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What is film studies like?

How can I combine interests in film studies and K-12 education, career-wise?

  • I have two degrees in Film Studies (not production, more history and criticism) and I also love working with little kids. How can I combine these two interests career-wise? I have a BA and an MA in Film Studies. I was planning on continuing on to do a PhD in Film Studies, but I quickly realized that academia is not for me. However, this is not to say that education in general is off the table. On the contrary! In the aftermath of leaving grad school, I've moved back home and I've been working as a teacher's aide at an elementary school. What I already knew before this job (gathered from my various stints as a TA at university, a tutor, and a volunteer reading coach) was that I enjoy teaching quite a bit. What I didn't know was how delightful it was to work with elementary school age children. What I'm trying to figure out now is how I can combine my knowledge of and interest in film with my knowledge and interest in working with kids. The problem is that most industry/studio jobs/internships I look at try to put you on track to eventually do directing or screenwriting (or legal, or marketing for that matter), but I'm really not interested in film production or distribution. On the other hand, most education jobs, whether it be secondary or primary (I think I could do either), have nothing to do with film or media. I am aware that I could probably work at a museum or archive, but I am not sure if my degrees qualify me to do that and I'm not ready (financially or otherwise) to take the plunge and do another course of graduate study right now. It's also not a good time to get hired by, well... anywhere. But especially non-profits like museums and archives, which is kind of a problem. Please help me figure out: 1) what I could be doing right now to get myself into a position to use both of these skill sets 2) whether there even exists such a job that combines the two and/or 3) who I could talk to (informational interview) to figure out this out I live in Los Angeles. Any and all advice would be appreciated. Thank you very much!

  • Answer:

    Have you checked out the http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/? As far as archive/museum work: IMHO experience matters more than a degree in archival studies. School definitely helped me find jobs and meet people, but I think I would've been better off finding an internship on my own, gaining invaluable experience (and making contacts) without dropping tens of thousands of dollars on grad school. But yeah, programming seems like a good way to go, since as you say, film studies is not really taught at the K-12 level. There must be hundreds of community/cultural arts organizations here in LA that could use your help!

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In the Philadelphia area, there is a group called "Cinekyd" which is a youth organization that get kids involved in the art of film making. I couldn't find a great website for it, unfortunately. However, living in LA, I'm sure that there are similar businesses there, or that you'd have a helluva a great market for starting one. You could also work at a high school in the AV department. It's not the the most glamorous job in the world, but I LOVED my AV dude in high school and still talk to him to this day. I've made some films with him and had a great time doing it. He definitely inspired me to appreciate film.

two lights above the sea

As an anecdote, I had a friend who was the youth ministry director for a church and he took the opportunity to show the kids all kinds of classic films and discuss them. Even including things like A Clockwork Orange (!?!) - after getting signed permission in person from all the parents, of course.

XMLicious

It's a bit late for this year, but: Summer Camp! You probably won't get to make much use of your film studies degrees, though--unless you happened to write an MA thesis on Meatballs or something.

Sys Rq

You wouldn't consider moving to France would you? I understand that film studies is a required part of their grade school curriculum out there.

cazoo

I know someone who makes a very nice living doing after school and summer programs for kids around theatre. Granted, this is in NYC so it's a pretty ripe market but I can see this working in other places too. I would do semester long workshops in topics like stop motion animation, screen writing, acting, film history and actual film production (like, shoot a short movie) maybe in a couple of age groups. In the summer you would combine all of those into a summer-long cirriculum and extended it to include actor workshops. (You'd need more staff and help in the summers.) This is not uncomplicated; you need a space, like church classroms; you need to develop class outlines; you need insurance; you need to market; you need to run numbers and see if this is indeed a way to make a living. But if the numbers pan out, it would make a unique and interesting day (well, afternoon) job!

DarlingBri

i just sent you MeMail.

gursky

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