GanzChroma 0059
Go to any online forum where someone is discussing whether or not they should pay to study VFX, and you will be greeted by logical and sometimes not-so-logical arguments and assumptions.
I have read these kinds of posts here and there ever since I started teaching in Canada and have never bothered correcting anyone online because I believe people make buying decisions based not on logic but on emotions.
This is why advertisements work. It's why people still buy Air Jordans. They want to associate themselves with brands and personalities that resonate with and represent their inner beliefs.
Take cars, for example. Any car will take you from point A to point B. But why do people buy different cars at different price points? They like how that car makes them feel.
I could have bought any car, even a cheaper one, but instead, my wife and I chose a Mazda CX-5 back in 2015. The car made her feel safe when she test-drove it, and I had seen an ad for the Mazda CX-5 where a father was putting his young son in the car seat. I saw my family in that ad. It was a car in which we could grow as a family. I didn't know much about cars, but that ad resonated with me, and a few hours after test-driving the CX-5, we bought our own.
You could go to any university or post-secondary school and spend anywhere from 1 to 4 years learning VFX. But there will always be students who are willing to pay a premium to learn from top VFX schools.
It's rather pointless to go online and listen to complete strangers debate why you should or shouldn't go to these schools and pay these prices unless there are totally legit negative reviews.
Their arguments will mostly be logical. However, no matter how much logic someone points out to you, your emotions will always win out.
After all, who are you going to blame when you don't have a job in the VFX industry after listening to random strangers or sitting in a basic model car without seat warmers and/or heated steering in winter?
There will always be a premium price associated with the Good and the Great. You just have to realize that those businesses and services are not going to price themselves to match your affordability.
If you think something is not worth it, you are right and if you think something is totally worth it, you are right too.
Remember people will soon forget the price they paid for something but they will never forget how it made them feel.
Honestly, the only reason why I felt I could even have my own school was because of my former students. They never forgot.
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