Career Courses

This blog contains information, articles and resources that will help you in building your career. If you want to share your views you are invited to do so here.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Film Financing - Can Film Graduates Take the Challenge?

By John Gaskin

How do you find a way to learn about film financing, film budgeting, etc.? First let's look at Film Studies programs.

There are so many Film Study programs available now that I find it confusing, and I've worked in the film industry for over 20 years. The Universities are taking a Liberal Arts degree approach to their curriculums, and the Colleges/Schools are primarily taking a hands-on technical approach. In either case, it is unarguable that Film Studies is big business. The following excerpt from The New York Times Company, published March 6, 2005?, made it clear to me how big a business Film Studies really is:

"Some 600 colleges and universities in the United States offer programs in film studies or related subjects, a number that has grown steadily over the years¡­. At the University of Southern California, whose School of Cinema-Television is the nation's oldest film school (established in 1929), fully half of the university's 16,500 undergraduate students take at least one cinema/ television class."

Which College, School or University will best prepare the graduate for a career in film & video? If a student has invested 2 to 4 years of their lives in this degree, how can they turn it into a worthwhile career?