It’s Free--With Class at Any Hour

No campus. No tuition. No sweatshirt for Mom.

Welcome to the Cyber Film School (https://www.cyberfilmschool.com), a World Wide Web site where the classrooms are virtual and filmmaking wisdom is passed on through modem lines, not lectures.

Established in November 1994, the Cyber Film School is the creation of Toronto filmmaker Maurizio Belli. Intrigued by the sites he was seeing populating the World Wide Web, Belli, 41, decided that it might be fun to put up a home page about movie-making. At the same time, Belli could, through putting up the site, learn more about the technical side of Web page design.

The result: over two years later the Cyber Film School is an acclaimed Web site that gives aspiring movie-makers the opportunity to ask questions of a producer-director who has won the Genie award (Canada’s equivalent to the Oscar), the chance to network with fellow filmmakers, access to a variety of articles about filmmaking and a comprehensive list of links to hundreds of film-related web sites.

Over the last few years, the site has earned much attention from Internet observers. Among other accolades the Cyber Film School has received, Magellan ranked it as a 4-Star Site, Point Communications gave it a Best 5% of the Web distinction and I-Way magazine ranked it as one of its top 500 sites.

Soon after he launched the site, Belli says, the page began seeing a lot of traffic. “People create a lot of sites that are just links to other sites,” Belli says. “You don’t get many sites where you can find valuable content. I think that’s why it did so well initially.”

In September 1995, Belli was able to persuade fellow Ryerson University classmate producer-director Stavros Stavrides to act as an Artist in Residence on the site. Once this portion of the school was established, users could e-mail Stavrides, who won a Genie award in 1988 for his documentary “God Rides a Harley,” and potentially get their question responded to in a public message forum.

Belli thinks part of the reason why the Cyber Film School keeps attracting users is the current state of filmmaking. He says that falling filmmaking costs have made for more people trying to create movies. At the same time, he says, people are often looking for alternatives to traditional film school. “The technology is becoming cheaper,” Belli says. “Especially with digital video, people are able to make films in a very grass-roots way: With very little cash they can put a film together.”

The Cyber Film School is attended by all sorts of Web users. Belli says that of those who have e-mailed him or posted messages in discussion areas, the only common connection has been an interest in movies.

Users include anyone from the 11-year-old girl who wrote to Belli “saying that she loves movies and that she wants to be a director when she grows up” to film students to professionals. “It’s a whole cross-section,” Belli says.

Stephen Richey, a first-time filmmaker from Austin, Texas, recently e-mailed Stavrides about securing song rights for movies. Richey didn’t know what to expect when he sent off his query and was happily surprised when his e-mail had been replied to later that same day.

“I sent the question around lunchtime and received an answer by evening,” writes Richey in an e-mail. “I was at first hesitant to ask such a novice question, but Mr. Stavrides replied in a respectful, straightforward and easy to understand manner.”

Stavrides, 42, says Belli selected him as the site’s Artist in Residence because he was looking for an experienced filmmaker to help field questions. Though Stavrides initially got involved with the project because of his friendship with Belli, the Canadian filmmaker has stayed with the Cyber school because he has grown to love his role as teacher.

“I actually enjoy the process,” Stavrides says. “It’s the ham in me that likes to lecture and give little tidbits of wisdom here and there.” Stavrides likens his situation to that of supermarket checker who for some parts of the day will have no customers and then during other parts will suddenly have a long line of people before him.

Although there are sometimes stretches of weeks were Stavrides won’t get any questions, one area of the Cyber Film School that’s constantly busy is the “Hot Posts” section. There, filmmakers post messages when they are looking for crews to help on film-related projects or they themselves are looking for work. In March, filmmakers sought out people for projects in New York, Philadelphia, Toronto and Dubai in the United Arab Emerites. Belli adds that users also seem to be attracted to the software area of the site, where, among other utilities, is a script template that he created.

Belli makes no money from the site. The filmmaker, currently working as a director of photography on a Canadian television show and designer of web pages, says that he has not had time to pursue advertisers. His Internet provider hosts the site for free, however, so the only thing that the site has cost him is his time. He also hopes to put out a Cyber Film School CD Rom.

Stavrides says that although the Cyber Film School provides excellent insight into filmmaking, it will never offer the same well-rounded education that comes from going to an actual film school. Belli takes a different view.

“I’ve met so many people who didn’t go to film school,” Belli says. “There’s no real route--it’s whatever works for you. I think online film schools ultimately could replace film schools. I don’t think that could happen with medical schools, but I think with film it could.”