school will not make you a filmmaker, it simply gives you the tools, the opportunity and resources to play, experiment and find your unique style as a storyteller. You can do that on your own, however, it depends how connected you are with friends and others who will help you make your movies.
If I were starting off with no experience and I wanted to take some filmmaking classes/seminars and I would invest my money in www.webfilmschool.com. Dov S-S Simens offers valuable and affordable filmmaking knowledge via 2 day seminars, DVDs and streaming online. Filmmakers who have attended his seminars are Guy Ritchie, Christopher Nolan and Baz Luhrmann.
Where should you start?
Here are the first five steps I suggest should take to get the ball rolling on your filmmaking career:
1) If you desire to be a writer as well as a director, go to