The Life of a Film Student

Getting back on set recently for our Music Videos and the Second Year's end of year films has been making me think a lot about how we operate as students compared to how we would be operating after we graduate, out in the real world.


Obviously, our crews are smaller, our films shorter, and our gear less extensive than the professional shoots and yet we keep being told that we should be operating in the same way. Don't get me wrong I think it is important to learn the industry way of doing things so that when we get to that stage we know how to act around the industry professionals, but I think it is incredibly difficult to operate that way because we are different and our film set is different.

For one most people don't run their calls on set as they should. We have been taught but it never seems to run that way once we are on set. This is bad. For example if the 1st AD isn't told that the director is going to shoot, they won't call for quiet on set. I think this call is as much to tell people to be quiet as to warn people out of earshot of the director such as art department who are usually hiding away somewhere that they are shooting. When they don't know they could walk into shot, wasting time, wasting footage. I think this is one thing where we need to stick to industry standards. They still apply to our shoots and we need to remember that they are there for a reason.

I've been wondering why this is all so difficult for us, not just the things we haven't learnt but also the things we have. We are disorganised, forgetful, lazy, tired, confused. I came to the conclusion that part of our problem is obviously that we are young and careless and we don't take all our work as seriously as we should, but the other part is that we actually have too much on,

And I'm not complaining that our work load is too much. I'm trying to say that if I were in the 'real-world' where the professionals work, and I were directing a film that I had written, I would have a producer, a DOP, a 1st AD, an Art Director etcetera, and in the 'real-world' these people would be working for me, concentrating on my project. Yes they may have other day jobs and the like but they wouldn't have their own projects to sort out too.

If I had worked on all the films that I was offered a place on then all at the same time I would be:

1st AD on 2 different short films
Art Dept on  2 more different short films
Producer on 1 more short film
Acting and Art Department on another

And that's not even counting my own for which I am Director, Art Director, Producer, and Editer.

It gives us far too much to think about especially considering how much time and effort goes into just 1 short film. That right there is 5 short films, and some other students will have been on more! In my opinion it creates a poorer quality throughout all of the films. I'm not trying to say they are all terrible but ask any film student and they would most likely say "I wish I'd spent a little more time on it." or "If I weren't so tired" or "It's not as good as I'd hoped it would be."

I get that this is all a learning experience but if we are constantly letting ourselves and each other down, is it really teaching us much, or is it rather just slowly suffocating our spirits?