By Rico Palmerin

Staff Writer

Students considering a career in filmmaking may tend to look toward successful filmmakers for guidance.

Now this may include film techniques, common genres and other cinematic components, but this might not involve checking the directors’ educational history. Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan; what do all these names have in common? Other than every one of them being A-list directors and creating numerous films that have blown audiences’ minds, made them cry, laugh and wince, well they all also never went to film school.

Of those that attended college, several of them majored in fields ranging from physics (James Cameron) to English Literature (Christopher Nolan). There are still other accomplished directors who’ve made famous films that never attended film school or majored in film. While Star Wars father George Lucas, who majored in film at the University of Southern California, may wag his finger at these hooky-playing camera wielders, clearly there is something unseen about the approach of vetoing formal film education.

If so many directors have been enormously successful without academic film education, then does a student who dreams of one day joining these revered directors on Hollywood’s go-to list really need to major in or even attend film school?

CSUSM senior Armand Gutierrez’s experience with filmmaking may help shed some light on this complex question. Gutierrez is a student filmmaker who has made over 20 short films, mostly stop-motion and cartoons. He even took second place in the San Marcos film festival, and many of his videos are on YouTube. The most surprising thing about him? He is a Communications major, and simply creates films as a hobby.

On the flip side, director Don Hertzfeldt, who inspired Gutierrez, is a critically acclaimed director who specializes in animation, and graduated from UC Santa Barbara as a film major. Hertzfeldt received the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award and had numerous films featured in the Sundance Film Festival.

Although Gutierrez plans to use filmmaking as an instrument of instruction when he teaches communications classes, his success, as well as that of the Hollywood directors mentioned earlier, indicate that filmmaking is more than just learning the concepts and technical language, but there has to be a creative intuition that somehow translates itself into an enjoyable film. A film available for YouTube and movie lovers to enjoy while munching out on popcorn and laughing with a buddy. After all it really is about the consumers isn’t it?

For film majors or just those with a hobby, do as Gutierrez does, “serve the audience,” and let creativity do the rest. With that in mind, the decision to grab a camera and start shooting or to enroll in film education does not seem to be as important as the decision to let passion and perseverance flow through the lens.