This question has been asked a lot by many and in this day and age you might not need school because of technology. Let me give my honest opinion on this topic especially since I went to film school I personally wouldn’t recommend going to school to become a PA, grip, lighting or camera operator.
Although you can get great experience and have a wealth of knowledge it’s not something you necessarily need to pay tens of thousands of dollars for. I know people who became DP’s and didn’t go to school because they worked side by side with an amazing DP and shoot better than me. I do feel that if you want to be a director then go to school for it and make sure they teach theory.
For a DP it is good to go to school for it but there is so much out there on the internet that you can learn without being in a classroom.
Also you can find this information on youtube for free. There are courses online or workshops but the most you will pay is a few thousand dollars comparing to the $85,000 that I owed. Yes I graduated with owing that much and as of right now it’s still not even halfway paid off.
I have found that most places require a bachelor’s degree to become a video editor but this is assuming you are applying for a very big production company or broadcasting. After some time of getting experience with freelancing you will find that you will be hired based off of the people that know you.
In this industry it’s not who you know it’s who knows you because from personal experience there have been many people that I met and I never saw a gig from it. But the jobs that I have been on was because of someone that thought of me and wanted to bring me on a project, see the difference?
I haven’t had a client or been on a job that needed to see my degree so it really depends what you want to go for and if you want to work for a big production company or for yourself. If you go into business for yourself you obviously don’t need a degree because again none of my clients ever bothered to ask about my education, only my portfolio.
So to finally answer the question in my opinion go to school if you want to get into editing or directing.
Cinematography can be either one but if I can go back I wouldn’t pay for school because of the amount of debt that I’m in is ridiculous. If you have the money for it great but if you don’t then pay for courses or workshops. I hope this helps and that you give it a lot of thought before you jump into your decision.
