Film School - History

History

The formal teaching of film began with theory rather than practical technical training starting soon after the development of the film making process in the 1890s. Early film theorists were more interested in writing essays on film theory than in teaching students in a classroom environment. The Moscow Film School was founded in 1919 with Russian filmmakers including Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Lev Kuleshov serving as faculty to disseminate their very distinct viewpoints on the purpose of film.

Those seeking to learn the technical craft of filmmaking in the early days of cinema were largely self taught engineers or still photographers who experimented with new film technology. With the rise of commercial film making in the 1920s, most notably the Hollywood studio system, those seeking to learn the technical skills of film making most often started at the bottom of a hierarchical system and apprenticed under a more experienced person to learn the trade. Filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean started in this way, beginning as a title card designer and clapperboard assistant, respectively, in the early 1920s. The USC School of Cinematic Arts was founded in the midst of this Hollywood system in 1929, and continues to be widely recognized as one of the most prestigious film schools in the world.

The tradition of apprenticing up through a hierarchical system continues to this day within film studios and in television in many technical positions such as gaffers, grips, camera operators, and even into post production with editing and color correction. Independent lower budget filmmaking in the post war period using portable 16mm film cameras allowed filmmakers like John Cassavetes in the United States, along with members of the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism in Europe, to circumvent the classical system.

The notion of a granting a four year college degree in film took root in the 1960s with the founding of prestigious film departments like the New York University Tisch School of the Arts (1965), Walt Disney founded California Institute of the Arts (1961), the University of Texas department of Radio-Television-Film (1965) and the Columbia University School of the Arts (1965). Over the years competition for admissions to these programs has steadily increased with many undergraduate programs accepting less than 10% of applicants, and with even more stringent selection for graduate programs.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the increased difficulties in getting into and the financial costs of attending these programs have caused many to spend their money self financing their own features or attending a shorter trade school program for around the same costs. Film trade schools however rarely offer more than technical knowledge, and often cost more than a degree from a public university without providing the security of a four year college degree to fall back on.