Social Media and Education

The effects of social media on film studies.

Having your own online identity through social media is a relatively new concept that has been growing constantly. Nowadays almost everyone will have some sort identity online as well as many resources to educate themselves with. With the popularity of social media in the film industry, professional education is not as relevant as it once was. Businesses want people who have established a online reputation for jobs (POP MATTERS 2013).

Now this begs the question, “Do you need to attend film school to be successful?”

Many famous film makers advocate on not attending film school and to invest the money in creating your own content instead.

Quentin Tarantino “To this day I actually think that….. rather than go to film school, just get a camera and try to start making a movie.”

With the ease of access to educational videos made accessible by social media and personal blogs, learning what you want has never been easier. Technical skills can be learnt easily from the relaxation of your own home.

And with the emergence of social media video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, publishing your own content to an audience and creating your own online identity has never been easier. These sites are able to quickly get your content to an audience while also allowing you to gain instantaneous feedback on your work. With all the benefits of social media allowing you to save money and time, as well as creating an online identity to promote yourself why attend film school at all?

Like films, there are always different perspectives to a good story.

Film school may not offer the best learning experience in a price to time stand point, but it does offer a different set of benefits.

A great way to network and meet like minded individuals. With a gathering of similar minded people, ideas and opportunities can be sprouted from anywhere.

A more structured learning process. Film schools offer a tried and true structured program and if you feel like you benefit from this then film school would be a great place to learn the art of film making.

Equipment. You will be able to access a large array of industry leading equipment to learn and practice with, offering valuable experience.

Whether to go to film school or not, depends on the individual and I personally believe there is no right or wrong option. Social media has made film making more accessible to a wider audience, by allowing people to make a name of themselves without credentials. Whether this has a negative impact on film schools is questionable. However, there is one thing we can conclude from this, the competition to succeed in the film industry has grown fiercer.

References

POP MATTERS 2013, What happens when Hollywood film production meets social media?, POP MATTERS , viewed 9th March 2017 <http://www.popmatters.com/column/174751-what-happens-when-hollywood-film-production-meets-social-media/&gt;

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