When you're in film school the teachers always show you the classics that have stood the test of time. They show you "Citizen Kane" to demonstrate creative cinematography and how it can be used to tell a story. They show you "The Godfather" to demonstrate how to depict proper character arcs and motivations within the story. They show you classics within certain genres, such as "Star Wars" for sci-fi and "High Noon" for westerns, to show you what makes them great examples of their genres. You can learn a lot from great films, but what many teachers fail to see is that you can learn just as much from bad films as you can from good ones. I would like to shine some light on some of the great failures that have come out of the film industry so future filmmakers won't repeat them.

For example, one can learn everything they need to know about proper editing from films such as "Suicide Squad" and "The Last Airbender". In "Suicide Squad" you can learn about proper continuity between shots and scenes after seeing how jarring and inconsistent the edits in the film are. You can also learn about proper setup and payoff when it comes to plot points. Many people have already used the film to teach people about proper editing such as the YouTube channel Folding Ideas.

In "The Last Airbender" film students can learn about proper framing and cinematography when they watch the awkward camera placement throughout the film. They can learn about proper dialog delivery and when to place exposition when they have the pleasure (or in this case displeasure) of hearing the stilted dialog delivery and the clunky exposition given through overused narration. This is another topic I have seen people, such as Folding Ideas, tackle.

While these videos are educational and entertaining, I would love to see this kind of stuff taught at actual film schools and classes. Imagine what we can learn about films by examining the failures and determine why they failed. It would be interesting to apply this attitude toward something like the "Transformers" films.

These films have been, for the most part, universally panned by critics. They have been called overly loud and obnoxious. They have been criticized for their overabundance of explosions and lack of quality plots... or characters. Despite these common criticisms, the films have grossed billions of dollars worldwide. It would be interesting to know what audiences find so appealing in these heavily flawed films that keeps them coming back for more.

One could also learn how to use still cameras and wide shots to make an action scene look better after attempting to make anything out of the close and confusing action in the "Transformers" films.

One can also learn from the failings of once great filmmakers, such as George Lucas and Adam Sandler. People can compare and contrast the "Original Star Wars Trilogy" and the "Prequel Star Wars Trilogy" and discuss the reasons audiences reacted so negatively toward the Prequels.

They can learn how Lucas' over-reliance on CGI and special effects over things like well-written characters and story led to fan displeasure. They can understand the importance of collaboration on a film when they see what happens when Lucas is given all the power and everyone is afraid to question his decisions. They can witness the slow decline of Adam Sandler films. They can understand how using the same tropes and cliches in films, such as Sandler's, can eventually turn audiences away from you as they seek something new and fresh. They can learn about the use of "toilet humor."

When it's not used in a clever or interesting way it stops being funny and just ends up feeling crass and juvenile.

These are only a handful of examples I have. I hope that, one day, film schools have things like a "Bad Films 101" so they can learn about many of the things I have just discussed. One of my dreams has been to start a bad films class where students can enjoy watching and poking fun at bad films. The students would then have to explain what they thought was bad about each film. It would be a very enjoyable way to learn about filmmaking (as long as we don't get over frustrated with certain bad films). I wrote this article to shed some light on this subject, because it has baffled me that bad films aren't taught in schools.

I know we only want to remember the quality ones and learn from them, but you would only be learning half as much if you don't understand how things like writing and acting can go horribly wrong. You wouldn't ask a history teacher to only teach the "proud" parts of American history, while ignoring the bad parts (*cough* Trail of Tears *cough*) because they make some people feel bad? Of course you wouldn't, because if you don't learn the bad parts of history we are all doomed to repeat them.