<p>If you want my honest opinion? If you need to stay at your school, I think you should switch majors to something more practical. If you can go to USC, so be it, but * if * it’ll put you into massive debt, I think it’s a bad idea (**no ** education is worth years of potential loan payments)</p>
<p>I don’t really know how to say this lightly. An education in film theory is borderline useless - only a slight step below film production. Not so much personally, but both financially and in terms of your employment prospects. Whatever edge you may gain from having that degree is usually negated by a) the amount of debt you get into (which absolutely cripples someone trying to break into the arts) and b) what the job market looks like at that current time, and whether or not the only options available to you are entry-level type jobs. </p>
<p>Getting a job in the film industry is already difficult. Because it’s a career based on a job to job basis (you may have work one month, but not the next), building something stable and consistent is even harder. Yes, there are a lot of elements that will factor into what jobs you’ll be able to get starting out, but your education is actually pretty low on that list. Your work ethic and private reel are much more important. Someone who gets a job as a production assistant right out of high school and spends the next four years working on small projects and building a directors reel of clips from short films he or she made will be at the same level (if not at more of an advantage) than any USC or NYU grad. It isn’t uncommon to see those same production assistants with a more go-getter attitude and better work ethic from their time working odd jobs - the same entry level jobs that don’t require a degree. A USC graduate has every opportunity to make short films while in film school, but it’s all initiative based. Someone who isn’t attending USC, or even isn’t attending college at all, has absolutely every same right and ability to make a short film of equal or better quality. How you utilize the tools you have is often more important than what tools you have to begin with. Loads of filmmakers make amazing short films using nothing more than a few clamp work-lights, a digital camera, and homemade dolly’s and tracks. They edit their film on a cheap editing system (something you can buy for less than $1,000), and with todays improved digital technology, it looks pretty damn good. </p>
<p>This isn’t to say you shouldn’t or can’t pursue film. Success in the film industry is largely dependent on talent. Unfortunately, talent and education doesn’t have a particularly strong correlation. Some very talented filmmakers get poor grades for reasons unrelated to their love of film, while others simply can’t afford to attend good film programs. There are many graduates of top film programs who pour loads of money into their craft and only get to a decent level, while meanwhile, there are filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino (a high school dropout) who strike it big for no other reason than the fact that they have natural, inborn talent. A film degree is not transferable to other jobs. If filmmaking doesn’t work out, you’re left with a degree that doesn’t appeal to a vast majority of other fields. This is why I always think it’s a better idea to double major in film and something practical, or major in something practical and minor in film. Or, pursue film on the side. * You do not need permission to practice filmmaking, make short films, or develop a reel *. USC doesn’t hold any magic keys. Yes, they have soundstages and fancy editing studios, but those aren’t worth the price tag unless you have money to spare. Many, many independent films are made without these expensive features. You could squeeze three Blair Witch projects (the most financially successful independent film ever made) into one years tuition at USC. Think about that. For even $5,000, you can buy yourself a great set of filmmaking equipment which you would own. No rules or regulations either. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to sound discouraging, but you said you’re unhappy with the “state of the art” theory education you’re getting. The theory aspect of filmmaking is tricky, because some people think it’s all pretentious BS, while others think it’s necessary. Either way, you don’t need to pay a huge amount of money to analyze films and talk about films with your peers. The second component you get from film school - the equipment - is vastly overstated at schools like USC. I think using the film equipment at a cheaper university or even state school versus the amazing equipment at a school like USC really is going to make a minimal difference. If anything, working with the cheaper equipment will actually get you used to the kinds of working conditions you can expect once you graduate. Because no film school grad nowadays goes straight to studio features. They all start out in the indie bracket. </p>
<p>Bottom line, you are in a bit of a sticky situation. If you stay at the school you’re at now, you’ll only be screwing yourself over by graduating with little more than some film theory education and no true, practical degree. Any reel you develop - which is the thing that actually matters - will be on your own time, independent of how much you spend at your current school. If you transfer to USC, you risk putting yourself into large amounts of debt, for a degree that offers very little job security, in an incredibly risky, competitive field market where nothing is certain. A lot of the jobs you’ll get right out of the gate are about being in the right place at the right time, how outgoing you were in school, where you live, how determined you are to seek out opportunities, etc. It’s not like someone who got a degree in, say, electrical engineering. For those people, companies will be begging to hire them. Sadly, the same doesn’t go for filmmakers, because there isn’t any shortage of filmmakers in a day and age where digital filmmaking has made it possible for literally anyone to make movies. If you don’t have cash to burn, I would say stay at your current school. Possibly consider majoring, or at least minoring, in something that will actually serve as a backup plan if film doesn’t work out, and enroll in film production courses. The education itself, and even the equipment, doesn’t matter. All that matters is getting into an environment where people are making films and you have the chance to connect with other like minded individuals who will help you make yours. </p>
<p>Good luck </p>