I agree. And the most important “skill” is aesthetics. Hamlet said it best, “Aye truly, the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into its likeness.”
I graduated from Academy of Art University, San Francisco in 2005. I had three internships, and a killer reel, and entre into a very competitive market.
Now, I live in Tahoe, where someone bought me $60k in production equipment and bought me $1.2M in distribution equipment. Because my reel is so kickass, a Pulitizer prize nominated playwright gave me the rights to one of his stories. I’m currently finishing the audio.
At AAU, SF, it was very plain from the get-go: You need a reel. You need internships. You need a career.