The Film School Report
(CONTRIBUTED)
The course at my university was divided into two components. A practical component and an academic component. I will treat each separately.
The academic part of the course is derived largely from a theoretical tradition that, for want of a better word, I will call ‘critical theory.’ It is not, strictly speaking film theory, as much of the articles are in subject areas such as semiotics and post-modern theory. In fact very little of it deals directly with film (or photography). I think that this approach is called ‘cultural studies’, but I am may be incorrect in that. And this kind of theoretical discourse is popular in many humanities departments, not just in the arts.
I have two comments to make. One has to do with the way in which critical theory is taught. There is, in my opinion, a failure of objectivity in the way articles are presented to students. That is, the theoretical framework given is taken for granted. Many students, including myself, find the articles very difficult to read and because of this have difficulty in making any kind of meaningful engagement with the material. I think that the fundamental problem is the uncritical way in which theory is presented, as a Truth, that students are implicitly asked to accept when writing essays or their dissertation. In fact, a great deal has been written that is critical of critical theory, but this literature is largely ignored by the university. Even if one wanted to to question the theory, they are only able to do so within the prescribed framework, taking on only specific arguments and not theory as whole. It is not conceivable to the university that critical theory might just be a load of drivel in the first place (something many academics have argued, in fact). Furthermore, no effort is made by teachers to explain how students are to deal with this literature. That is, on what grounds and against what objective criteria does one decide whether to accept or reject (tentatively) a specific argument, and why has the university chosen to preference critical theory over other forms of literature (e.g. straightforward film histories with facts and dates)? These are important questions and they are ignored or avoided when asked by students. I think that is crucial that any kind of academic discourse be treated with same degree of detachment and scepticism as is expected in the natural sciences.
The other comment I have is regarding theory’s relevance to film studies. Virtually all my college contemporary film students are interested in becoming filmmakers, not academics. And critical theory, in my opinion, has as little to do with filmmaking as physics does with football. There seems to be a certain pretence that theory many influence student work. I think that if one looks a things honestly they will see that for one thing professional filmmakers are not interested in theory (because they are interested in telling stories, not advancing intellectual arguments) and that students who do claim to have been influenced by theory are making that claim hypocritically -- it is easy to get your work approved if you adopt the jargon many of lecturers like. It may be of interest to those who are interested in it, but no regard is paid to whether student’s find it interesting or whether it relates to their career objectives in any meaningful way.
As to the practical component, the fundamental problem at my college (and I suspect that this is the case in many film courses) is that for the most part the staff have no experience making films. So projects are being approved and assessed by people who are at best film critics, but know nothing about the craft. This means that students are expected to make films with almost no training, in effect having to figure everything out for themselves learning by trial and error.
When it comes to crits and feedback sheets commentary that students receive has about the same depth and tangible value as commentary would from a man down the pub, as it where. Even a lecturer with an encyclopedic academic knowledge of film is not going to be much help to a student whose question is where he should place the camera, or is wondering whether the reason a script doesn’t seem to be working might be due a structural problem. It is as absurd as trying to learn to paint from someone who has never picked up a brush but has spent so much time in galleries that he is utterly set in his opinions and couldn’t possibly conceive that someone might disagree with him. Critical judgments about film are both subjective and not constructive from the student’s point of view. And I believe giving lecturers the power to make these judgments can actually be destructive because students are encouraged (usually in subtle ways) to produce work that pleases and flatters the teacher’s own prejudices, rather than producing work that they themselves believe in. Creativity is something that cannot be taught, yet it is the one thing that my university does try and teach.
When I have had the pleasure of working with professionals it has been a totally different story. They tend to be very open-minded and will give you support as best they can in whatever direction you chose to take. They do not feel inclined to pontificate, especially regarding topics that have nothing to do their area of expertise. I find that people who know the most are least inclined to behave as though omnipotent.
Ideally filmmaking should not be taught as such, but treated as a craft, where aspiring filmmakers work with professionals in the hope that they may pick up the skills they need produce their own work. Ultimately, I think the university is probably not the best environment for a film school. It has a bureaucratic structure where decisions are made by people who know nothing about filmmaking and which requires that students be assessed on the basis of completely arbitrary criteria.
What was your film school training like in comparison with this student's experience? Send me YOUR film school report, which we will publish unnamed as we have in this case. We would really love to know what Netribution readers think of their film school experiences.Send them to the_macgregor”at”hotmail.com