Film Connection Scam or Not: Is Film Connection Too Good to Be True?
Imagine if, as a student of filmmaking, you were scoping out movie schools, observing the sometimes-astounding cost of tuition for those schools, and then you discovered another program promising to give you a similar quality training (possibly even better) for a small fraction of the cost of the other movie schools. Can you think it was a Film Connection scam - that it was too excellent to be true?
The Film Connection just happens to be part of that predicament. Although they are a fully-accredited institution, they offer a system that at first glance might seem too good to be true - leaving some people wondering if they are a scam.
Nonetheless, there is actually a very reasonable explanation why The Film Connection can charge this small and make these claims about their system. It’s very little to do with the quality of the content, and almost anything to do with the technique by which the student receives the training.
Film Connection recognized the importance of filmmaking and has come to terms with the reality that in order to learn the tricks of the trade one has to experience it upfront. Over the centuries, both artists and artisans have mastered their crafts not through formal education, but by means of mentorship and apprenticeship - by constant hands-on experience beneath the tutelage of a professional who took the apprentice under his/her wing. The Film Connection used the mentor-apprentice set up as foundation for their course load. Rather than take out the students into a separated school atmosphere to learn the course load, they have taken their curriculum into the real-world atmosphere, paying experienced working professionals to mentor pupils through the curriculum. As you can tell this approach helps Film Connection decrease the cost they charge for every student while still offering quality education through experience and assistance.
It appears too good to be true, simply because it is a completely different strategy than competing schools are utilizing. Nevertheless, labeling an education strategy that has been tested and proven through time a Film Connection scam may not be easy.
If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then the actual test of whether The Film Connection works is in the many students who have come through the program. One film scholar says this: “A week after I joined the program, I was operating on a famous music video which was a great experience. Then one more previous student discussed that while on the course he or she got to work on a movie by Roger Corman which runs on a budget of $200,000 and that by the time the movie was finished he or she was currently a second assistant director.
There is only one reason why the mentor-apprentice set up has been applied for centuries and that is the fact that it really works. This arrangement has been proven repeatedly and since Film Connection employs this set up and costs very little, is that sufficient to think about Film Connection a scam? Now, is it really nothing but a Film Connection scam? That is difficult to picture.