The Flames of Appreciation
Though it is the case now that film schools are competitive, this was not always the case. Indeed, when I went to film school in the early 1990's, it wasn't a particularly popular major. In fact, it was something of a non-major. Now, of course, it's particularly fashionable and there is a certain panache that come with telling people you are a film major. As the culture is more and more inundated with entertainment, the more prominent film majors become. They are ubiquitous.
During my last year in film school, I became more interested in acting and writing. This led me to realize most of my fellow cohorts in the field were not particularly interested in cinema, per se. Rather, they were interested in the glamor, mostly fabricated, of being a film major. What was the big deal about DeMille, Welles, Brando, or Dean? After all, at the end of the day it was about how one looked, not what one did.
Gradually, I became aware of the fact that I was perhaps one of a handful of students who actually had a movie collection -- on laser disc, of course. As the year progressed, I began to decipher which students were truly interested in film and which were mere, prancing posers. The most notable tell was the fact the students who truly loved film did not cared much for how well they were coiffed.
Being the cineastes we were, life was (and still) all about films -- not how we looked. We didn't gather in large groups or waste all of our parent's money on pub- crawls. We used all of our resources to obtain the best quality films, scripts, and biographies we could find. More importantly, we used our money to buy tickets to art-house screenings.
Now, when I happen upon a fellow cineaste, walking alone with their bulky film history books, I see myself. I see a generation of film lovers keeping the flame of appreciation alive. The mediums change, from VHS to laser disc to DVDs and now to Blu-Ray, but the sentiment is still the same. The desire is still the same: to watch, to be engrossed, and to learn a little bit more about what it means to not only be a movie fan, but a human being. - 23812
During my last year in film school, I became more interested in acting and writing. This led me to realize most of my fellow cohorts in the field were not particularly interested in cinema, per se. Rather, they were interested in the glamor, mostly fabricated, of being a film major. What was the big deal about DeMille, Welles, Brando, or Dean? After all, at the end of the day it was about how one looked, not what one did.
Gradually, I became aware of the fact that I was perhaps one of a handful of students who actually had a movie collection -- on laser disc, of course. As the year progressed, I began to decipher which students were truly interested in film and which were mere, prancing posers. The most notable tell was the fact the students who truly loved film did not cared much for how well they were coiffed.
Being the cineastes we were, life was (and still) all about films -- not how we looked. We didn't gather in large groups or waste all of our parent's money on pub- crawls. We used all of our resources to obtain the best quality films, scripts, and biographies we could find. More importantly, we used our money to buy tickets to art-house screenings.
Now, when I happen upon a fellow cineaste, walking alone with their bulky film history books, I see myself. I see a generation of film lovers keeping the flame of appreciation alive. The mediums change, from VHS to laser disc to DVDs and now to Blu-Ray, but the sentiment is still the same. The desire is still the same: to watch, to be engrossed, and to learn a little bit more about what it means to not only be a movie fan, but a human being. - 23812
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