The point of film school

The point of going to film school is not necessarily to become a film-maker, says Elizabeth Van Ness in The New York Times. Increasingly students see them as places to learn general skills that can be applied in a range of commercial or public sector jobs.

To some extent, such broadening vision is already helping to make economic sense of film education, which in the past was often a long path to nowhere. "Most find their way, and the skills they learn from us are applicable to other careers and pursuits," Dale Pollock, dean of the School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts, said of his students. "So we're not wasting their time or money."