Can recent film graduates handle the challenge of film financing?

Graduates from a Film Studies program have a new opportunity in film & video production. Needless to say, with every opportunity comes a challenge - and in this instance, the process is to get financing for your, or your employer's, projects.

With the advent of digital equipment, the scope of film & video production has widened. The most common Hollywood-styled film production is no further the only real approach to a career for film graduates. There's a variety of opportunities in audio and visual applications throughout business, government, and the entertainment industry. Meaning OPPORTUNITY for the keenest graduates to make their very own film & video projects, or to land the most interesting positions with leading film & video production companies.

Financing has been a dirty word for years in the film industry. The 'Blue Suits' and the cold heart of the banker are synonymous with the enemy of the creative. However, in this new era of opportunity, you have to be both the 'Blue Suit' and the creative.

How will you find a way to master film financing, film budgeting, etc.? Demi Rose first, let's look at Film Studies programs.

There are so many Film Study programs available since I believe it is confusing, and I've worked in the film industry for over 20 years. The Universities are having a Liberal Arts degree approach for their curriculums, and the Colleges/Schools are primarily having a hands-on technical approach. In any case, it's unarguable that Film Studies is big business. These excerpts from The New York Times Company, published

March 6, 2005©, made it clear if you ask me how large a small business Film Studies is really:

"Some 600 colleges and universities in the United States offer programs in film studies or related subjects, several that's grown steadily over the years. At the University of Southern California, whose School of Cinema-Television could be the nation's oldest film school (established in 1929), fully half the university's 16,500 undergraduate students take at least one cinema/ television class."

Which College, School or University will best prepare the graduate for a career in film & video? If your student has invested 2 to 4 years of these lives in this degree, how would they change it in to a worthwhile career?

Let's see what the Universities say about their very own programs, and the type of results they expect - that is, what the Graduate will manage to when entering the workforce. This promotional letter, posted on one University's website, says all of it:

"An important in Film Studies is no occupational or professional degree. A sound program of studies in this discipline, however, should qualify students for a number of vocational possibilities. Obviously, a person should employ his or her information about a movie in either a creative or a practical capacity and, in either case, exercise the judgment and initiative that the rigorous search for an important in Film Studies should develop."

The use of 'should' twice in three sentences tells the story - it's up to you, Bud!

Film Studies programs (at any level) either don't address, or don't address strongly enough, the major force behind all film and video production - the amount of money! If the phrase money is brought up at all, it's only a handshake and a nod. Most undergraduate programs have hardly any reference to Film Budgeting, and specific things like Cost Reports and Business Plans are treated as foreign topics entirely. The Masters programs are just slightly better.

The reason behind the void of info on specific things like Film Budgets, Cost Reports, etc. in the academic sector originates from the big Hollywood production machine. The perpetual negotiations with the three big guilds (SAG, DGA and WGA), along with with the IATSE & Teamster crew unions have forced the producing studios to be extremely confidential.