Thanks a lot for your praise, I really appreciate that..
I love Tarantino, but unlike him I think I only have two ways to access filmmaking:
1. Do better commercial photography jobs and then have the clients to start to do some TVC for them.
2. Learn filmmaking in college and gain access to filmmaking directly.
I really think for filmmaking the technical part is not that crucial(as photography), but social network is. However I couldn't figure a way out other than the 2 points I listed to gain access to filmmaking..
A quote from someone else before I reply
In my opinion, art schools in general and photography schools in particular are essentially frauds. And, don't get me started on the fraudulence of the college degree in general.
I was also wondering about going to college to study filmaking and visited the local college and chatted to the students about the course. They said the lecturers buggered off and they were left to their own devices. So I decided to skip forking out lots of money for little return and decided to get some experience working on set instead, usually as a stills photography and sometimes doing Art department stuff and continuity. A few years later I ended up working on a film with one of the students [she was a cameraman] and I knew more than she did, just from being on set and paying attention. Same applied to to others I met who had 'learnt' there - and it was a well known place to go.
So I got paid to learn and also learnt more than if I coughed up from my own pocket. Most people say that they learn more in a few weeks on set than several years of school.
Tarantino got to be a filmmker through writing, he sold the script for 'True Romance' which gave him funds to seed 'Resevoir Dogs'. And if you want to direct, you
have to know how to tell a story, it's nothing to do with photography really, that's usually the DoP's job. Before I got film work I decided to try writing as that was free and spent time learning to write scripts - best thing I ever did, as only then did I really understand films and filmmaking. And if you cannot tell a story you will be a crap director when it comes to drama.
As for social networking -
very, very important. You do it by working on films and you start by doing freebies and if you do a good job, you get asked back.
And if you want to make films, knowing how all the departments work is essential - you don't have to be an expert, just be aware of what the job involves. So many times filmmking gets delayed or disrupted as the director didn't understand how jobs got done or the time needed to fulfill his latest idea. Idiot producers who are clueless and have never really worked on set are also a complete pain.
You have to absolutely love films if you want to do this, as it's very unlikely to make you rich, the people with the money are often dreadful, the hours are truely terrible and you need infinite patience. Other than that it's fantastic - but not glamourous. At all.
Just like in photography where your portfolio gets you work and then word of mouth after that, your showreel, script, experience and then word of mouth gets you work in films. Who you know is vitally important and you only get to know people on set, unless you are very lucky.