The Hollywood Film Institute: Learn Filmmaking Without Going West

Film education has been revolutionized forever by the Hollywood Film Institute, an educational resource center founded by a great film instructor, Dov S-S Simens.By Linda Orlando

One of the most acclaimed names in filmmaking education is someone you’ve probably never heard of. But Hollywood certainly knows him, celebrities cheer about him, and graduates of his classes thank him for making them successful. Dov S-S Simens never went to an expensive film school to learn about filmmaking. He graduated from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, with a degree in Economics and then spent three years in the Army, serving as a 1st Lieutenant in Vietnam. After returning to the states, he owned a successful bookstore in Carmel, California. But his longing to learn about the world of filmmaking outweighed his love of books. So in 1980, Dov decided to do what many people before him have done—he sold his store, took the cash, and headed out to Hollywood with nothing more than an idea and a dream. For a while he worked the Hollywood circuit, calling agents, meeting with studios, soliciting stars and foreign investors, pitching ideas to development groups, optioning books, and writing scripts. Finally he decided to step out on faith in himself and create a film of his own, a 90-minute 35mm feature film that went on to win awards at several film festivals. And from there, his career in the film industry really began to take flight.

As a result of his self-taught approach, Dov learned to make movies from beginning to end—not from theories taught in film schools, but from learning on his own, working directly in the business. Over the next several years he worked with major studios in management and producing jobs, and then began teaching classes on film production at UCLA. Three years later he decided that the time was right for him to take the skills he had honed through the years and create the Hollywood Film Institute, home of the 2-Day Film School. The course is presented 25 times a year, and Dov claims that 3% of his students make a feature film within 6 months, while no graduates of expensive 4-year film schools have produced or directed a feature film within 6 months of graduation.

For over 15 years, The Hollywood Film Institute has taught students how to produce, write, or direct, and graduates have had incredible success, all together grossing over $2 billion. Dov does not claim to be a great director or producer; instead he calls himself "a great film instructor who is proud to give you the most amount of filmmaking information, for the least amount of money, in the shortest period of time." And he really does mean the shortest amount of time—the longest program he offers is only 2 days long, and it is offered in major cities throughout the world, including Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Houston, Seattle, and London. The U.S. price for the school is only $389. If you can’t make it to the class in person, you still have options for learning everything Dov has to share, because his class is available on DVDs, videos, and cassettes, consisting of 16 one-hour filmmaking lessons that take you from idea to script, to shoot, to answer print, to distribution deal as you make and sell your first independent feature film. A Streaming Film School is currently in development for e-learning on your computer. If you’d like to sample a taste of the information contained in the entire film school session, you can visit The Hollywood Film Institute website and read through the 18-Minute Film Program free of charge before you decide whether to buy the comprehensive program.

Dov S-S Simens claims to have revolutionized film education with his Hollywood Film Institute, and apparently he knows what he’s talking about, because several well-known celebrities have gone on record to support his claims. The home page of the Hollywood Film Institute displays some enthusiastic rave reviews from the likes of Will Smith, Sinbad, Queen Latifah, Guy Ritchie, Roger Corman, and Quentin Tarantino, among others. If you’re interested in learning about filmmaking and you don’t have four years and $100,000 to spare, you may want to check out The Hollywood Film Institute. You have nothing to lose but about 18 minutes!
By Buzzle Staff and Agencies

It's OK: the fat lady can't sing

Hilary Rosen runs the Recording Industry Association of America - the American music industry's trade body. She has become a media celebrity because of the RIAA's practically medieval suppression of file sharers, downloaders and other copyright miscreants. This is not an obscure tussle between corporate lawyers but a very public war between the net and the music biz - involving one of the most powerful corporate lobbies in history, the brightest geeks of their generation and up to 100 million people - the file sharers themselves. Both sides see this as a battle for survival.

Rosen has upset so many people and created such a poisonous atmosphere between those nearly-friends - the net and the music biz - that it is easy to read the episode as a disaster for all involved. Walls have been erected, businesses shut down, millions alienated. Right-thinking people everywhere shake their heads. But why is all this happening? Is there reason in this apparently senseless conflict and could some good come from it? Yes, and yes.

The origin of the conflict lies in fundamental differences between the two warring industries: music and the net. The net is a new industry. In new industries, almost all value is created by new ventures raising new capital for new projects (let's ignore the crash for a minute, shall we?). Everything about a new industry is expansive, creative, positive. It attracts innovators and entrepreneurs, creators, people who like new stuff. The psychological profile of the entire industry is up, optimistic, open. Net people don't understand defensive, negative behaviour. It makes them anxious. But new industries are not a good proxy for the wider economy. Out there, in the older sectors and businesses - where growth is slower, change more measured - value is created in a pretty even mixture of creation and protection.

Music businesses produce value in two ways. First, they invest money in new assets. This is the risky part - most new acts fail, most releases don't cover their costs. Second, they operate back catalogues from which they hope to wring steadier, longer-term returns to balance the high risk stuff. Music businesses have to balance both within one organisation. The hothouse produces value in the creation phase, regularly betting the farm on a faint promise. And the more conservative rights management function defends the tail-end of an asset's productive life. Rosen has well-developed defensive instincts: this is an industry where firms employ hundreds of staff solely to defend rights. So, given the instincts of the rights owners, the battle was always going to get nasty.

But can any good come from it? When the dust settles will we be left with the status quo or, worse - as the net-heads fear - a compromised net industry and a pumped up music industry, newly empowered by silly new laws everywhere? Probably not.

If music lovers had shunned file sharing when Rosen told them to, it might never have come to this. Unfortunately, for Rosen, the consumers aren't returning her calls. File sharing is now a mainstream habit and new evidence suggests that it's started to dent record sales. It's only once sales really start to suffer that the music industry's attitude will change. This is as it should be. In established businesses, almost all change is resisted at first, often by brutal means. It's a simple calculation: even an expensive and drawn-out legal battle with a new entrant can prolong the exploitation of an established line of business profitably. It's almost always a good use of an established industry's cash pile to mash up the new guys. Only when change is inevitable do the big guys cave in and adapt - often with surprising enthusiasm - sometimes turning a new technology from an existential threat to a profitable new line of business over night.

So the bloody battle of the file sharing minnows and the music industry dinosaurs is programmed behaviour. Do not panic. Do not leave your seats. It will soon be over. This also explains why the experienced business people now running the surviving file sharing firms haven't given up in the face of Rosen's withering siege. They know that the accommodation is coming. Their bet is that they can stretch their resources and their patience until it does.
© Guardian News & Media 2008
Published: 9/11/2002