The Truth About the Film Connection Scam
Many successful filmmakers will tell you that film school is a scam, and even of the Film Connection Scam. Many of them are also likely to tell you that the money it costs to attend film school would be better spent on making your first feature film. In many ways, they may be right.
There are of course very fine film schools that produce top level talents that do go on to succeed. So while film school is a scam, it’s definitely not for everyone.
Film Connection is not a scam either. Nor is it a film school. Film Connection is an apprenticeship program that places students in internship-like situations. Film Connection participants work in film production houses under the tutelage of professional filmmakers.
They learn first hand about writing, directing, shooting, producing and editing film. Film Connection offers no ironclad guarantee of success, but what film school does? If a program did offer such a guarantee than you’d know that was a scam, which means the Film Connection scam has no basis.
Obviously not everyone who attends film school becomes Robert Zemeckis or Quentin Tarantino. Nor does everyone who attends Film Connection. However many people who participate in Film Connection apprenticeships go on to enjoy professional careers working in the film and television industry.
Nearly everyone who embarks on a career in film starts out wanting to be a director. The fact is there just isn’t that much demand for directors. Only the very good, the very lucky or the well connected will succeed.
Many, many others discover another job in the business that suits them along the way.
Film Connection is a great program for someone who wants to find themselves in the film business. No, it can’t turn you into Jim Jarmusch or George Lucas. But if you’ve got talent, drive and ambition, it can help you learn the skills you need to make films. Beyond that it can also help you meet the people you need to meet to find work.
Some of the people who talk about the Film Connection scam had very unrealistic expectations about what the program could do for them in the first place. To succeed in any level of the film business takes talent and drive. If you lack those vital traits perhaps you ought to consider a different career path.
However taking the blame out on an apprenticeship program like Film Connection is a waste of time and energy. For those with talent and an eye for opportunity, Film Connection represents a golden opportunity. It is only the bitter, the naïve or the uninformed who would make up stories about a Film Connection scam.
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