Expert Article: Darren Alff, Guest Author

Darren Alff is the author of 'Film School and Beyond' and is now living in Utah developing his Fairview Point Productions.

IC: What is “Film School & Beyond” about? Who is the book for?

D.A.:  “Film School & Beyond” is a compilation of approximately 70 interviews (selected from more than 300 total interviews) that were conducted with past and current film school students from around the country. The interviews reveal the secrets to applying to film school, succeeding in film school, and “making it” in the industry after graduation from film school.


The book is for:

1.Individuals that want to get into the film industry and want to have a film education as a means of breaking in.
2.Individuals that want to get into the film industry, but are unsure as to whether or not film school is necessary for success in the industry.
3.Individuals that are currently in film school and want to make the most of their time in school so that they can graduate and find work after graduation.

The book is also finding a place with teachers, school administrators, high school guidance counselors, and even parents that have kids that are interested in pursuing a career in the film and television industry.


IC: Why did you write this book?
D.A.:  After graduating from film school and being thrust into the industry, I saw how difficult it was to actually find paying work. I was able to find work relatively easy after graduation, but many of my friends went for months and even years before they ever got a paying gig. Many of my friends never found work and eventually gave up on their dream of working in the industry and they now work in some totally unrelated field.

Once I realized that this was not just happening to my close friends, but to hundreds and thousands of film students from across the country, I began to realize that there was a huge gap between what film schools typically teach their students (writing, editing, cinematography, etc.) and what is needed to actually succeed in the film and television industry. I created ‘Film School & Beyond’ as a means of filling in those large and important gaps in the education that many film schools are giving their students.


IC: You approach the subject matter from a very objective stance.  Why did you choose this format?
D.A.:  It would have been very easy for me to write a book about my personal experiences in film school and in the film and television industry, but the reason I didn’t write that book is because 1) nobody cares about my personal story, and 2) I wanted to not only tell the story of one individual who went to one school and had one set of experiences, but I wanted to get a wider view of film schools in the United States and the experiences of past and current film students from all across the country. By doing this, I would be able to capture the experiences of not just myself, but of hundreds of other people… each of which has their own stories, their own motivations, and their own successes or failures to discuss.

The main way I gathered the information for the book was by simply sending emails to people I had gone to school with and people I had worked on films with in the past in which I asked them to participate in the book. I also posted ads on various film related websites in which I asked for past and current film students to simply answer a short list of questions about their experiences in film school and in the film and television industry. From the answers I collected via these emails and ads, I was able to create a majority of the book.


IC: What was the hardest part about compiling this book?
D.A.:  The hardest part of putting this book together was that I was working with 300 other people and working with that many people can be a slow and time consuming process. I’m a person that likes things to happen fast, so waiting for someone to send me an email or get back to me with a specific answer was somewhat tiresome and depressing at times.


IC: What were your goals for the book?
D.A.:  My main goal for the book was to simply get it out into the marketplace, which I have successfully done, although there are still a number of venues that I would like to get the book into. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble are now carrying the book, as well as a number of other locations, but there is always room for improvement.

The secondary reason for putting the book together was because in early 2005 I created a company called Farview Point, which helps high school and college level film students succeed in the film and television industry. I believed that having a book of some sort would be a great item for the company to have in its possession, as it would be just another thing that we could provide to our clients.


IC: What are your future goals?
D.A.:  I am a huge goal setter and I believe that my goal setting plays a large part in the amount of success I have had over the last few years. I have so many goals for the future that there is no way I could detail them all here.

Putting “Film School & Beyond” was just one of my goals and there are hundreds of smaller goals that I have associated with the book. For example: sell all the first edition copies and go into a second printing, get on the radio, get on TV, receive newspaper/magazine coverage, network with others in the industry, etc. Most of those have already been accomplished.

Like I said earlier though, putting “Film School & Beyond” together was just one of my goals. I have so many other projects going on right now that it is becoming difficult to keep them all straight. The important thing though is that each and every one of my projects and goals is bringing me closer and closer to leading the life that I want to lead. I think that most people don’t really like their jobs and are unhappy or dissatisfied with where they are in their lives, but I am excited about everything I am doing right now and am extremely energized about the direction I am heading.


IC:  Did you go to film school?
D.A.:  I attended Chapman University in Orange, California. I majored in Film and Television and received an emphasis in editing.

I visited the school once before I applied, but I probably chose Chapman University because it was relatively close to my parent’s home (about 2 hours away) and I felt like it was a small, but growing film school where I would be able to experiment and learn in a comfortable environment. I’m not an extremely outgoing person, so I knew I didn’t want to attend a school with thousands and thousands of students and Chapman fit right into that category.

When I was in high school and I was looking at the colleges I thought I might apply to, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I really didn’t even have an idea of what “college” was, let alone, what “film school” was. All I knew about college was that it was the place you went after you got out of high school. All I knew was that when you graduated from high school you either got a super low paying job in town or you went to college. I knew I was going to go to college, but I had no idea what “college” really was or how it was supposed to help me advance my “career.”

It is because of the fact that I had absolutely no knowledge about what I was getting myself into that I really wanted to create “Film School & Beyond.” If I had read the book when I was applying to film schools I think I would be much further along than I am now. I may have made some different decisions along the way.


IC: Do you feel that you got the education you wanted from your time in school? Do you think you would have been better off going someplace else of simply just diving right into the industry?
D.A.:  I do feel like I got the education I wanted from film school, but I do not believe I received the education I wanted from my college experience in general. My film classes were great and I learned a lot, but I think my other college classes (with the exception of a few), were a complete waste of time and money. When I look back at all the classes I’ve taken over the years, it’s ridiculous how much of the stuff I was learning is completely pointless and of which I will probably never use for the rest of my life. For example: I spent three years studying Latin and now I couldn’t tell you even a single work in Latin. So many of the classes I took were along these lines… a complete waste of time.

IC: What advice would you give to a prospective student who is applying to film school?
D.A.:  The biggest piece of advice I would give to someone who is looking to go off to film school and receive an education in film is that they know what they are getting themselves into and that they are prepared to handle whatever comes their way. Not only do you need to know what they are getting themselves into, but they need to go into film school and actually have something that they want to say with their work. If they don’t have anything to say, then they are wasting their time and money. Many high school students go off to film school and end up making movies about high school because they don’t know of anything else to make movies about. They haven’t really lived a normal life and in order to be a truly successful filmmaker, they need to be individuals that are leading normal lives (beyond the realms of high school, college, etc.)

One of the best things I ever did for myself in this regards was that once I graduated from high school I decided that I was going to ride my bicycle from Oregon to Mexico – down the California coastline. For 30 days I rode, mile after mile and met hundreds of interesting people and had some incredible and life-altering experiences along the way. Just this short trip of independence allowed me to find out who I truly was, find out what motivated me, what pissed me off, etc…. and best of all, it gave me something to write about and put into my work!

After that first trip down the California coastline, I did four more long distance bicycle trips across various portions of the United States (All while I was in college). Just during my college education I rode my bike over 10,000 miles and traversed across 29 different states. The trips weren’t about bicycling, but about finding myself, discovering the country, meeting people, having new experiences, and best of all, they served as an excellent resource for the stories I wanted to tell in my work once I got back to school.

The point of all this is that if you want to be a filmmaker, you need to have something to say in your work… and you aren’t going to have anything to say unless you’ve actually had some sort of personal experience to drive your work forward.


IC: What are the biggest mistakes a film school student can make while in school?
D.A.:  The biggest mistake I see film students making is in their thinking that they can get away with doing the bare minimum amount of work and thinking that once they graduate they will easily be able to get a job because of their degree. To get anything out of your film education though, you need to actually work on films. At many schools you will find that there is a group of maybe 100 total film students, but if you look a lot closer, you’ll find that there are really only about 10% of those students that actually go above and beyond and do everything they can to learn about the industry. The other 90% just go to their classes, do their homework, and are simply waiting for graduation day. Those who take up the 90% category are the ones that are really going to struggle to find work after graduation and I bet that most of them will eventually go on to do something totally unrelated to film. The 10% that do the work and put in the effort are the ones that you are going to be hearing about in the years to come.


IC:  What did you originally want to do in Hollywood?
D.A.:  I never wanted to work in “Hollywood” necessarily. If I ended up doing work in “Hollywood,” that would be fine, but that was never something I was aiming at. The reason I started studying film was because in high school I really began to discover the power of documentaries and it was documentaries that I really wanted to work on. Being an extremely shy and reserved person, I saw filmmaking as a means of being able to say something without actually having to “say it.” Therefore, my aim was not to work on the next big Blockbuster, but 1) to be able to have a job that I truly enjoyed, and 2) be able to work on something that was truly important and not complete fluff (fluff example: Spiderman, Spiderman II, any movie that has a sequel, etc.).


IC: What did you do after film school?
D.A.:  When I got out of film school, the first thing I did was that I went on a month long bike trip from Seattle, Washington to Vancouver, British Columbia, and then rode south back through Washington and Oregon. Once I got home, I immediately jumped onto a number of short films, first working for free, and then quickly began doing paying work. I realized that if I didn’t start working for a fee almost immediately, that I might get stuck working for free for the rest of my life (as I saw this happening to many of my film school friends).

After working on these short films for about a year, I made a split second decision and decided to purchase a property in Park City, Utah (Home of the Sundance Film Festival) and about a month later made the move to Utah, which is where I am now living. About two weeks after moving to Utah, I began working for Park City Television and the Sundance Channel as I worked to cover the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

After the festival ended, I began working on numerous other projects, finished putting “Film School & Beyond” together, and started two additional companies (in addition to Farview Point), each of which is now doing extremely well and is growing month after month.


IC: What difficulties did you have?
D.A.:  The biggest problem I had was the very little sleep that I was getting when I was working.

There was a time when I was working on two separate films at once (one was shooting during the day and one was shooting at night) and as soon as one shoot would end, I would run over to the other one and begin working there. I was basically living out of my car and getting only about 30 minutes – 1 hour’s worth of sleep each day.

The other thing I disliked about working in the industry was that I just didn’t like some of the people I was working with sometimes. Some shoots I worked on were great and I got along with everybody, but other shoots were horrible because of the people I had to be around and work with all day long. Usually it was just one or two people on the shoot that I didn’t like, but that was enough to make me really hate getting up and going to work each day. When you are working with that many people you are bound to meet people you don’t like, but I felt like these people were so annoying simply because they thought they were better than everybody else. I feel like a film shoot should be a fun place where the cast and crew is supportive of one another and where everyone is aiming to make the best product they can, no matter what the situation. These grumpy people acted as though everyone around them was in their way and trying to destroy their work, even though they were really just trying to do their jobs and make the best product possible.

In the end, the lack of sleep and the fact that I was often times working on shoots with people I could barely stand, played a large part in my decision to stop doing production work and get into other aspects of the industry, as well as start working on other business ventures. After just a year of working, I realized that I was never going to get to the point that I wanted to be at by doing what I was doing. Now I am on a much better path to living the life that I want to live and doing the type of work that I want to do… And best of all, I’m still involved in the film industry!  – I’m just not working on the production side of things as much any more.


IC: What did you do for a day job while looking for showbiz work?
D.A.:  I’ve never really had a normal job in my entire life. When people ask what I do for a living, I have a hard time answering them because I don’t just do one particular thing. I do numerous things and to say that I am a “writer” or a “filmmaker” or a “bicyclist” or an entrepreneur” is just too narrow of a description. I’d like to think that I have no boundaries and can not be classified in any way, shape, or form.

Things I have done to make money while I pursued my film projects include delivering newspapers, refereeing soccer games, and selling and delivering mattresses. I’ve had numerous other odd jobs, but almost all of them are related in one way or another to what I am trying to do with my personal and professional life/career.


IC: What are the biggest mistakes a person can make when they first start working in the industry?
D.A.:  One mistake that I see film school graduates making all the time is that they get out of school and get a job at Starbucks or Home Depot or some other totally unrelated job just to pay their bills. They say they are just going to work part time and use the rest of their time to seek out film work, but what happens with most of these people is that their part time job at McDonalds quickly becomes their full time job and they no longer have the time to pursue film related work.

If you are going to get a part time job after you graduate from college in order to help you pay the bills, you need to make sure you get a job that is at least related to the industry you want to get into. You are never going to be able to put a short stint at Burger King on your resume, but a job at a local radio station or cable access TV station will at least be a step in the right direction… even if it pays less or offers less hours than that job at Wal-Mart.

A lot of film school graduates get out of school and think they are worth a million dollars a year and they go out there looking for a job that is for someone with little or no experience and that pays a million bucks a year. Unfortunately, that job doesn’t exist.

In the same breathe, a lot of people don’t think they are worth anything and so they work for free (This is how most people are being taken advantage of now days), but then they get stuck working for free forever and they can’t ever get a paying job. These people need to realize that they are worth something, but how much they are worth is in a way, up to them. When I started working, I said to myself that I wouldn’t work for less than $150 a day. Two days after I set that number in my head, I went out and got a job for $150 a day. It was that easy. I just had to commit myself to a number and then make it happen. Now my number is much larger than that and I continue to accomplish the goals that I set for myself.

You have to know how much you are truly worth.


IC: What is your opinion of Hollywood Celebrity Culture?
D.A.:  I think it is embarrassing how people get all excited when they see celebrities and they crawl all over them, try to get their autographs, etc. I’m probably a bit cynical about this just because I’ve grown up around celebrities and have met hundreds of them over the years, but after a while you find out that these people are really just normal people and nothing to get overly excited about.


IC: Did you ever embarrass yourself in a job interview?
D.A.:  I don’t think I’ve ever applied for a job in my entire life. Every job I have ever had has just come to me in one way or another. I think applying for jobs is in some ways a complete waste of time. If I really wanted a job, I wouldn’t apply for it, but figure out some other way to go about getting what I wanted. I’d make myself stand out so much that applying would be unnecessary.


IC: Did you ever meet someone casually at a club that wound up leading to a great job, or a major step in your career?Please be as detailed as possible.
D.A.:  I meet people all the time that are involved or have been involved in the film and/or television industry at one point in time or another. I’ve never been to a club in my entire life, so I’ve never met anyone there.

One woman I know, who is a friend of my mother’s, has given me so much work over the years that it is in large part because of her that I have survived in this industry. Sometimes, just having a single person that truly believes in you and supports you is all you need to succeed… or at least get your start.


IC: How would you advise people to network? (Places, methods, etc.)
D.A.:  Look for people that you get along with first. Even if they aren’t involved in “film” or “television,” they may be able to help you in one way or another. Be sure to look for ways to help them too!

There are a lot of people out there that can help you advance your career, but if you don’t like these people and don’t get along with them, don’t bother being associated with them. Once you find a couple people that truly believe and support you, you are on your way towards accomplishing whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.

Be yourself and just be nice.


IC:  If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?
D.A.:  There are so many things I would do differently if I could live my whole life all over again.

If I had to do film school over again though I would have worked on more films and tried to put less emphasis on my academic classes so that I could concentrate more on the “work” I was truly passionate about. I would have gone into film school with the goal of being the BEST film student the school had ever seen. I would have aimed higher… expected more of myself… dreamed bigger!


IC:  What motto do you try to live your life by?
D.A.:  I didn’t get into filmmaking because I necessarily wanted to be “that guy that makes movies.” The reason I really got into filmmaking was because I saw it as a way of living my life the way I truly wanted to live it. I don’t really care what other people are doing anymore. I’m simply trying to live the life I want for myself.


IC:  Where's your favorite place in Los Angeles?

D.A.:  When I'm in Los Angeles, my favorite place is Will Rogers State Historic Park and the Backbone trail that extends all the way from the Park to Point Mugu.