Recommend me a film school?

Daniel_Runyon said:
"We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall."

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"




Might I suggest an alternative view.....that of mother poo poo "the industry". I urge you to flee with all might and great speed anything that you would refer to as "the industry". I've seen the phrase "the industry" bandied about by posters throughout my time on this and other filmmaking forums....often used in a subtle, bragging way to give vaque hints that the poster is above the lowly wannabes...for example:

WannabePoster has either said something or asked a question.

BigTimePro replies with something that somewhere includes the phrase "here in the industry we do this and wouldn't think of doing that".

I am begging you...if you ever feel as if referring to yourself as being "in the industry" is something to be proud of then contact me for immediate assistence...I'll do whatever I can to help you find healing.

Film schools seem to me to be producing industry drones and I would not think that to be beneficial to our culture or collective conciousness. Learning how to imitate "industry standard" is not doing any of us any real good. It is only contributing to the great dumbing down of our society.

I would find far more value in a solitary artist who learns his/her craft and then spends the rest of their time dreaming up content than becoming another cog. When you get out of film school you'll have enormous debt from student loans and credit card living...you'll then be more or less forced into any slot "in the industry" that you can find to fit into.....just a brick in the wall trying to make a living with very little time to just relax into the recesses of your deeper conciousness and explore for content and love. Sure, you might work on up the chain to better and better positions, but your mind and soul will still be more or less consumed by "the industry".

Industry in general is more and more becoming the biggest societal pain in the ass........the needs of the industry have come to far outweigh the needs of humanity....that is both sad and terrifying. Mother poo poo "the industry".

As for my qualifications, I am satisfied with them.
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your post is a prime example of how not to persuade someone.
 
sd006 said:
I've been reading all the replies, this thread's been pretty much hijacked. :rolleyes:

My simple question was to gather a list of top film schools in the U.S., and I only see a couple of direct responses (e.g. Columbia, NYU, NYFA). It's certainly an interesting thread, but I don't have anything to add to the "film school vs school of hard knocks debate." I'm not here to promote a brand, I just wanted the honest opinions of filmmakers to recommend top schools. :)
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I visited chapman university. its an amazing campus... beaitful classes. GREAT equipment. i would reccomend chapman, although i am not a student there.
 
Check out NYU. The school is cocky but possibly, rightfully so. It will cost a pretty penny but you have the rest of your life to pay back your loans. The great thing about a USC, UCLA or NYU is that they are in prime areas. There is a lot of visual language going on in these towns as well as social diversity.

I got my BA at Northridge. It is a good school but gritty. It's in a great location and it surely wont break the bank. But, you have to be diligent there...you must MAKE them give you the classes you want, when you want so you graduate on time.

The one good thing about CSUN is that you will be with other students who have the same drive, desire and interests as you but aren't there strictly on mommy and daddys dime. You'll find that finding a good story to tell is the hardest part of it all. If you go to a school and have a good story to tell, you will not have to worry about it being competitive. Students tend to latch on the other students who have good scripts or stories to tell.

So, from my experiences and what I know, those are my suggestions.

Rick
 
I for one don't believe in the whole: "you must attend school in order to be complete" crap. I don't knock it but I don't promote it either. If you want to make films then grab some of the books mentioned earlier in this thread and start shooting when you're not reading.
 
Coffee, (sigh) again, the kids not asking you IF he should go to school, he's asking which ones to consider....

No you don't need to attend school to be complete, although more and more, in this country you do, if you want to build any kind of life. That may sound harsh but, at least where I live, it's pretty true... Also there are all the points that I and others have made before in this thread. You cannot get those benefits from studying on your own, you simply can't.

I'll ask you the same questions I asked Weston, on what basis do you form your opinion?
 
Matt,
It's pretty amazing that we never exchange dialogue and here you seem to address me with a bit of a tude.

I typed something pretty in depth about my success to support the basis of my opinion but it simply sounds like I was boasting about my blessings and that's not what I intended to do so, I deleted it. To keep it simple, I'm very very comfortable in life and I don't owe that to any school.


EDIT: Also, in fear of getting banned for something so silly I just wanted to state for the record that I'm not attacking you Matt. lol

Jay
 
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That's cool man, so are many folks. I don't owe my success in life to a music education, I don't do anything in that area anymore. But usually that's the exception not the rule, don't you think?

Ok never mind, I don't mean to put anyone off... I gave my opinion, I'm out.

EDIT: I guess I'm just a big believer in education. I'm on of the only people in my family to go to college and if I didn't go on a music scholarship I never would have went. I know it can be done without it, but if/when I have kids, I'll definitely push them to go. I think it creates a ton of benefits. That's all. I mean no disrespect to anyone else, I just can't believe that people would recommend NOT going to college if someone had the opportunity...
 
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coffee said:
EDIT: Also, in fear of getting banned for something so silly I just wanted to state for the record that I'm not attacking you Matt. lol

Jay
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I'm not that kind of guy.....
 
MattC said:
I'm on of the only people in my family to go to college and if I didn't go on a music scholarship I never would have went.
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I have stated here that I attribute my successes to film schooling and I agree
that its very important.

Side note... I never graduated. I took what I wanted from the programs and
moved on. I do regret not having the paper as I'd probably be teaching at this
point... not because the paper would have helped in a production career.
 
check out some of the smaller schools (in comparison to the giants like USC, NYU, Columbia, etc.):

City College of New York, Temple University, FSU, SCAD, Emerson, Hampshire College, UT Austin...
 
I hear you Matt and trust me, I do agree with you in a huge way. I have three kids and I hope I can sway them towards college when they get older but, it really depends on what they want to do in life. If it's making films then I'll show them the way that I'd show a friend. If it's to go into business then maybe scool is right. If it's braiding hair on the beach in the tropics then I'll buy them the ticket, ONE WAY! lol.

I do feel that I am the exception and that's why I always say that I'm blessed. If I had a choice in the matter, I would of went to school, no question. My problem is that I was homeless and living under the board walks of the jersey shore during those "golden years" of my life and I couldn't get a warm meal in my belly at the time let alone a book to read with a teacher to guide.
 
GOD, The guy just wants recomendations for schools, some people are like record players, "BUY books Buy Books, fund your own short, buy books buy books". Wether someone wants to go to school or not is his choice, stop changing the subject and start talking about the schools themselves, if you dont like school............ Start another thread :P.
 
Nothing wrong with giving earnest advice sir, not just to the OP but to any who may read the thread with interest and have their minds to make up....you never know when someone will dig through the threads and find the information and exchange of ideas to be useful to them.

Advice can be taken or left, read or skipped. :p
 
I tottaly agree, I just find it really frustrating for people like me. I'm 19 and I decided I wanted to go to school, I have started threads like this one and people keep on saying dont go to school. I just find it harsh that some people Trash schools sometimes, maybe there right, but if someone needs to learn in a school environement then that's cool, when he asks what school to go to, it gets confusing when people reply with DONT GO. I dont know, I didn't mean to be all GRRRRRRR lol. It's just it's not an easy decision, and the same answers keep on popping up. Now lets hear about thoses schools :P
 
It really comes down to preference. I needed the competition of film school and the friendships that can be made.....now must of what I learned came after school. Other people aren't film school people.

I would offer that if you've got the money to school it's not going to hurt you as long as you don't count it as the only way to do things.

Also, everybody says "buy a camera, make movies, etc"... The only problem with this is that many people go to shool on loan and therefore the money may be there to go to school, but not necessarily to buy gear, etc.

sd006-Why not look into the Vancouver Film School? It's a great city to go to school in and it covers all the basics.
 
clumsy_cool said:
I tottaly agree, I just find it really frustrating for people like me. I'm 19 and I decided I wanted to go to school, I have started threads like this one and people keep on saying dont go to school. I just find it harsh that some people Trash schools sometimes, maybe there right, but if someone needs to learn in a school environement then that's cool, when he asks what school to go to, it gets confusing when people reply with DONT GO. I dont know, I didn't mean to be all GRRRRRRR lol. It's just it's not an easy decision, and the same answers keep on popping up. Now lets hear about thoses schools :P
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I'm not trying to be combative here but the truth is that if you already know you want to go to school and you're looking for advice on a forum then you're selling youreslf short. get on google and do your research for the cold facts relative to schools. selecting the right one for you is alot of work and laying your decision on the options that others provide is simply lazy.
 
I'm working on a thesis film for my Bachelors in Cinema Production at Southern Illinois University, and my experience here has been amazing. It's cheap (tuition is about $2500 a semester in state) and about as far from Hollywood and NY as you can get. What I mean by this, (I love LA & NY) is that the program is geared more towards the independent filmmaker(documentary, animation, experimental), instead of commercial
big budget stuff.
I can't say enough how invaluable it is to be trained on and have access to tons of professional equipment, not to mention the wealth of knowledge and real-world experience that the faculty has to offer.
 
I went to Full Sail. Some people hate it, some people love it. I'm doin alright.
 
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