Of course, you do. What kind of question is that?

Do you want someone fixing your car that hasn’t learned how?
Do you want someone flying your plane that hasn’t learned how?
Do you want someone performing your surgery that hasn’t learned how?

Sure, there are those that have skirted school, i.e. Quentin Tarantino.

1. Are you Quentin Tarantino?
2. Have you watched 351,456,789,432,490 hours of films?

School is where we can learn anything. Why not film? History, theory, writing, camera, lighting, direction, production, editing, coloring, composing, funding, marketing, distribution. You’ll be taught by those who have learned to do these things and learned to teach them in ways that will prove invaluable. You will be surrounded by other likeminded souls who are driven to tell stories too. Your peers = Your crew. You will have cameras, lights, lenses, microphones, cables, dollies at your disposable for making your own movies. Lastly, great schools will not only teach you how to make great films, but they’ll teach you how to break into them. And that’s not easy.

I speak not from theory, but experience. Having taught college film students for a decade now, I see first-hand how they grow, not only as storytellers and filmmakers, but as humans. And at the end of the day, that’s what matters most, for we all want our stories to mean something.

Since returning home to Atlanta, I have had the good fortune of teaching at Emory University, University of North Georgia, Reinhardt University and the Georgia Film Academy. Given the growing interest in screenwriting worldwide, I am now taking my workshops on the road. If you, or someone you know, would like Screenwriter School to come to your college in your town, please email me at : michael@screenwriterschool.com. Who knows. You might learn something.