I’m teaching a 400+ student introductory course in film this semester and because of that I don’t get to personally meet many of my students. I lecture, show a film, and let my teaching assistants do the grading for this managerial nightmare. My teaching assistants act primarily as a buffer zone between me and questions I don’t need to answer 400+ times. The questions that get through to me are generally legitimate questions pertaining to actual problems in the course and, by semesters end, the litany of requests to be given free points despite a semester having been spent by the student not attending class or doing any of the work. It is a great joy then to meet a student who is excited about the class instead of just complaining.
This particular student was contemplating leaving (after the first freshman semester) to pursue a film career as a director. One of the things that teacher can offer, I think, is perspective. Now it is possible to learn a great deal without dropping everything and moving to another location on a whim. Most universities provide at least adequate film materials via the library and content sharing sites like YouTube allow people from all over to submit material for criticism. While the site is filled with lots of garbage there is the occasional gem. There are also many well filmed things on the site that were made for no cost to the director.
In addition there are also tutorials online, a class syllabus or two, book reviews, and other items for starting out as a director (or anything) as a hobby. There is no need to throw caution into the wind with the prevalence of the internet. Information can be found, lessons can be learned, and you can see if this is really something you’d be interested in doing before you depart to another location of the country with nothing more than an aspiration.