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Comment by germinalphrase | Hacker News Reader

“ All the people who have made it in Hollywood did so through via nepotism/cronyism or by busting their ass making their own movies and getting lucky”

Having worked in the film industry, you’re more wrong than right here.

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Based on your industry experience, which high-profile filmmakers owe their careers to posessing an MFA degree?

The New Hollywood crowd (to some degree, I guess - not my point); I’m pushing back against the cynicism of stating all successful people in the industry got there through nepotism and luck. Is there nepotism? Sure. Is there luck. Sure. But the same is true in business, politics, you name it. The vast majority of people who work in the industry just show up to work everyday and push it.

You're ignoring GP's "busting their ass" observation, which is probably key to this. No-one is going to hire someone to write or direct a movie based on their having a degree from some institution. It's either going to be because of their track record in the industry (because they busted their ass at the start of their career and had some lucky breaks) or because they have the right connections (so, nepotism). So I'd say GP's observation is right on the nose. Some successful filmmakers may have an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in a relevant subject, but their success in the industry has almost nothing to do with that qualification. Which raises the question of why anyone in their right mind would pay Columbia six figures to get such a degree, especially since their own faculty appear to be industry failures.

I fully agree that the MFA route is ridiculous (and exploitive).

I’m disagreeing with the premise that all successful people in the film industry only got their by luck, nepotism, cronyism, etc.

Everyone in a competitive field busts their ass. Do we say every businessmen, doctor, or software engineer is only successful in their career because they’re lucky/nepotistic/cronies?

Can you elaborate?

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