CHOOSING COLLEGE COURSES RELATED TO FILM
Many different schools will offer college courses related to film, and understanding which ones you should take and how they can benefit you can be quite helpful as you move forward in your education. One of the first things you should decide on is what you want to do within the film industry, and any other aspects of film that interest you. For example, you may want to direct but the reality of the industry is that many times people have to work their way up to getting chances to direct feature length films. This means that if you are also interested in editing, for example, you may want to choose courses or programs that offer both editing and directing experience.
Continuing with the previous example, consider what you will need to know to be effective as an editor and as a director. You will want to learn about film history, so you can understand what others have done that have contributed to the vast visual culture of film. Anything you do in a movie may be seen as a reference to the work of others, so understanding what has come before can help you make such references meaningful within the framework of your own storytelling.
You will also want to choose college courses related to film that directly relate to what you will be doing within the industry. This means learning how cameras work, how lighting affects a scene, understanding camera angles in relation to visual understanding of a scene, and learning to use pacing to create mood and tell a story. While you may not directly use a camera as a director, you may find that you are interested in such things and want to pursue work as a director of photography. Everything you learn can potentially pay off, and you should choose classes that will help you understand how film comes together.
There are, of course, some courses that simply are not altogether important for you as a future editor or director. You should understand how lighting affects a scene, but you do not necessarily need to know about every type of light and how lights physically work. Similarly, you might want to take seemingly unrelated classes to improve your understanding of film, such as acting or writing classes that can help you understand other processes within the context of filmmaking. Of course, all of these college courses related to film are offered by many different schools, and some schools will have programs that are more direct and straightforward.
