The 38 Stages Of Being A Film Student

1. Your undying love for film has made you decide that you want to make them yourself.

2. You want to get in on the “glamorous Hollywood lifestyle.”

3. You apply and get into film school!

4. You enter your first class. Look at all these people who also love film!

5. All your friends will say you’re not doing a real degree.

6. OUT OF NO WHERE, the reality of film school hits you.

7. Everyone is in it for themselves.

8. You look around the class to see the different types of students. There’s the film critic.

9. Which is basically the person who rolls their eyes at you for your movie choices.

10. Come to think of it, the majority of the students in your film class will be film snobs.

11. Not all of them, but a vast majority.

12. There’s the student who was a runner on an indy film that went direct-to-dvd, but somehow thinks they’re above you.

13. Then there’s the student who is taking the class because it’s a “blow-off.”

14. Come Oscar season every student will force themselves to like the movies nominated.

15. When in reality you enjoyed The Hangover Part III more than Amour.

16. Time to get to work! Essays!!!

17. You’ll be shown French New Wave Cinema for the first time.

18. Having to take compulsory classes, like introduction to Final Cut Pro.

19. “Annnnddd I just lost 7 hours of editing because autosave crashed.”

20. You decide to take a screenwriting class. You then find out every single script you or your classmates will write will all s

21. And they will all finish the same too.

22. You begin to wonder why your teachers are teaching and not out there making films.

23. Then you finally get to what you’re actually there for. Making movies!

24. But you find out your teachers place you into groups and assign you your roles, and there’s only one spot for a director. Yo

25. But there’s always the one student who actually wants to be sound recordist.

26. Once you start filming, borrowing the film school’s equipment is the hardest thing imaginable.

27. But hey, look on the bright side! At least you’re not 1st AD.

28. It now comes time for all the students to screen their films. 95% of them will have death as a theme.

29. You will struggle to hold your laughter in because they’re so bad.

30. Your laughing then comes to a sudden halt when you realise you probably can’t do any better.

31. There is that one student who makes an amazing film though, and your jealous slowly grows over the next couple of years.

32. Then, you graduate.

33. Time to go out and get a directing job! Well, that’s not how it works. The majority of the jobs - if there are any - are usu

34. Meh. You learnt Final Cut Pro back in your first year, you can do this job for a while.

35. But while you were at film school the entire industry switched to AVID.

36. You start doing odd jobs on small shoots, and eventually work your way up.

37. The pay might be low and the hours unbearable, but then you remember your friends working their boring day jobs.

38. It’s a long and hard road but in the end you will be chasing your dream. So be proud of that!