USC Film Program

[vitaluminosa]

[deleted by user]

[J.R. Hudson]

http://filmmakerstore.com/schools.htm

Do you have a reel ?

[snodart]

I can't help much, but... my brother-in-law and I did sneak into a USC film class once. The class was dry and the professor seemed a touch pompous. That was one day of one class of course and means nothing. The campus itself was great. We gave ourselves a quick tour of some of the editing rooms and they looked very nice. Large screens and some impressive computer bays. It looked like all of the active stations were using Avid. We talked with a few people and over all, it seemed like a pretty great and exciting place to be for film students. Anyway, that is my review from my one day adventure. Helpful, probably not.
:)

[spencer]

It's good enough so that if you get in it, you should go to it.

I mean, no offense, i know nothing of you, but you're talking like this is a sure fire thing to get into. Do you realize how extremely selective they are regarding the film program? Not only do you need the grades to make it into USC the school, but then you have to pass another applications process for the film school. I think about one to four percent of the entire population of USC actually are in the film program, that's how selective they are.

But i mean, look at the list. If anything, the name will do more good than the teaching. there's only so much one can teach you about an art, the rest you've gotta do on your own.

Are you going to be going into college out of high school or is this like graduate school? I'm about to apply in the fall, and i've been trying to bulk up my creative portfolio for the film schools.

[spencer]

Thank you for the link, John.

I know that there is a great possibility that I might not get in, but a man's gotta have confidence in things... and an optimistic outlook to boot. :)

I currently don't have a reel, but I hope to build up to one by next year as I'm intending to transfer in from another university.

I admire your optimism. I'm a downer case, because i had a brother with phenomenal grades and a good athletic transcript that barely got into any of the schools he wanted. Therefore, i'm pessimistic until I get in. But I'm confident in my writing abilities and my creative portfolio is diversified and has at least three movies in there (should be four in the summer) so I think i'm doing all right. I mean, granted, there's still not a good chance of me getting in, but at least I gave it the ol college try.

[Robert Pottorff]

i'll be applying to college this upcomming school year, scares me quite a bit - not even kidding :)

[dougspice]

Hey guys,

I'm a USC Cinema Production alum, so I can comment a bit on this.


If anything, the name will do more good than the teaching.

There may have been a time when this was true, but it's really not anymore. The USC name doesn't do you a whole lot of good out there in the world. Some people may be impressed but just as many will assume you're a trust-fund kid or an arrogant know-it-all. However, the other part of the statement is fortunately also not true. There are some really world-class teachers at USC... not many schools have professors with Oscars on their shelves! If you're careful to pick the right classes and right teachers, and commit to helping your classmates out, you'll learn a tremendous amount. I wish I had done more when I was still in school, honestly, taken more advantage of that access to the faculty.

As for getting in, yeah, it's hard. I believe the acceptance rate to the cinema school as a whole is something like 5%. The Screenwriting program is the hardest, by far, letting in only 25 people per year out of thousands of applicants. Production is tough, but not quite as selective. Critical Studies is much easier and there are a lot of people at USC who are in Critical Studies and trying to transfer to Production. I think you get one chance per year to do this, starting after sophomore year.

All of this information is a couple years old and might be out of date, sorry if that's the case.

If you're hoping to get in, your best bet is to have a lot of passion and an interesting story. They don't necessarily care (or want) for you to have produced five feature films before coming there... some of my classmates had experience like that, but more had never touched a camera. They just had a fascinating life background and a passion for storytelling. And all of them had SOME sort of demonstrable artistic talent, whether that be photography, sketching, poetry... whatever.