Film school

As a current filmschool student at NYU I would say that one of the strengths of a good school is networking. (Obviously) It really has and does open up doors for work, but of course without talent it's a moot point.

The second strength of school are your fellow students. My classmates are incredibly talented and working with them really does rub off. You get a taste of that with the DVXfest collaborations taking place, but it's not the same. They challenge you, you challenge them, and it's a very supportive and engaging environment.

I don't think filmschool is the right choice for everyone. In fact I'm glad I didn't do it undergrad. I went to a liberal arts school and studied English and Communications. I worked in documentary after college overseas in Africa. It was a great experience that helped me deal with and get my own ego in check and figure out what I wanted to do in film. It was emotionally, physically, and spiritually challenging.

Work and real life experience are invaluable. Even breaking your ass in a shi*ty job is invaluable. I don't recommend jumping from undergrad film to graduate film. Take some time, travel, get experience, build stories and make some mistakes. There's no right path.

And I wouldn't judge a whole program based on a reality show. There are good schools, but really it comes down to your persistence and being too dumb to know when to quit. Work, work, keep working, and keep your ego in check. People notice.
 
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I know NYU is a great film school, but for some reason I've ruled it out. On the Lot had maybe 5% to do with this.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it though, Isaac.
 
I would say apply to all the good schools because it's very difficult to get in to even one of them. Acceptance rates are low.

I've worked on a couple undergrad shoots at NYU and it's a very good program. The undergrad program is very intensive, and the kids know their stuff.
 
Well here's the formula I've hobbled together during my first year at a film school.

Film school is good for two, maybe three things.

First, you network with people your age. Those contacts will become important when you're out all alone looking for film work to buy your dog some more food.

Second, you get to (are forced to) work from the ground up, seeing how real film works rather than digital cinematography - and you pick up a lot of tidbits doing this.

Third, the professors that preach to you day in and day out will generally give you a good background of film history. The one thing you can count on a film school to do is to teach you how to be a film critic. Eventually, that will become important, but not right away.

I realized after a year in the film major at my school that if I wanted to learn how to MAKE a film, I was going to have to do it myself.

A lot of people will say 'skip film school and just DO it.' I don't see the logic there, when its just as easy to 'go through film school AND do it'. Film isn't something you can be taught in a classroom. It's not a job. It's more of a lifestyle. You have to throw yourself into it and resist the urge to come up for air, even if you start to lose feeling in your limbs.

I go to film school. Hooray I saw Citizen Kane and learned why Vertigo was so cool. I know what a gate is and learned (gasp) that film goes at 24 frames per second. I doubt any class would have taught me what a C47 is, what a Maffer clamp is, what bounce cards were, what a Kino Flo, a tweenie, an inky, a Cstand, etc. etc. were. I doubt the classes will teach me much on how to diffuse light other than by putting 'diffusion' on it. I doubt any of my classes will tell me much more than how to do a 3point lighting set up (How do you light a hallway scene? an outdoor environment? etc. etc.). There's so much you have to figure out by yourself or with your fellow classmates, but it never hurts to get started early.

When I'm not in class, I'm in the film club workshopping scripts with strangers, or I'm on creativecow or dvxuser browsing the forums and learning as much as I can. If I'm not doing that, I'm making myself needlessly angry at After Effects or Maya. If I'm not in the mood to get angry, I'm dragging friends around with my camera and tripod and trying new kinds of shots and lighting techniques. I spent my summer break putting together an HVX package, writing scripts, and doing menial video editing work for money.

If my girlfriend starts IMing me about her chemistry homework and how hard it is, I talk to her on the right monitor while I type out my film school philosophy on the left monitor (yup...).

going to school for film is one thing. Going for film is another. The two are similar, but the difference is that when you go for film, you have to really WANT it.

The nature of technology dictates that in order to create something worthwhile, you have to deal with a lot of sh** to get there. That's what film is all about.

My fingers hurt, and I hope I didn't come off as egocentric. I've only been on these forums for a little while, but I've been a browser for almost a year. I guess my current goal is eventually for people on forums and places like these to recognize who I am. Thats the aspiration of any filmmaker in his beginnings I suppose, to be appreciated for his work and his contributions.

Cya around!
 
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I see a lot of familiar truths in SeanEmer's post.

Although in the program I did (Syracuse U, BFA Art Media/Film) we actually got the C47-bounce cards-Cstand, etc stuff. Along with enough art theory and semiotics to choke a horse.
 
I go to film school. Hooray I saw Citizen Kane and learned why Vertigo was so cool. I know what a gate is and learned (gasp) that film goes at 24 frames per second. I doubt any class would have taught me what a C47 is, what a Maffer clamp is, what bounce cards were, what a Kino Flo, a tweenie, an inky, a Cstand, etc. etc. were. I doubt the classes will teach me much on how to diffuse light other than by putting 'diffusion' on it. I doubt any of my classes will tell me much more than how to do a 3point lighting set up (How do you light a hallway scene? an outdoor environment? etc. etc.). There's so much you have to figure out by yourself or with your fellow classmates, but it never hurts to get started early.
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Wait until you're a senior. They don't take the training wheels off for freshmen, even if there's a few who can ride without them.

I guess my current goal is eventually for people on forums and places like these to recognize who I am. Thats the aspiration of any filmmaker in his beginnings I suppose, to be appreciated for his work and his contributions.
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I cared about that at the beginning too, but after seeing the box office reports for 'The Pacifier' I completely lost faith in my fellow man, and decided to make movies only for myself.
 
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DerrickTempleton said:
I cared about that at the beginning too, but after seeing the box office reports for 'The Pacifier' I completely lost faith in my fellow man, and decided to make movies only for myself.
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The same happened to me when I saw the box office results for XMen 3, the Last Stand...

But I have hope...
 
yo bballplayer... youre from texas, go to UT Austin, they have a killer film program. I went out there when I was in high school to check it out. I didn't apply, but I did pretty bad on my SAT scores, so it wasn't even worth it.
 
NOMADIC said:
yo bballplayer... youre from texas, go to UT Austin, they have a killer film program. I went out there when I was in high school to check it out. I didn't apply, but I did pretty bad on my SAT scores, so it wasn't even worth it.
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I PA'd for a day with a bunch of UT grads who all knew their stuff very well, but for some reason I just want to get out of the city.

I hear Austin has this huge film community, but maybe I just don't know where to look. There are a lot of filmmakers from Austin, but I don't notice many actually getting it done.
 
Austin is growing...I don't know how many localized film people there are, but stuff is shot there...My uncle lives there, hes a producer out there....

I think alot of it is LA based work coming to shoot because its cheaper there.
 
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