Redfern is home to many artists and creatives, which is reflected by local businesses like antique and vintage shops, art galleries, film and music production companies. The Sydney Film School was established in 2004 by a group of filmmakers and educators from the University of Sydney who wanted to take a step towards a more practical education, in industry-recognised facilities. Saturday April 13 saw the school’s Open Day, where potential students could discover the facilities, watch students’ works and talk with educators.
Ben Ferris, the School Director and himself a filmmaker, explained: “All of our training programs are structured around the delivery of the projects [the films], and we run two festivals a year, at the end of the semesters, where we showcase the films to the industry. More importantly, it gives students a very concrete deadline and they’re working under real pressures, which is the whole point, it’s how the industry works, so we run as a microcosm of that. When they’re working to often stressful deadlines it’s not just about making the best decisions, it’s about making the best decisions in a limited amount of time.”
The students (about 100 of them per year) get to learn hands-on the art of filmmaking, both documentaries and dramas.
Leslie Oliver, Head of Teaching and Production, explains that a good understanding of drama helps make documentaries, and, conversely, life experience helps make a good drama: “A filmmaker is like an explorer of life, there are no limits to what filmmaking connects with,” he says.
There is a certain glamour associated with cinema, and a lot of students come to the school wanting to direct, hoping to one day emulate the likes of Tarentino and Spielberg. Ben Ferris explains there is sometimes a reality check as students realise that directing roles are very competitive, that there is a huge responsibility on directors to carry the creative vision of a film. Some are not ready for it, or lack the life experience, and it can become overwhelming.
If directing at first seems like the dream job for many students, it is only one of many roles in the film industry, and Ferris says many of the school’s graduates work in the camera department (camera assistants, operators, directors of photography), in the art department (production design, wardrobe, make-up, set building) and in production (production managers, assistants, administrators).
The school staff do their best to alert students to difficulties and challenges. It is an industry that requires a lot of hard work and passion. “It’s a real-life decision to go into the filmmaking industry, it’s a really absorbing profession, it can consume your life, 24/7, and the students are made aware of that,” Ferris said.
But what happens once students get launched into the real world, in what is known as a very competitive industry? Ferris said: “Often when we talk about the Australian film industry, it revolves around feature film production, which, by the very nature of it, tends to be very up and down. All you need is a big production like The Great Gatsby to be filming in Australia and it creates a whole lot of opportunities, but when the production goes, there’s a vacuum. That’s the nature of the feature film industry, it’s always gonna be up and down, always, because its so project- based.”
On the other hand, the explosion of video content for the web has created many opportunities for graduates: “They may not walk out of here onto a feature film set, some of them do, but the majority of them will be in content generation of some form, and usually the first opportunities are through content to be distributed through the internet, either commercial videos, music videos, corporate videos … these opportunities are growing very rapidly.”
Whatever path students end up choosing after graduation, they certainly seem to enjoy the ride. First-year student, Jesse, 24, said: “I love it here, it’s a great school, it’s amazing. I come from a musical background, and I wanted to try something different. All the staff here respect that I don’t have a film background, so I’m still unsure of what particular avenue I wanna go down in film, but it’s all pretty fun!”
