Film school, it sounds like a fantastic world of fun. If you've ever thought that your wrong! Film students don't have it easy, not at all. Everything is a struggle especially when you're as broke as a college student. Here are five major struggles that every film major faces in the process of no budget film making.
5. No budget means nothing! Every no budget film will either cost you as a student director $50 to $100. Not kidding and that usually is only for food and gas money to get to your outdoor location
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4. The actors are generally never professional. You're lucky if you get a friend who as enough time out of their busy class schedule. Some actors/ actresses are working on their Thesis, Capstone, or final projects and that definitely takes precedence over your student film. And if you're shooting during finals week.... DON'T SHOOT DURING FINALS WEEK!
3. Film students are truly Auteurs we write the screenplay, film it, direct it, cast it, go location scouting, we have to confront people about using certain spaces for shoot, we have to edit it, color correct and put in special effects and create the sound track... All by ourselves. We make every decision for our films creative and otherwise.
2. Being poor really puts a huge halt on many plans that so many cinema students have. Not having an actual budget can cause the films we make to have an amateurish quality; a quality that hours and hours of hard work create. More money would make it all easier. There is a reason on the film industry that there is a category called student films, because they're a different beast all their own.
1. The last and I must say hardest struggle as a film student, is the fact that we are college students! Our entire lives don't revolve around film yet we still have a total of 16 credits (or at least I do) and only two of those classes are cinema related. The rest are general education classes, and classes pertaining to our minors! Filming is a 24 hour job you could always find a reason to spend time editing or shooting rather than actually doing homework and keeping your grades up. But making the Dean's list twice takes a lot of work and no sleep. So Film majors have to balance both of these things in their schedules rather than neglect academics and fail to graduate.
