Film school

Is it worth going?

I did an email interview with Sibylle Meder a German film maker now based in Greece on this.

What prompted you to go for the NYFA course?

I wanted practical, hands-on experience. I was full of film history and aesthetics because I had just graduated from uni with an MA in Film and Theatre Studies. What I lacked was film-making experience. And NYFA seemed to offer exactly that, in a very compact and straightforward way

How did you pay for it?

I made my parents poor, sold my car and most of my flat's content.

Did you have any previous experience of film making/writing?

I had shot several video shorts, most of them at uni. Owing to an open-minded professor, we had a media lab with miniDV camera and Avid editing slot at the institute, no one really knows why at a research institution. Probably some money had to be spent and it sounded smart to own such a thing. At the time I was a student assistant and with a group of others allowed to work through the whole AvidXpress tutorial which we in turn were teaching to fellow students.

It was all trial and error, a good thing if you have the courage, time and energy to explore, frustrating when access got limited and dependent on whether the project (and previous experience of the collaborators) was in favour with the staff. It wasn't so much learning film making at that stage, rather a mini-version of studio politics without the technical backup.

Which of the NYFA courses did you take?

It was the six-weeks course over Xmas which equalled the eight-weeks course in content only you did one film project less since the weekend over Xmas was missing (and it was slightly cheaper than the eight-weeks course).

What did the course consist of?

The NYFA course included: directing skills, screenwriting, lighting and camera, working with actors, producing including the nifty money nuts and bolts and legal stuff, some film history and a lot of filming and equipment exercises plus the development of every person's own scripts. Lessons were Mon to Fri 9 am to sometimes 8 pm. Weekends were reserved for the shoots of every one's film projects.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it was. We all had the flu at some stage and were only too happy for the Xmas break to give us a breather. But since then I have found the experience pretty similar to every other film shoot I was on. It's a bloody exhausting art form. But if working in a good team and things go well the shared euphoria seems to carry you through most of it.

And the atmosphere at NYFA was usually pretty relaxed and fun.

What did you get out of it?

Apart from the show-off bonus of 'I went to film school' you mean? ;-)
The space and possibility to shoot my own short films, the basic technical knowledge to do so on 16mm film, with FinalCutPro video editing. The low-down on how things work in the 'real world' because all the tutors were working in their field and were over-zealous to share their experience. Most of all it marked for me the step from 'I want to be a director but don't know how' to 'I am a director and this is what I am working at'. Apart from the actual content of the course, tutors always mentioned a lot of references: internet resources, loads of literature, film suggestions, film-networks.

Once I was approached by my production tutor who had seen my storyboards and gave me more info and contacts in case I wanted to specialize in that field. The camera tutor referred me to some of her colleagues and we met up after the course at the Berlin Film Festival where she was attending the 'talentcampus'.

In general, if you asked for help, people were only too keen to point you in the right direction depending on their own experience, resources and contacts. Today I still refer to a lot of that knowledge in my film-making.
I've also stayed in contact with some of my actors and fellow course-mates who came from all over the world, from Brazil to Greece, Russia and India. Even if we haven't worked together again, due to geographic distance, it helps knowing people who work in the same field, and if it's only to 'compare notes'. (One of my classmates has just had a feature screened in Cannes. Oh, I have to email him and ask whether he's rich now!)

Another thing I got out of it was that I learned something rather surprising about myself: I was a popular camera operator and DoP with my fellow students. I had always (not least due to experiences at uni) considered myself a bit of a dill once handling cameras was involved. Now, I was suddenly in demand for my shake-less handheld. Looking back it seems odd that I thought I had no talent for camera, since I had already been taking photos for more than a decade and had clear ideas about my visual style. But it needed that extra confidence booster.

What didn't you get out of it?

The one thing I sometimes envy student of 'regular' film schools for is their exposure: At NYFA there is no such thing as a graduation class that gets presented to the studio bosses and handed over into the arms of the industry, something most established national film schools aim at. It probably wouldn' t make sense, since NYFA have such a diverse course program and people do courses for all sorts of reasons. There is simply an open screening of your work at the end of the course and you are free to invite whoever you wish.

Tutors try to get you in touch with the industry as good as they can. But that's the catch: at NYFA you might learn directing from someone who's working mainly as a 1AD and shot 'only' one feature as director. Don't get me wrong: that doesn't mean that this person cannot be highly inspiring and supportive. He might be even more so, because there's no huge ego getting in the way.

But if you are looking for that 'entry ticket to the industry', it takes a bit more than just the NYFA course. (That said, it probably takes more than just any film school to make that 'break'.)

Also, being not based in the UK, a lot of the UK references were of no use to me once back in Berlin. The London NYFA branch did have tutors (and students) from all over the world, my camera teacher was German for example, but living and working in the UK, but of course they cannot compile a knowledge base of all the relevant networking options in your own country. You have to go on from there.

Some people complained about not having the latest equipment available. Something I was not too concerned about. With the pace of change in the industry, I don't think any school could ever keep up.

Another thing you have to aware of is that you are studying with a very diverse bunch of people - and might not want everyone in your team. Most of the times I was lucky. It's not a matter of talent in this case, more of attitude. I think in that respect, everyone gets out of it according to their own efforts: I was highly motivated to learn a lot in a short period of time, didn't have any money to squander, so I crammed in whatever possible.

How have you gone beyond the course after graduating?

I went back to Germany and immediately shot my next short film. This time on miniDV, with friends and friends of friends and professional actors (some of them still in education). It was a nightmare experience, because I applied the standards from NYFA and was a bit at a loss when I noticed that not everyone was in the same boat. In that respect I still had a lot to learn.

A couple of months later I moved to Sydney and got in touch with a community based media support scheme called MetroScreen. They part-funded all my four follow-up shorts: I got the equipment from them and had to provide the rest. Again, a lot of new things to be learned, but a pretty productive experience. Two of the films I worked on that year have been either nominated in a festival or even won a 'commended' mention. Though if you watch a lot of Woody Allen it probably hasn't slipped your attention what he thinks about those mentions ! ;-)

The final film I made at NYFA was shown at several international festivals as well and looking back I still like it a lot. I have also worked in the camera department if an Australian Film Television and Radio School grad film, worked as a DoP for other directors and developed my own scripts. In 2006 I directed a theatre play in Sydney Short & Sweet.

At the moment I working at the realization of a project shot entirely with amateur actors on a small Greek island, challenging infrastructure!

Would you recommend it?

If like me you find yourself short of collaborators and access to equipment, absolutely. Of course you could argue that for the money of the course you could hire equipment and shoot a film. Well, with a script you like, actors you can work with well, everything in place and the post-production (and don't forget the distribution!) sorted out, go ahead.

I lacked the confidence and the knowledge to do so. In some cases I simply wouldn't have known where to start asking. And for my money, I did not only get the course, I got four short films, two of which I have entered into film festivals. So for me, it worked both ways.

Anything else to add?

Maybe because it is an American organisation, maybe because that is the style in most film industries these days: a lot of what I learned at NYFA refers to the Hollywood system of film-making. I'm not even talking about aesthetics here, but about structure, hierarchy, even job titles. Film-making literature tends to be written mainly by Hollywood- or affiliated directors, editors, cinematographers, etc. So it took some confusing situations, team members with a totally different background and some research of my own to conclude that there are many different ways of film-making. Rules are there to be broken. But before you break rules you must know them.
Those two sentences sound so easy. But to fully understand them I think you have to live them.

I learned from a certain set of rules, or standards at NYFA. Now, I've just re-read a Fellini biography and wonder: wouldn't it be nice to try and throw away the meticulous preparation I learned and just go improv with my actors, in front of the camera?

In general, of course there is no way someone can teach you film-making. You learn it yourself from all sorts of experiences. And you probably go on learning for the rest of your working life. To their credit: NYFA tries to get across exactly that, and provide the environment.

Sibylle's website is: http://www.sibyllemeder.net
Photos: http://www.jpgmag.com/people/Sibylle