Steve
Bowman. Film School: A Memoir That Will Change Your Life. Dallas, Tx.: Benbella
Books, Inc., 2011.
Screenwriting
courses teach that protagonists must overcome tribulations, the author reports
in relating his coursework at the University of Southern California. This book is the memoirs of someone who
overcame difficulties of raising a family and being older than most other
students to complete film school and successfully create a TV series.
The
Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was created in 1927. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was President. His first project created an awards system,
which is the Academy Awards. His second
project was to create a film school. The
University of Southern California (USC) agreed and became the first film school. The first course it offered in 1929 was
Introduction to Photoplay. Among the
first teachers were Fairbanks, Mark Pickford, Darryl Zanuck, D.W. Griffith, and
Ernest Lubitsch. The USC School of
Cinematic Arts has the most film school students in the world with 850
undergraduates and 650 graduate students.
UCLA opened its film school in 1939 and New York University opened its
film school in 1965.
A
full time USC student takes 8 to 10 credits per semester. 52 credits are required to graduate with a Master
of Film Arts in Film Production. It
costs $1,500 per credit or $80,000 in tuition.
Completing film school can cost $150,000 to $200,000 total.
The
Production 507 course creates a B to continue in the program.
USC
offers a student designed Interdivisional Media Arts and Practice Ph.D. degree.
The
Introduction to Screenwriting course is CTWR 528.
An
initial assignment was for students to film a two minute film on a digital
camera, which required shooting in order as the film would be shown.
Acting
class has a strong basis in acting theory, especially the theories of Uta
Hagen. In the acting class, students had
to act and direct.
Film
Production class required making short films with limited dialogues. One film was allowed just one word in eight
minutes of film viewing. The next
assignment allowed just one sentence.
Students were to then describe the intentions, synopses, strengths, and
weaknesses of each other’s films. Film
should convey information about characters, their directions, relationships
with other characters, and make an audience wish to watch.
The
author calculated that a four credit course taught in a 341 seat auditorium
represented $2 million in tuition for USC.
There
is an informal rule that the police won’t hassle a film shoot by film students
lacking a permit so long as there are three or less people involved in the
shoot.
The
permit office FILM MA is described by the author as being slow and ineffective.
Many
film people find they may earn a good living working on film sound.
Film
was useful in World War II. 16
millimeter film cameras activated when on American airplanes with the planes
fired. This could show exactly what
happened. It could also prove useful for
training purposes.
The
author notes that film school is very competitive. Students want to associate with the top level
students in hopes of furthering their own careers.
Much
of learning in film school is how well one learns from mistakes.
The
author took a course on pitching ideas.
Industry people listened to students pitches. The author successfully pitched an idea that
became a CBS TV series, “Three Rivers”, which aired in 2009 to 2010.
USC
provides students with safety guidelines on filmmaking. The author strongly
advises they be followed.
