What You Won’t Learn At Most Film Schools…
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What? You say you’re confused? What jibberish am I typing now? It’s not jibberish. It’s just backwards. Why is it backwards? I don’t know, but it’s a lot harder to understand.
But what seems more ironic and backwards is what I’m not learning more of at film school. It’s a simple word, but the idea is more complex. What is it? Business.
There is a creative side of film that I am learning all about, and I love that! To me, film is all about telling a story, whether it is a fiction tale, or a non-fiction biography. But after all the creative brainstorming is complete, and a film goes into post-production, there’s another point in the process. How are people going to see your story? If they don’t see it on their TV screens, how will they see it in the theaters?
In a commercial video production company, there must be a joining of the creative and business aspect. In a commmercial business, a creative mind has to remember that the executive producer (Often the ones who are paying the production costs), an executive producer must think “How much time will this take, what equipment is involved?” When production costs run high, it can eat away at the budget a production company has to work with.
There is also a hierarchy of accountibility in a business or non-profit organization. The executive producer reports to a board of directors. A for-profit organization also reports to the bank. Staying within budget increases the profit of an organization, which in turn allows that organization to be profitable which has many benefits such as gaining a better reputation with a bank when it comes to borrowing.
While, as a creative mind, I want freedom to make a product look excellent and pull out all the stops, I also have to keep in mind how much money a client has to work within, so I don’t exceed their costs, but keep the product looking great.
Even if I do not go into business at college, I think it is still important for all artists to learn some aspect of business, just like a producer knows about the different departments on a film set and how they work together. Creating more business-savvy artists would generate greater understanding on many film productions between the director and producer (and vice-versa).
This is not to say that creative thinkers should limit their thought, but having a basic understanding of how business works, gives everyone a greater peace of mind.
Could it be because most artists resist the business side of art because they feel there is no art in business? Or that people assume that artists can’t consider logical proccesses in a creative way? If that’s the case, it doesn’t make sense because the logical processes of business can be presented creatively. We all are artists, and everyone has the potential to be creative. Even if that’s with numbers. Even writing involves logical processes (like sentence structure), but once I understand the logical process, I can write creatively. Commercial filmmaking is a logical process produced in a creative (and fun!) way. So, maybe it is backwards that film schools don’t teach more business, but then, it’s never to late to go back to the basics. What do you think?
The great thing about MVP Video Production, is that clients will always know up front about the cost of a project. There are no hidden fees when all is said and done. And these guys do all they can to make sure the client is more than pleased with the end result! Talk about taking care of business!
~Serena
7/20/11
