Who Should Go to Film and TV School?

Even if you haven't grown up believing you'll become the next Steven Spielberg, here are some indicators that film and TV school might be for you:

• You want to be an artist, and you want your work to be relevant. Even if a video camera isn't your must-have accessory, there's no getting around the fact that if you want your work to reach a wide audience, film and television reaches a wide audience. Film and TV offer great careers for a wide variety of creative artists. So:

• If you're an aspiring novelist, but would prefer your work to reach millions of people rather than hundreds—consider film and TV school.
   
• If you're an aspiring photographer, but would love your audience to be wider than the proud parents of the infant whose picture you just took—consider film and TV school.
   
• If you're an aspiring illustrator who'd like a shot at drawing the next Disney/Pixar character as opposed to illustrating yet another medical

• You want to be a journalist, and you want to have a job. It's no secret that print media is dying—or, if not dying, at least struggling hard to reinvent itself for the current century. Cable news, on the other hand, is not only alive and well, according to a report from Journalism.org.
   
• You're an engineer or technical type who loves film and television. While you might think of film and TV school as the sole province of "creative" types, special effects gurus, sound engineers, lighting experts, and many other techies who work in the media get their training from film and TV school.