This study sought to determine what factors could impact career development pathways for postsecondary film studies through survey research. The selected determining factors that offered eventual success as a filmmaking professional were students' personality characteristics and unique, innate abilities. The survey questions polled film study educators whose primary contact with film students was at college-level classrooms and could offer significant opinions about the factors measured. Only those educators with demographic characteristics that dealt with actual filmmaking procedures of production and post-production gave a measurable statistical result related to a single dependent variable. The differentiator between filmmaking disciplines was distinguished by those with direct interaction with the practical procedures of filmmaking, i.e., Screenwriting, Production, and Post-Production in contrast to those without, i.e., Theory, Critique, History, and Audiences. Of these seven film studies specialties represented, 37.5% agreed, 33.9% disagreed, and 26.7% neither agreed nor disagreed. The implications for future research suggest polling educators with direct practical film education activity at a secondary school level whose student/teacher relationships are significantly more intimate. Additionally, their presence is at a time when students are beginning to consider what college career studies they will follow. These participants could offer survey data to understand the suggested phenomenon more accurately. A more accurate study would further clarify the current dilemma that film students face when selecting their most appropriate career path for film studies.