was crap. The review focused on how pretentious and overly-artsy the four film students the show follows appeared. It talked about how these were four people who were so annoying (and hateful?) that there was no reason to watch them and their self-important struggles. I wish I could remember the critic and the publication because that writer not only completely missed the point and doesn’t understand the purpose of going to film school. His comments weren’t necessarily untrue, but they were stupid.
Whether or not film school is a worthwhile endeavor is a continuing argument within the filmmaking community. If you talk to working filmmakers at all levels of the industry, you’ll find people who never went to film school who think it’s a great idea and others with MFA degrees who would call it a waste of time. You’ll also, obviously, discover the reverse.
To my mind, film school can be a very valuable resource but not for the reasons most schooling helps its students. A filmmaker doesn’t need to go to film school to learn how to make films. Between all the books that are out there and simple trial and error, most people can figure it out as they go along. Sure they may do some things not considered “professional,” but ultimately if the film is any good, that doesn’t really matter. So from the purely educational perspective, while I’m sure the scholastic and workshop environment of film school can be beneficial, it is far from necessary.
However, attending film school can be a very valuable resource for aspiring filmmakers from a non-educational standpoint, and it’s actually this element that comes across in the show and is, in fact, represented by those very things this idiot reviewer criticized. Aside from helping give filmmakers a structured environment, use of equipment and people to work on the films, film school is a time to experiment and, most importantly, fail. The truth is, very few people expect to see a good student film, that’s why when they do, they rave about it. Film school is a chance for people to take risks because if you fail in film school, you haven’t ruined your career. You just need to go make another film. In the real world, however, if you manage to come up with the funds to make your own feature only to have everyone hate it or — if you get lucky enough to have some distributor want to release it – do poor box office business, it becomes exponentially more difficult for you to make another film. In film school, there’s always another film on the horizon.
There’s a certain degree of being a film school student that requires the high artistic ideals, control freak personality and determination at the expense of all else that is clearly present in the students we follow in this series. In fact, another benefit of film school is that it’s a great place for filmmakers to work out their pretensions so they don’t appear in their future work.
The series definitely works on the level of reality show as well, however. It becomes increasingly easier every week to dislike Leah who is basically working through issues with her handicapped mother through her film. The woman is simply inconsiderate of just about everyone on her team and her organizational skills are for shit. At the same time, it’s just as easy to see how creatively her mind works and why from the artistic standpoint, she could turn into a talented young filmmaker. She seems to be actors director, able to make her actors feel comfortable enough with her and the scene to do whatever she asks of them.
It would also be simple to stereotype Alrick as just another angry young black filmmaker since he’s making a satirical superhero short inspired by the Amadou Diallo shooting. But that would be unfair to Alrick. Sure his subject matter is political and very important to him personally, but he seems to have a very specific and interesting vision that will either work and be something special or it won’t. Meanwhile, we see his struggles in finding the money for his budget and trying to finish a day of shooting before he’s kicked out of a closing building.
The saddest part (to me at least) of Film School is how much you can see the business of film intruding into these students trying to experiment and take risks in the artistry of their films. Each of the students have significant fundraising and budget issues come into play that could compromise their artistic visions. One student, Vincenzo, is from Italy, and for the first few episodes has to deal with finding the money just to stay enrolled in school, a financial burden completely separate from the thousands of dollars he’ll need to make his film.
I also must admit a bit of confusion as to the series’ intended purpose. The opening credits narration mentions that these four students are competing with the goal of directing “an award-winning student film that will launch their careers.” The finish line for each of the students is submitting his/her film to NYU’s First Run Film Festival. But stating as a goal that their films be “award-winning” is actually the wrong focus. Sure, it’s great to win an award, but it’s not a necessity. Their goals should be the same but much simpler than actually winning an award. The goal should be finishing their film and actually seeing their individual visions on the screen the way they intended. The series shows how many problems crop-up during all the phases of production and post-production. Actually coming out of this process with the film originally intended is a success in itself. And hopefully, if one’s film does match one’s vision, it will also be good. That kind of success, especially in film school, is more important than any awards, and while an award may help a young filmmaker get noticed, agents and development execs care more about seeing promising work than things that receive certificates or statuettes.
Film School has been a very satisfying series, and my only real complaint is that the show has been too brief. A total of 10 episodes, each running approximately 27 series and trying to follow four students through a 10 week process? That’s nothing. I’m sure the producers barely scratched the surface of what each of these filmmakers had to go through simply to commit their scripts to film. I hope IFC green lights another series, and I would encourage them to add anywhere from five to 10 more episodes. I also hope that IFC is able to show the entire completed films at some point (I imagine they three would take up more time than the entire final episode) because after following these filmmakers trials and tribulations, it’s only natural to see what the results of their labors actually were.
Regardless, if you haven’t seen any of the series, I encourage you to check out IFC (channel 81 on Time Warner Cable in Manhattan) this Saturday. Oh yeah, and you know my post below about John Flansburgh and how They Might Be Giants. Well, the song playing over the end credits of Film School is “Experimental Film” from TMBG’s latest release The Spine. See, sometimes I go with theme days, if only briefly.
Out of Focus 