Ditch Film School - A Guide To Becoming a Self Taught Filmmaker
Learning to become a successful filmmaker is hard. There is no way to sugarcoat it. It takes years of learning, money and creativity before you even manage to get to the starting line of becoming a halfway decent filmmaker, let alone a successful one. However, these days it has never been more accessible.
Gone are the days of having to spend a literal fortune to pay your way into a film school, learn the ropes and leave education at the bottom of the ladder to success. The internet has decentralised the information and knowledge that you need to begin making films. For the cost of access to the internet, you can watch hundreds of hours of tutorials to begin teaching yourself how to make films.
In fact, chances are all you’ll really need to pay for is a camera, lenses and lighting, and the price of those have all become more affordable too!
So what’s the catch? Surely with all of this freely available information, there has to be some kind of drawback? Otherwise, film schools wouldn’t exist any more. To put it simply, not all of the information you see out there is created equal. Some of it can be fantastic and insightful and some of it can be pure rubbish. It will be up to you to decide what information is relevant to how you want to learn.
All of this is to say that you don’t need a formal education in filmmaking to be a successful filmmaker. Most people working on a film or TV set don’t necessarily have a degree related to film if any degree at all. What counts more than an education on set is that you work hard, get along with the rest of the crew and do a good job. Nobody will care that you wrote a dissertation and got your degree with honours if you’re not prepared to pitch in and work hard on set. In this industry, practical experience and proof you can do what you say you can, will always trump a fancy piece of paper you got from a college or university.
Where do you start then if you decide to ditch film school and become a self-taught filmmaker?
There’s no simple answer here as it depends on how experienced you are with your equipment and editing software, which niche of filmmaking you want to focus on, and your drive when it comes to teaching yourself. However, here is what I would do if I was back to square one and had just picked up my camera for the first time.
1 - Learn With Intention
Ultimately the fastest way to learn is to take a focused approach to practical filmmaking. This is what I did when I got my first camera in 2008 and is what I continued to do all throughout my time at college and university. Learning from tutors, textbooks and online videos are all well and good but it is up to you to put the effort into taking it a step further and practising the techniques in the real world.
Be honest with yourself and the level that you are at. Don’t think that because you watched a single video on a topic that you have mastered it. Constantly keep your eyes and ears open for new information on a topic, try it for yourself and repeat it until it becomes second nature.
Being purposeful with your spare time every week to learn and practice new techniques will make you grow faster than simply reading up on a topic.
2 - Search For Good Quality Sources
As I stated earlier, not every piece of information out there is created equal. Really put the time and effort into discovering sources of information and inspiration that are of excellent quality. If you want to learn how to become a better documentary filmmaker then watch documentaries of directors and DoP’s that inspire you. See if you can find and learn from them on social media, look to see if they sell a course on a personal website, watch with a critical eye how their framing, editing and pacing is done. Really immerse yourself in their work.
But not only that, immerse yourself in the work of the people that inspired them, and of others that inspire you. The more good quality sources of inspiration you have the larger your pool of knowledge and creativity will be. You will know you’ve found a great quality source when it stirs up something within you, an almost indescribable feeling that immediately resonates with you and motivates you to try something new. Never stop trying to find these sources as they will guide you through to discovering more about not only your own work but also about yourself.
3 - Ignore Current Trends
I cannot stress enough how important this point is. It is so easy to fall into a trap of seeing something cool and exciting that you want to immediately emulate it into your own work. Right now, there is a very common theme in YouTube videos to have ‘Cinematic Buttery Smooth Slow-Mo B-roll’ montages filled with transitions, whip pans and overly dramatic music. I understand the appeal of these segments in videos but they aren’t indicative of how real filmmakers approach their work.
Following trends immediately dates your work and makes it difficult for you to repurpose your films and videos for showreels or trying to draw prospective clients to hire you for work. It might be difficult to hear, but chasing likes and attention on social media by replicating a shot, transition or technique you saw on Instagram or YouTube won’t help you or your work in the long term. Recreating the work of other people and the trends you are seeing right now only serves to make your work get lost in the noise of everybody else doing the exact same thing.
4 - Choose Substance Over Style
This goes hand in hand with the previous point, but having a film or video with substance has so much more value to it than a collection of pretty shots. Once you are past the early learning stages of your filmmaking journey try to create work that has meaning, whether for yourself or for a wider audience. Flashy transitions and heavy colour grades will only take your work so far, but a story or video that has depth to it will strike a chord with people and make them care about your work.
That’s not, of course, to say you shouldn’t make your work look as good as possible. Capturing an audience’s attention in the first place will be important to make them stick around for the rest of the film. Style will dazzle your audience and bring them into your film, but substance will make them stay and hopefully make it a memorable experience for them. Find the balance between the two and make it work for you.
5 - Create Constantly
You have likely heard this so many times before, but it is probably the single most important piece of advice for anyone who wants to become a self-taught filmmaker. Learning by doing is the only way to fast-track your way to becoming a successful filmmaker. The more you fail in the beginning of your journey means you will have already built up the experience in how to tackle the obstacles and difficult situations that arise when working as a professional filmmaker.
Spending three years creating video after video, film after film will catapult you leagues ahead of a graduate who spent the same three years only learning from books and creating a single film at the end of their degree. Film theory, learning from tutors and reading movie scripts is great, but there is no substitute for hands-on, practical, knowledge that allows you to easily navigate your way through the world of filmmaking.
What Resources Are There To Diversify Your Filmmaking Knowledge?
To hopefully give you a head start on discovering what sources of inspiration resonate with you here is a list of filmmakers, photographers and general creatives that keep me motivated to try new things within my own work.
You will notice that I tend to stay away from content that sensationalises talking about camera equipment and focuses more on lighting, storytelling, behind the scenes or delving into the work of other photographers and filmmakers.
If you find that the inconsistency of knowing what topics a YouTuber will cover is slowing down the pace of your learning then I would highly recommend taking a look at websites like Masterclass and MZed that were created specifically for people who want to learn directly from professionals working in the industry. They are subscription-based resources however I can speak from personal experience when I say that the content on both of these websites is top tier and will teach you virtually anything you could want to know as a creative professional.
Just remember that regardless of if you decide to learn filmmaking through formal education or via self-study that there is no ‘correct’ way to become a professional filmmaker. The main deciding factor to your success as a freelance professional will be your own drive to grow and progress in your chosen field. You don’t need permission to become a filmmaker. It is up to you to decide the path you want to take and the direction you want your work to take you in.