>wouldn't going to school give you
>a huge advantage in just
>getting work, I mean if
>you're not clearly a genius?

Not at all, and lots of the people you'll be asking for a job or working side by side with will not have gone to film school.

Genius aside, and speaking only about working as opposed to getting your own projects made, your ability to get work on movie sets depends primarily on your hustle and your ability to make connections. Film school, just like any college, can place you in contact with people, give you some experience and provide you with an opportunity to learn the things you need to know.

But unlike the stuff taught in regular course work in college, the practical knowledge they teach and the experience they give in film school is readily available outside of school. And there is an accepted apprenticeship/volunteer structure in place in and around the industry that encourages that sort of thing.

All the books you can read for an engineering degree or a psychology degree are readily available as well. But you can't just read those books and go down to an electronics firm and ask for a job. But you can walk onto a small film set without having read book one, and offer to carry stuff around in exchange for the chance to watch, listen and learn. It all depends on what you want to do and how bad you want to do it.

Like I said, I'm not knocking anyone who goes to film school. But it's not for everyone. I would suggest that even the people in film school should be trying to work on project outside of school, too, in order to gain the sort of real world experience that a school, no matter how advanced, just can't provide. There can be a huge difference between working on a school project and working on a project outside of any structure.

RED
I'm like that guy who used a pointed stick instead of a rock.

RED
http://arrena.blogspot.com