Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Filmmaking should be taught in high schools

My favorite line of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural address is when he says, “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”High school education is the basis for our ability to create. It’s where we learn to channel our imagination. It can be destructive, such as when we imagine people are talking behind our back, or creative, such as when a kid picks up a guitar, paintbrush or camera.Though music and art programs have their own problems receiving funding, I want to focus on film and video production. Every school should have a collection of cameras and editing software to make movies. Filmmaking in the next century will become as important as writing was for the last two millennia. The Internet, with YouTube, VEVO and Vimeo leading the way, is to people living now what the Gutenberg press was to 15th century men and women. It will democratize what had once belonged to only those with power, money and fame. It will give the average person a chance to make a great movie without having to go through traditional venues that so often kill good ideas.Prior to the Gutenberg press, the ability to write and read was limited primarily to nobles and the clergy. They shaped what everyone talked about. Once the printing press came around, literacy spread to the masses. Consequently, William Shakespeare, Moliere, and later writers such as Mark Twain and Charles Dickens could access a larger audience and change the course of human history. Of course, the most famous person to benefit from the printing press was Martin Luther when he started the Protestant Reformation.Literacy with the written word must be taught and cultivated. The same goes for literacy with video. We’re in the early stages of what will be a renaissance if we nurture it. We can go beyond cat and dog memes to create powerful movies with provocative themes made not by people like Spielberg, Scorsese or any of the other high priests of the film industry, but by aspiring artists with no connections to speak of and a shoe-string budget.All they need is the equipment to do so. They don’t need studio cameras or a $10 million studio. They need an HD camera, an Apple computer and Final Cut Pro.Every high school should start equipping their students with the ability to use these things. Denying them access to these things is the same as denying them pen and parchment. It puts them at a disadvantage when they could be on equal footing with their peers.Government officials could fix this, but with the budget hawks today, politicians are more likely to slice funding to education than they are to increase it. The best people to equip underprivileged people with these skills are the people most passionate about that craft. They are the moviemakers in Hollywood and TV producers in New York. The big film studios would benefit from more people with the ability to do their craft. It would drive down labor costs because more people would be able to do the job. Basic economics: supply versus demand.Maybe someday in the future, perhaps when we’re all grandparents and Scarlett Johansson isn’t the babe she is now, we’ll see a world where fame is no longer the valued asset. Maybe we’ll live in a world where creativity is paramount. Let’s do what we can now to make that dream a reality.

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