Q: What traditional college majors complement the film and video industry that aren’t “film production or media studies”?
A: This is a good question and a frikkin HUGE question. Mostly because every industry out there can somehow be represented in the Film and Television space.
So you wanna get in to showbiz but not go the traditional Film School or Mass Communication route? You might want to consider…
(deeeeeep breath….)
An MBA – Want to be a fiscally knowledgable Producer that actually knows how to run budgets and numbers and all the myriad decisions — like contracts and investments — surrounding the business of Cinema? Go to Business School, Nerd!.
LAW SCHOOL – Want to work in the legal departments of Disney or Warner Brothers to help protect intellectual properties across international boundaries? Go to law school and take some Entertainment Law and Business Law courses!
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER – Love taking apart all your friends electronic devices and putting them (mostly) back together again even better than before? Get that EE degree and help design the next-Gen cameras to help Jim Cameron film at the bottom of the ocean or Christopher Nolan capture a sequence on a device you created that allows him to shoot 10,000 Frames Per Second, not to mention the remote-controlled rig on the Porsche Cayenne that will jib steadily along with James Bond in his Aston Martin through London traffic!
ARCHITECTURE – Love putting together cool buildings and designs from every age and influence? Get that Architecture or Interior design degree and put it to use helping Spielberg craft a 1950s diner on main street or JJ Abrams design the perfect spaceport for the Millenium Falcon.
ART DEGREE – Love painting and creating worlds with your imagination and brushes? Become a Concept Artist or a StoryBoard Artist or a Matte Painter or a Background Painter. Help Production in the development stages previsualize the world they’re about to capture on film or video.
CULINARY ARTS DEGREE – An Army and a Film Production both travel on their stomachs! True story! So if you love preparing hot delicious foods for large groups in a mobile capacity, you should get that Culinary Arts Degree and work with Set Catering. The Rock’s gonna need his protein!!! That’s on you, Food guy!
FASHION DESIGN – Do clothes from the store bore you? Do you have to create your own look and your own style from scratch. You might want to look into the Art Department on Set to help design the clothes to make our heroine or hero pop on screen. Or blend in completely. Or be sexy. Or catch fire! The point is, Derek Zoolander is not gonna dress himself! He needs you!
CPDT-KA – Love working with animals and ensuring their safety on set? Get a Marine Biology and/or Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed rating to work with Dogs, Lizards, Ocelots, Llamas, Tigers, etc on set to make sure they and their handlers are happy and healthy for each take!
RN – Want to fix people up and stitch them back together so they can get back to work after an accident or illness? Get your nursing degree and become an On-Set Medic. Tom Cruise definitely needs you to stitch up that boo-boo!
COSMETOLOGY – Love glam’ing people up and working with all sorts of hairstyles, beard and mustache trims and a variety of makeup? Find that Hair and Makeup Academy so you can design “the Rachel” or “the Palin” or the “Cindy Lou Who”!
PILOTS LICENSE – Love the idea of strapping a camera onto a helicopter and flying low over the streets of Morocco to get some seriously cool Black Hawk Down moments? Get that Pilots license! Or if you like to stay on the ground safe and sound you still need flight school for a lot of professional Drone Operations!
Phew!
And this doesn’t even include the army of Drivers, Accountants, Stunt people, Weapons experts, Dancers, Horticulturists, Sales & Marketing execs, Horse Wranglers, Actuaries and many many many many more people it takes to make movies happen.
Let’s make a movie!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: S. David Acuff lives in North Hollywood, CA and edits full-time for Walt Disney Television. He enjoys doing voice work for Audible projects (The Barnburner, The WOW Factor Workplace, Where An Angel’s On a Rope) as well as animated characters (Angel Wars, Herman Goes to School). He authored the epic Sci Fi story Historians Proper available on Amazon as well as wrote/edited the feature film, Restoration, distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
His life-motto is very simply, “What doesn’t kill you makes you funnier!”
Follow him on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest: @davidacuff