Film Production And School Education
Alfred Hitchcock never went to film production schools. Neither did George Stevens, John Ford or Frank Capra. And at 16, Wunderkind Orson Welles had had his fill of formal education. Those directors toiled in the age of uncredentialed moguls when a scrap dealer, a furrier or a glove salesman could throttle up a Hollywood dream factory.
Then in the 1970s, a bumptious new class of film makers began blowing in the ear of the arthritic hoyden known as Hollywood. Among them were Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese. Except for Mr. Spielberg, whose grades kept him out of the University of Southern California's teeming School of Cinema-Television, all were graduates of film school. The "movie brats," as they were called, came out of what's known in the business as The Big Four: the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Southern California; New York University; and Columbia University.
In the past, Texans enamored with film followed Horace Greeley's advice. Every year, the state's production industry hemorrhaged as some of its most promising members went off to seek their fortunes in Los Angeles. But recently, increased production, a film-hip governor and two maverick young directors have turned the key light onto Texas.
Austin's largely self-taught Richard Link later got nods from reviewers last year with his $ 20,000 Slacker, about college-town oddballs. And Robert Rodriguez's $ 7,000 Spanish-language El Mariachi recently landed him a two-picture deal with Columbia. Ironically, Mr. Rodriguez's contract called a temporary halt to his University of Texas at Austin film school education. A lot of media is being meted out in Texas colleges, but only three are generally considered full-fledged film schools: the Department of Radio, Television and Film (RTF) at UT-Austin; the Department of Radio, Television and Film (RTVF) at the University of North Texas in Denton; and the Cinema Sequence -- what one alumnus calls "a quiet little film school" -- in the Center for Communications Arts at Southern Methodist University. Beyond the coast The home of an estimated $ 5 billion-plus in major film making and distribution is still Hollywood, of course, but this year the combined production budgets of feature and television projects shot in Texas hit a new high -- $ 135 million. And that doesn't include production costs for TV commercials or various forms of corporate communications. Despite the siren call of California film schools, SMU assistant professor of communication arts Rick Worland tells potential students that Hollywood can wait -- that there are reasons to study in Texas and ever more places to practice what's learned. "Yes, there's this incredibly high level of production going on in Los Angeles," says the UCLA graduate. "And, yes, there's also a great deal of competition. But both will still be there four years from now." And so will the rivalry that he says thrive in West Coast film schools. But SMU, with 75 film students, has a lot less competition for equipment. "At UCLA, there were 450 students," Dr. Worland says."The number of students in basic kind of production classes was 15 or so, which is about what we do here. But there were more of them. Where we have one basic production class, they had 8mm, 16mm, and video, advanced video and advanced film."
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