[casual_games] Casual_Games Digest, Vol 29, Issue 2

[Nick Fortugno]

I'm sorry. I teach game design, so I have a pretty strong opinion about
this. I'm going to rant for a moment.

Where is the evidence on this claim about film school? Yes, most of the
people who go to film school become mediocre directors. But then again, most
of the people who go to school for scientists become mediocre scientists and
most people who go to school for business become mediocre business people.
No 4 year degree in any field (or any school I would argue) consistently
produces genius. They produce base knowledge and ability to work in the
field in an entry position -- one might say someone with a mediocre level of
skill.

As for directors, here's a short list of directors who went to film or
film-related (production, screenwriting) school:
Francis Ford Coppola, Martin
Scorsese<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Scorsese>,
George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, John Singleton, M. Night
Shyamalan, Oliver Stone (in fact, Stone credits film school with saving his
life), Robert Zemeckis, etc.

This, by the way, is not including people like Wes Anderson (philosophy) or
Ingmar Bergman (art and literature) who had higher education but didn't
study film as their major, or Steven Soderbergh, who took film classes but
didn't attend a degree institution.

I think that's enough to disprove the argument that _most_ of the great
directors didn't go to film school. Of course, there are great directors who
didn't go to school. We could equally argue that there are many great
scientists in the course of human history who didn't go to school for
science. Einstein failed at math in high school, etc. I don't think anyone
would argue that we should trust in natural genius to produce scientists.

And I could do demonstrate this point equally for writers and actors and
artists, etc. Read the history of Russian painting if you want to see the
value of formal education in the development of an art form.

This is not to argue that game schools right now are as developed as film
schools right now. Nor, again, is it to argue that game schools are going to
make every single student Sid Meier. But it is to say that creating a
distinction between creative and professional fields in one's ability to
educate them is misguided. Good schools in the arts have you produce work,
critique you on your work, and guide you in professional practice alongside
grounding you in the history of the field. Of course you have to do the work
out in the real world to get good. Schools just help you get to the point
where you _can_ work out in the real world.

And by the way, if you don't like the way game schools work, you should talk
to them and tell them what you want from their students. They will give it
to you. They want their students to get jobs as much as you want qualified
applicants. I am really sick of the industry whining about the crappiness of
game schools when they consistently avoid any effort to work with game
schools to make the system operate the way it does in, oh I don't know,
almost every other professional field in the western world.

Whew. Sorry about that. Like I said, dedicated interest. Take care.

On 9/20/07, Audry Taylor <talshannon at hotmail.com> wrote:

>

>

> >>I feel like education is taking a beating here. I don't think going to

> school is a bad thing.

>

> It can be for someone entering an entertainment industry.

>

> Most people who go to film school make lousy or mediocre directors.  Most

> of the best directors in the world didn't go to school for film, or learned

> more outside of film school than in it.

>

> Some things are better learned by joining the industry directly, rather

> than by taking a side trip down ego lane, which is what college often

> becomes for many entertainment industries.  College will gladly teach

> creative people how to be cliche, formulaic, predictable, and copy cats of

> the masters they study so diligently.

>

> The major exception to this is animation; most high-quality professional

> animators did go to a serious animation school like CalArts.  An artist can

> definitely benefit from a tough college major full of deadlines and

> diversity.

>

> But all kinds of writers, directors, musicians, some artists, many actors

> -- most of these are better off learning their craft by doing their craft,

> not by having it graded. ;-)  Obviously there are exceptions, but almost

> every creative person I know who became a success didn't get a degree for

> what they do; some even got kicked out of schools for the thing they have

> since become successful doing.

>

> Audry Taylor

> Creative Director

> Go! Comi

> http://www.gocomi.com

>

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-- 
Nicholas Fortugno
Co-Founder/CCO
Rebel Monkey
www.rebelmonkey.com
347-731-0894
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