I tried to make a film in college (UK college, age 17-18) but due to lack of time or enthusiasm from other people it didn't go far. I'd like to get into it again in the future but I don't think I'd go to film school or anything. Is there another option?
Personally, I feel film school is one of the worst options. Some people will strongly disagree with me on this, but for a lot of working professionals in the film industry, film school is considered to be a big joke. Just take a look at some of your favorite directors, and see whether they went to film school, and how they got into the business.
My favorite director, P.T. Anderson, quit NYU's film school (Supposedly one of the best in the country) after two days. Steven Spielberg was denied from USC's film program three times. Even if this does not prove that film school isn't worth the time, what it does is disprove the notion that you need to go to film school to get into the industry.
The best way to do that today is to just make a movie. Though, there is one big key to this. A lot of people make movies now-a-days, and about 95% of those people are stupid enough to use their own money to do it. A lot of people will charge everything to their credit cards and go 40K in debt, never sell their first film, and end up never having the money to make a second movie. This is the worst possible situation to be in. Besides, why would you ever use 40K of your own money, when, with a little work, you can use 800K of other people's money? There are a lot of willing film investors, even in this economy. You just need to have a really good script to show investors.
So the two things I would focus on, is learning as much as possible about the film industry and the techniques of writing and directing. Then work your ass off on writing a damned good script. If you can do that, the rest can come easily. There's no use going 200K in debt to do what you can do easily outside of school.
