film school/career help

rhandomskate

rhandomskate

Active member
ok, well I am in 12th grade in highschool, getting ready to start applying, but i dont know where. What are your thoughts on R.I.T?? I want to be a video producer, do you think i should get a business degree first? if so, where are good, easy to get into, business schools? if i go to R.I.T. is there a good chance for me to have a future in being a video producer?... are there any good film schools in arizona? I'd kind of like to go to school out there. If I decide not to get a degree in film, I may want to start my own company, would it just be best to get a degree in business? What would be the better thing? I know for a fact i wont get into tisch. What are the requirements for Chapman? What are some other good, easy to get into, film schools out in cali??? I'm really stuck on my decisions of what i want to do, please help me. also, the local community college recently started a new film program... would it be wise for me to attend that for 2 years and get a film degree and then transfer to a bigger school and get a business degree or vise versa?... would it be wise for me to attend a community college in AZ or CA for film production? does anyone know anything about SUNY binghamton in NY for business or film production? what are your thoughts? i really want to be involved in film production as a career, and i know that degree is a necessity in order to make good money in it, so i definitely will need that degree, but if the field is too big and theres not much of a future in film production, then I may just open my own local business and just do films on the side. what do you think? All of this may be confusing but please try to understand. I'm really confused haha.
 
Hah... my counsin-in-law owns full sail... its a good technical AV institute, but expensive.

With a 3.0 and 1100 SAT you wont get into UCLA USC NYU or Chapman(unless you are Christ's son). I went to UCLA and USC, so trust me on at least 2 of those :)

So you have several choices: Go to a JC (out in LA I recommend Santa Monica Community College) for 2 years, then transfer to UCLA (a lot of people do this, it works well).

Go to a trade school like Full Sail, NYFA or the others mentioned above - they are not my favorite places, but people that could care less about story or performance that just want to operate machines seem to like those places.

Go and hustle to be a PA on films and skip school all together. Which I don't recommend for personal sanity and educational purposes.

My thing is... it sounds like, from the tone of your post, you are still confused... which is cool. So I'd say get a good GENERAL education, who knows you may find your true calling in something else, or you may focus in on what you like in the entertainment world. But one thing is for sure - this is a competative world, you have to PROVE yourself by working harder than anyone else. There will be a time when grades are meaningless, unfortunately for you, now is not the time, so work as hard as you can and prove your passion for the biz.
 
rhandomskate, heres a couple quotes that might give you a little perspective on your career.....

"I earned my own money by working the night shift as a welder in a steel factory, as a parking lot attendant, things like that. Maybe the most important piece of advice I can give to those of you heading into the world of film is that as long as you are able-bodied, as long as you can make money yourself, don't go out looking for office jobs just to pay the rent. I would also be very wary of bottom-rung jobs in film production companies. Go out to where the real world is, go work as a bouncer in a night-club, a warden in a lunatic asylum or in a slaughterhouse. Real life, this is what's vital. Work on your feet, learn languages, learn a craft or trade that has nothing to do with cinema."

and.....

"I personally don't believe in the kind of film schools you find all over the world today. I never worked as another filmmaker's assistant and I never had any formal training. My early films come from my very deepest commitment to what I was doing, what I felt I had no choice but to do, and as such they are totally unconnected to what was going on at the film schools - and cinemas - of the time. It's my strong autodidactic streak and my faith in my own work that have kept me going for more than forty years. "

-Werner Herzog

these are taken from a larger article that you can fin here....
http://www.thestickingplace.com/books/herzog_extracts.html

good luck.:beer:
 
The California system is set up for students to go to a junior college first and
then on to a major university. My son's high school counselor told him that
4.0 gpa did not guarantee a thing, not in Cali.

If you want to get away from home, come up to the Bay area and attend
Cabrillo College, one of the best junior colleges in all of Cali (so I'm told). Then
go to San Jose State, considered one of the best business schools which a
high success rate of students getting a job in their field after they graduate.
This state school I believe success rate beat out Berkley and UCLA.

State schools are more affordable. My son will graduate debt free.
 
Charli said:
The California system is set up for students to go to a junior college first and
then on to a major university. My son's high school counselor told him that
4.0 gpa did not guarantee a thing, not in Cali.
Click to expand...

The option for a Juco is there for CA kid's but most kids take the Juco route due to two things:

grades or financial situation.

I find it hard to fathom a kid with a 4.0 not getting accepted to most schools anywhere (unless we're talking Ivy League; Law or Medicine ....)

The reason a 4.0 would not guarantee anything is that there a boatload of other kids with 4.0's trying to do the same thing. Acceptance then moves to the category(s) of SAT, volunteer work, activities, clubs, essay, et al

=

It does sound like for this guy he is unsure (or just plain nervous) about making any big decisions. You don't need a degree to be a Video Producer, all you need to do is start producing videos.

Start with the local small bands in need of help and build your reel from there; if you have the goods, it'll grow in time. In the meantime ? Get started at the Juco so you can atleast start earning credit's towards a degree. You're going to have to take general education anyway before moving beyond undergraduate studies.
 
You have a better chance of transfering to Berkley after attending 2 years in
jc than trying to enroll there as a freshman. That's just the way it is here.
Few get in, many don't.

A friend's son who has 4.0 gpa, great extra curriclar stuff, etc., didn't get into
Stanford, but is accepted in out of state colleges.

That's just the way it is here.
 
From a british teenager point of view. Go to college, you get free access to filming equiptment. Study a course, borrow the equiptment and build yourself a reel, at the same time.
 
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