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Interview: Prague Film School

Czech film school promotes practical, international experience

By FilmSchools.com staff

Prague Film School, located in the historic capital of the Czech Republic, has offered programs in filmmaking, animation, and acting since 2003. Although relatively new to the film school scene, the school, operating with a mandate from the Czech Ministry of Education, has already garnered attention from the film community and students eager for hands-on experience with moviemaking. We asked Tariq Hager, co-founder and director of the school, about the school’s mission and vision, and what makes it unique from other international film schools.

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What do you believe is the most valuable aspect of a film education?

Film school provides the most direct route to picking up craft skills.

A full-time film program provides the time or existential space to focus exclusively on learning the craft. Students receive information, structure, and practice to help them develop fluency in both film language and the tools of the trade. They also interact with crew, students, teachers and facilities to realize works. In film school, students study with the like-minded, and the student body is really a sub-culture organized around a passion for film.

What is the single most unique feature of the Prague Film School's program?

It’s hard to choose just one, as there are several unique features of our program!

1. Practical and intensive: The school is entirely committed to hands-on training.  By the end of the first semester, students have participated in 15-18 short film productions, four of which they have directed themselves. During the second semester, students shoot scripts in the studio evey week, in addition to their mid-term and diploma films.
2. Diversity of student body: In a student body of 50 students, 25-30 countries are represented. Nearly  every other student is from a different part of the world, but there’s a sub-cultural glue binding them together.  Students live and breathe film together.
3. Faculty-student relations:  Core faculty are brought in from around the world.  While all are accomplished filmmakers, their primary purpose in Prague is to teach students at Prague Film School. The dynamics are then what you find at exclusive boarding schools and small colleges in the U.S., where the teachers are highly devoted to their students and accessible. 
4. Liberalism:  Most students at our school have completed undergraduate studies, and see their time at film school as a cherished chance to wed their deep interests with a vocation.  As such, the administration treats all students as responsible adults and trusts students to take full responsibility for their studies.  The school does not interfere with students’ artistic choices.
5. Prague: Prague is one of those very rare cities that manages to combine cosmopolitism with intimacy and beauty. 

Your web site says the programs are “fast-paced” and other articles about the school have mentioned the speed of the program.  What is the benefit of the pace, and how does it help students become better filmmakers?

We have only one year to train our students for professional work in the film industry.  In this context we are forced to pack a lot of material into the year program.  So the advantage of the “fast pace” is really density of content in the classroom and substantial practice outside of the classroom.  Additionally, by keeping the pace fast, we avoid a certain “sophomore slump” that can strike when the newness of things wears off.

How would you describe a typically successful student at Prague Film School? 

Students coming from art backgrounds generally do well at Prague Film School.  Also, while significantly under-represented in the industry, our female students do particularly well.  It’s a mystery there aren’t more women directors and screenwriters out there. 

We’ve had students come to us after completing four year film school programs back home and many with little or no production experience.  Interestingly, very often it is those who little production experience who make better films at the end of the day.  At the root of successful films is a certain spirit of creative openness, ability to work with others and that elusive, magical quality called talent. 

What’s the  most popular program?

Roughly 80 per cent of the student body takes the one-year program in filmmaking, which covers the core studies in screenwriting, directing, cinematography, film history, and so forth. 

What sorts of films do students produce during the program?

We welcome everything. For example, this past semester we produced a Bollywood musical, a horror film, countless drama and comedies, a documentary, a music video and an experimental piece.  Drama is the dominant genre represented, however.

What is the background of the faculty?

Ninety per cent of the faculty are professional filmmakers.  The remaining ten per cent are academics from the world’s top universities.  All come with substantial teaching experience from all over the world.  We intentionally recruit from abroad to ensure maximum commitment to the students. 
(Editor's note: biographies of the teachers are available at the school's web site.)

What is the faculty’s philosophy of teaching?

The nature of the program, which is largely project-driven, necessitates an experiential, practical approach to the subject matter. 

We enforce an ethos of tolerance and open-mindedness, where teachers mentor but do not dictate ideas.  Each teacher, however, is so radically different from one another that the styles and teaching methods are really very diverse, but also complimentary.

What type of work does a “typical” alumnus of Prague Film School go on to do?

Roughly 80 per cent of our graduates go on to find work in film.  Our Indian students have landed jobs with prestigious production companies, ADing on Nike commercials and the like.  Our European and American students often combine forces and start production companies of their own in Prague or elsewhere.  Every so often a student or two manages to fundraise for a feature they then shoot.