The Short Film is to Film School what the Short Story is to Fiction School

The Short Film is to Film School what the Short Story is to Fiction School

Teaching

After my essay came out in The Millions, I started wondering: does the problem of accommodating short vs. long forms extend into other disciplines and art forms? Do film schools, for example, use short films as their primary pedagogical tool just as creative writing programs use the short story?

I emailed Alexander Georgakis, a young filmmaker I know, and asked him this and other questions. In 2010, he adapted my short story, “The Lone Star Cowboy,”  into a short film, and I knew he’d recently graduated from film school.

In film school, do you focus on the short feature before embarking on the feature-length film?

Absolutely. Film school programs teach students how to make short films.

What analogies can you draw between the instructional models I talk about in the Millions essay and your own experience of being a film student? I mean: You do narrative, and so do creative writers. There are many similarities, it seems to me. Continue reading