How To Get a Film School Education for Free - Part Three - The 5 Most Useful Pages to Follow on Facebook
This is Part Three in a series. You can read Part One here and Part Two here.
Film school, or no film school? That is the question. It's the question for many of us who have dreamed of making movies since we were kids, but haven't known where to start. It's a question for those of us who have been to film school and haven't found it particularly helpful. It's a question for those considering film school who don't really have the money for it and don't know if they'll be able to make a living from it afterwards, anyway.
Well, I've got good news for you. In the 21st century, you can get a film school education for practically free.
Because: The Internet.
I went to film school for a little while. I have often asked myself if it was really a useful experience or not. The truth is that, though I think film school gave me the initial push into the film world that I needed, ultimately I have learned far more just by reading articles, books, and blogs and by watching tutorials, interviews, and movies on my own.
So I decided to share with you some of the most useful wisdom I have found. And here's the good news: most of it's free.
Sometimes you come across a really great website full of fantastic articles and you think, I should read everything on this site. But then you end up reading one or two articles, and then you accidentally close the tab and forget the name and just never end up going back there. Or you get overwhelmed because there's just so much information and it's too much time and effort to go through all of it.
Enter: Facebook. Facebook is a great tool for keeping up with blogs and websites you're interested in. If they keep up well with their social media, they should post links to their articles (both old ones and new ones) on their Facebook page regularly. What that means for you is that, when you follow their Facebook page, you will get a curated list of articles in your newsfeed every day from sources that are of interest to you.
If you read a few articles every day, you will start to become familiar with what's going on in the film world--current trends, things every filmmaker should know, equipment hacks--as well as film history and film theory. You'll also find encouragement as you read what other artists have gone through to create work true to their vision.
I'm going to share with you the 5 Facebook pages I've found most useful to follow. I hope you'll find them useful too.
No Film School is a great website, which I shared about in one of my previous articles in this series. They are really good about posting links regularly to Facebook--articles and reviews on new equipment, tutorials, podcasts, interviews, festival winners, and the latest conspiracy theories about Stanley Kubrick. You will learn so much by following them and taking the time to look at their content.
Taste of Cinema is a website that publishes themed lists of movies. Like the top 10 or top 30 movies in a certain genre, by a certain director, starring a certain actor, or on a certain theme. I like to go through the lists and write down 2 or 3 titles that sound the most interesting and add them to my to-watch list. It's a great way to get a movie education. By the way, these lists are written by fans and you can contribute to the site as well.
Brain Pickings is a website run by one person, Maria Popova, who simply reads books and shares the best parts of them, joined together with her own commentary. It is not specifically film-themed, but there are many articles about art, artists, the artistic process, and the philosophy of art. I have found it so meaningful on my journey as a filmmaker, and it has helped me on so many occasions to grow as a person as well.
Premium Beat is a royalty-free music source for filmmakers. However, they also host an awesome blog called The Beat full of informative articles, tutorials, and hacks on the mechanics of filmmaking. I've used these articles many times to solve specific problems during filmmaking, but even if you just read the article titles as you scroll past, you'll know where to look if you ever need information on the subject being discussed.
And finally, The Talks is a website full of short interviews (five-minute reads) with actors, directors, producers, and other artists. You can easily read one of these bite-sized articles each day, and build up not only your knowledge of who's who in the film world, but also gain insights through the struggles they've faced and the lessons they've learned.
sir Such a wonderful and thankful work my dear friend... Actually....I'm always respect to your works .......
Truth never damages a cause that is just.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Cool article! I feel the same way about filmschool. I've learned more by actually making films and TV rather than just talking about them. My impression is that filmschool creates more critics than filmmakers.
On another note, I've created a hashtag (#steemfilm) and logo to help promote and rally the filmmaking community here on Steemit. Use it and share it if you like. The graphics are public domain and I made the alterations myself.
The filmmaking community doesn't really have much of a community here. Nor does it have a good hashtag. Followed and upvoted!
Hey, glad to meet you! You are right that we don't have much of a community here. I've been trying to find the Steemit filmmakers, so I just followed you and I'll be using the hashtag in future posts for sure!
Great! Thank you! I'm going to be publishing a bit of a manifesto for the hashtag / community and I'd love your thoughts once I publish it. I'm always open to revising once published.
Sure! I followed you so I'll keep my eyes open for it in my feed. :)
Published!