The university titles They can open doors, but there are times when experience It sneaks through the slit before those doors even turn. Knowing how to frame, cut or narrate does not always learn between desks. Sometimes knowledge is formed in a mounting room, in a shot that goes wrong or in a plane that was not planned.
Because there are trajectories that do not follow the academic calendar, but advance to the rhythm of real opportunities. And in the world of cinema, where time and intuition are almost everything, filming can be a most effective school than any classroom.
He returned to class with false name and films under his arm
The story of Steven Spielberg He fits fully into that mold: when the impulse to direct won the game to the lessons, he did not think twice. With just 23 years and after three courses in the California State Universityhe decided to leave it.
His was not to attend classes of color or history of cinema, but roll. Shortly after, I already had a contract with Universal under your arm thanks to the short film Amblinthat impressed executives enough to offer him to direct a segment on the TVILME Night Gallery. It was 1969 and his first professional work was already on the broadcast grid.
Although the jump seemed irreversible, three decades later the story took an unusual turn. In 2001having directed titles such as Shark, Et either Save Soldier Ryanthe director decided university To close the circle. He no longer had to demonstrate anything to anyone, but he wanted to officially complete his studies.
The decision, however, did not translate into library afternoons or group jobs. Enrolled with a fictitious name so that they did not recognize and presented projects already finished as academic works. For the subject of Paleontologyfor example, delivered Jurassic Park. And in the class of Advanced cinematographyhe presented Schindler’s list As a final exercise.
The graduation came the following year. Had 55 years And a career made, but he made that symbolic gesture excited. Appeared with toga while the soundtrack of Indiana Jonesbetween applause of companions with less age than one of their films.
In his speech, he pronounced a phrase that summed up the journey with irony: “Complete the requirements for my degree 33 years after finishing my main studies, my longest postproduction calendar marks.”
Neither prizes nor honors: it was only necessary to finish the race
The definitive impulse to return to class had had it after seeing one of his daughters. And while he already accumulated several Doctorates Honoris Causathat official degree was something pending for too long.
As he explained during the event, “I had been wanting to get it as thanks to my parents” for giving him the opportunity for an education and a career, and “as a personal note for my own family – and young people around the world – about the importance of achieving their university education objectives.”
Throughout the years, universities such as Harvard and Yale They had recognized his contribution to cinema with academic mentions, but completing the degree was a matter of principles. A gesture that went beyond the anecdote: he showed that no matter how high it arrives, keep learning ever.
Spielberg did not need that title to consolidate his career. In his case, it was rather a return to the starting point, with the intention of close a chapter in its own way. Although he had been accumulating flattery in the form of prizes and nominations for years, that ceremony had no other protagonists than the constancy and that form of satisfaction that only comes to complete something that, for one reason or another, was unfinished.
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