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37-501: The formal teaching of film began with theory rather than practical technical training starting soon after the development of the filmmaking process in the 1890s. Early film theorists were more interested in writing essays on film theory than in teaching students in a classroom environment. The Moscow Film School was founded in 1919 with Russian filmmakers including Sergei Eisenstein , Vsevolod Pudovkin , and Lev Kuleshov serving as faculty to disseminate their very distinct viewpoints on

74-601: A certificate of completion. Some institutions, both accredited and non-accredited, run shorter workshop and conservatory programs concurrent to longer degree courses. Not only the types of courses on offer but also the content, cost, and duration of the courses differs greatly between larger institutions and bespoke film schools. Universities offer courses ranging from 1 to 4 years, with the majority lasting 3 or 4 years. Conversely, films schools focus on shorter technical courses of 1 or 2 years. Many film schools still teach students how to use actual film in their productions, although

111-506: A deeper truth than could be seen with the naked eye. In the years after World War II , the French film critic and theorist André Bazin argued that film's essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality, not in its difference from reality. This had followed the rise of poetic realism in French cinema in the 1930s. He believed that the purpose of art is to preserve reality, even famously claiming that "The photographic image

148-1081: A digital camera can shoot a digital work with little formal knowledge of the industry, and can succeed or establish a following by making the work available for viewing or by publicizing it on the internet. Directors who have attended and earned degrees from film schools include Francis Ford Coppola ( UCLA Film School , MFA film directing), Martin Scorsese ( NYU Film School , MFA film directing), David Lynch ( AFI Conservatory , MFA Film Directing), George Lucas (USC Film School, BA film directing) and Kathryn Bigelow (Columbia School of Arts, master's degree in film theory and criticism). Others, such as Stanley Kubrick , Frank Capra , Pedro Almodóvar , Bernardo Bertolucci , Paul Thomas Anderson , Sofia Coppola , Quentin Tarantino , James Cameron , and Alfred Hitchcock had no formal college film training at all. Film director Werner Herzog has been quite vocal in arguing against film school. Film theory Film theory

185-531: A festival, or showcase, of student works at the end of a semester or school year. The more prestigious institutions often invite industry executives and producers to attend. However, ambitious individuals not in film school can also pursue such opportunities on their own through cold-calling , joining film-industry-related organizations such as IFP , or submitting their work to independent film festivals . The rise and popularity of independent filmmaking and digital video have influenced this debate, as anyone with

222-408: A hierarchical system and apprenticed under a more experienced person to learn the trade. Filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean started in this way, beginning as a title card designer and clapperboard assistant, respectively, in the early 1920s. The USC School of Cinematic Arts was founded in the midst of this Hollywood system in 1929, and continues to be widely recognized as one of

259-612: Is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures ; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film 's relationship to reality , the other arts , individual viewers, and society at large. Film theory is not to be confused with general film criticism , or film history , though these three disciplines interrelate. Although some branches of film theory are derived from linguistics and literary theory , it also originated and overlaps with

296-408: Is extensively used in analysis of films by female authors, like Chantal Akerman , as well as by male authors, like Pedro Almodovar . The matrixial gaze offers the female the position of a subject, not of an object, of the gaze, while deconstructing the structure of the subject itself, and offers border-time, border-space and a possibility for compassion and witnessing. Ettinger's notions articulate

333-440: Is often used for in-class screenings. In recent years, online film schools of sorts have sprung up teaching filmmaking through articles, tutorial videos, and interactive forums. The next generation of digital cinematography using the large sensors and manual features available in still DSLR cameras has lowered the barrier further towards creating inexpensive digital video that compares closely to 35mm film . Professionals in

370-464: Is the object itself". Based on this, he advocated for the use of long takes and deep focus , to reveal the structural depth of reality and finding meaning objectively in images. This was soon followed by the rise of Italian neorealism . Siegfried Kracauer was also notable for arguing that realism is the most important function of cinema. The Auteur theory derived from the approach of critic and filmmaker Alexandre Astruc , among others, and

407-563: The close-up to the mind paying attention. The flashback , in turn, was similar to remembering . This was later followed by the formalism of Rudolf Arnheim , who studied how techniques influenced film as art. Among early French theorists, Germaine Dulac brought the concept of impressionism to film by describing cinema that explored the malleability of the border between internal experience and external reality, for example through superimposition . Surrealism also had an influence on early French film culture. The term photogénie

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444-425: The film industry hold a variety of opinions on the relevance of a degree in film in relation to the ability to find work and succeed in the field. As in many professions in the arts, some feel that talent cannot be taught. With respect to filmmaking, others feel that learning techniques and understanding the business is crucial to one's success as a filmmaker. Those who argue against the necessity of film school cite

481-631: The philosophy of film . French philosopher Henri Bergson 's Matter and Memory (1896) anticipated the development of film theory during the birth of cinema in the early twentieth century. Bergson commented on the need for new ways of thinking about movement, and coined the terms "the movement-image" and "the time-image". However, in his 1906 essay L'illusion cinématographique (in L'évolution créatrice ; English: The cinematic illusion ) he rejects film as an example of what he had in mind. Nonetheless, decades later, in Cinéma I and Cinema II (1983–1985),

518-460: The 1960s and 1970s, film theory took up residence in academia importing concepts from established disciplines like psychoanalysis , gender studies , anthropology , literary theory , semiotics and linguistics —as advanced by scholars such as Christian Metz . However, not until the late 1980s or early 1990s did film theory per se achieve much prominence in American universities by displacing

555-408: The 1990s and 2000s, the increased difficulties in getting into and the financial costs of attending these programs have caused many to spend their money self-financing their own features or attending a shorter trade school program for around the same costs. Film trade schools however rarely offer more than technical knowledge, and often cost more than a degree from a public university without providing

592-494: The 1990s onward the Matrixial theory of artist and psychoanalyst Bracha L. Ettinger revolutionized feminist film theory . Her concept The Matrixial Gaze , that has established a feminine gaze and has articulated its differences from the phallic gaze and its relation to feminine as well as maternal specificities and potentialities of "coemergence", offering a critique of Sigmund Freud 's and Jacques Lacan 's psychoanalysis,

629-599: The 1990s the digital revolution in image technologies has influenced film theory in various ways. There has been a refocus onto celluloid film's ability to capture an "indexical" image of a moment in time by theorists like Mary Ann Doane , Philip Rosen and Laura Mulvey who was informed by psychoanalysis. From a psychoanalytical perspective, after the Lacanian notion of "the Real", Slavoj Žižek offered new aspects of "the gaze " extensively used in contemporary film analysis. From

666-628: The Arts (1965) , Walt Disney founded California Institute of the Arts (1961) , the University of Texas department of Radio-Television-Film (1965) and the Columbia University School of the Arts (1965) . Over the years competition for admissions to these programs has steadily increased with many undergraduate programs accepting less than 10% of applicants, and with even more stringent selection for graduate programs. In

703-472: The ability create meaning transcending the sum of its parts with a thematic effect in a way that ideograms turned graphics into abstract symbols. Multiple scenes could work to produce themes ( tonal montage ), while multiple themes could create even higher levels of meaning ( intellectual montage ). Vertov in turn focused on developing Kino-Pravda , film truth, and the Kino-Eye , which he claimed showed

740-472: The close-up as the essence of photogénie . Béla Balázs also praised the close-up for similar reasons. Arnheim also believed defamiliarization to be a critical element of film. After the Russian Revolution , a chaotic situation in the country also created a sense of excitement at new possibilities. This gave rise to montage theory in the work of Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein . After

777-448: The contemporary notion of calling films photoplays and seen as filmed versions of theatre, instead seeing film with camera-born opportunities. He also described cinema as hieroglyphic in the sense of containing symbols in its images. He believed this visuality gave film the potential for universal accessibility. Münsterberg in turn noted the analogies between cinematic techniques and certain mental processes. For example, he compared

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814-561: The establishment of the Moscow Film School , Lev Kuleshov set up a workshop to study the formal structure of film, focusing on editing as "the essence of cinematography". This produced findings on the Kuleshov effect . Editing was also associated with the foundational Marxist concept of dialectical materialism . To this end, Eisenstein claimed that "montage is conflict". Eisenstein's theories were focused on montage having

851-708: The high cost of such an education as prohibitive and assert that an aspiring filmmaker's money would be better spent on the actual making of a film, the experience of which would offer a more practical hands-on education. At many film schools, including NYU and USC, initial student films in non-digital programs are shot with non-synch Arri-S or Bolex film cameras manufactured in the mid 20th century. These films are typically shot on black and white reversal film with no dialog, or limited sound added after shooting. Supporters argue that shooting films like these challenges students to creatively express their story without relying on dialog or other modern conventional devices. Opponents question

888-486: The incorporation of digital media in film school curricula has risen drastically in recent years. Some schools offer only digital filmmaking courses, eschewing instruction in the medium of film altogether. The use of digital cameras and digital media is significantly less expensive than film cameras and film stock , and allows a film school or department to offer more equipment for students with which to learn and use for their projects. In addition, digital media (such as DVD)

925-406: The industry. Often cited as another benefit of film school are the opportunities available to students to work as an intern for filmmakers or in related businesses, such as post-production editing facilities, and to network with others interested in filmmaking who may be in a position to collaborate with the student on a project or to eventually offer work in the industry. Most film schools will hold

962-595: The label " the Sixth Art ", later changed to " the Seventh Art ". In 1915, Vachel Lindsay wrote a book on film, followed a year later by Hugo Münsterberg . Lindsay argued that films could be classified into three categories: action films , intimate films , as well as films of splendour . According to him, the action film was sculpture-in-motion , while the intimate film was painting-in-motion , and splendour film architecture-in-motion . He also argued against

999-481: The links between aesthetics, ethics and trauma. There has also been a historical revisiting of early cinema screenings, practices and spectatorship modes by writers Tom Gunning, Miriam Hansen and Yuri Tsivian. In Critical Cinema: Beyond the Theory of Practice (2011), Clive Meyer suggests that 'cinema is a different experience to watching a film at home or in an art gallery', and argues for film theorists to re-engage

1036-488: The most prestigious film schools in the world. The University of Southern California was the first university in the country to offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in film. The tradition of apprenticing up through a hierarchical system continues to this day within film studios and in television in many technical positions such as gaffers , grips , camera operators , and even into post-production with editing and color correction . Independent lower budget filmmaking in

1073-435: The philosopher Gilles Deleuze took Matter and Memory as the basis of his philosophy of film and revisited Bergson's concepts, combining them with the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce . Early film theory arose in the silent era and was mostly concerned with defining the crucial elements of the medium. Ricciotto Canudo was an early Italian film theoretician who saw cinema as " plastic art in motion ", and gave cinema

1110-690: The post-war period using portable 16mm film cameras allowed filmmakers like John Cassavetes in the United States, along with members of the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism in Europe, to circumvent the classical system. The notion of a granting a four-year college degree in film grew more popular in the 1960s with the founding of prestigious film departments like the New York University Tisch School of

1147-459: The practicality of having students invest a substantial amount of money using equipment that is no longer used in the industry and doing simple filmmaking exercises that could be recreated for much less. Film school proponents argue that a formal education allows for a more rounded theoretical understanding of techniques, and offers the opportunity to gain from the knowledge and experience of professional instructors who work in, or who have worked in,

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1184-584: The prevailing humanistic, auteur theory that had dominated cinema studies and which had been focused on the practical elements of film writing, production, editing and criticism. American scholar David Bordwell has spoken against many prominent developments in film theory since the 1970s. He uses the derogatory term "SLAB theory" to refer to film studies based on the ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure , Jacques Lacan , Louis Althusser , and Roland Barthes . Instead, Bordwell promotes what he describes as " neoformalism " (a revival of formalist film theory ). During

1221-456: The purpose of film. Those seeking to learn the technical craft of filmmaking in the early days of cinema were largely self-taught engineers or still photographers who experimented with new film technology. With the rise of commercial filmmaking in the 1920s, most notably the Hollywood studio system , those seeking to learn the technical skills of filmmaking most often started at the bottom of

1258-428: The security of a four-year college degree to fall back on. A film school may be part of an existing public or private college or university, or part of a privately owned for-profit institution . Depending on whether the curriculum of a film school meets its state's academic requirements for the conferral of a degree, completion of studies in a film school may culminate in an undergraduate or graduate degree , or

1295-432: Was based on films depicting the directors' own worldviews and impressions of the subject matter, by varying lighting, camerawork, staging, editing, and so on. Georges Sadoul deemed a film's putative "author" potentially even an actor, but a film indeed collaborative. Aljean Harmetz cited major control even by film executives. David Kipen 's view of screenwriter as indeed main author is termed Schreiber theory . In

1332-407: Was important to both, having been brought to use by Louis Delluc in 1919 and becoming widespread in its usage to capture the unique power of cinema. Jean Epstein noted how filming gives a "personality" or a "spirit" to objects while also being able to reveal "the untrue, the unreal, the 'surreal'". This was similar to defamiliarization used by avant-garde artists to recreate the world. He saw

1369-456: Was originally developed in articles in Cahiers du Cinéma , a film journal that had been co-founded by Bazin. François Truffaut issued auteurism's manifestos in two Cahiers essays: "Une certaine tendance du cinéma français" (January 1954) and "Ali Baba et la 'Politique des auteurs'" (February 1955). His approach was brought to American criticism by Andrew Sarris in 1962. The auteur theory

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