Best Directing School in US

fpinho

fpinho

Member
Hi,

Can someone help me finding the best US Directing School?
I´m from Europe and i want to make a one year course.

Thanks a lot.

Fernando
 
There are some fine US institutions with good film education programs where you can attend the classes without left Europe. And you can shoot in Europe included. But they're following the US system. Attending an american institution without leaving Europe it seems a nice deal to me. But I wouldn't go with the nyfa... I have a friend who did it and didn't like it. And I knew other one with the same feeling.
 
Well, both were in NY but it seems their Europe programs are similar. There should surely be other options out there.
 
John_Hudson said:
The best 1 year film school ?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm ..........................

Here are some legitimate options on the B E S T

AFI
California Institute of the Arts
Columbia University School of the Arts
The North Carolina School of the Arts
NYU
San Francisco State University
UCLA
USC
University of Texas at Austin
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I'm not sure if these have an european program... I've been with people who are doing their film training program in both sides of the Atlantic and they are very satisfied with both possibilities. They're saying the best you can do is to have the best of the two worlds: US & Europe. That's why I'd recommend an american institution with an european program. Because they are two different worlds at the moviemaking level. Even with an american experience but without an european one, it will be difficult to succeed in Europe. Different sides of the same planet but you can only reach yours if you know well your environment, the market and ALL what you're doing.
 
I fully agree with John's list and would put AFI at the top as well. Their conservatory program is by far the best.
 
I don't doubt but I heard it is very elitist also because it is very expensive. I know the majority it is but do you have any idea how much are the fees there?
 
The school of hard knocks ;).

Seriously, though. Be aware that film school is not for everyone. Try shooting a few short films first. Take on 10-15 projects you really hated or had no initial interest in to discover if this is something you REALLY want to invest all of that time and money into.

It is quite difficult to land a job out of film school that would begin to pay for your expenses while in school.

All I'm saying is, try working on a few projects first and see if you need to go to film school. I didn't and I work as a full time video professional, independently and as a salary job.
 
"Actually, for some time now I have given some thought to opening a film school. But if I did start one up you would only be allowed to fill out an application form after you have walked alone on foot, let's say from Madrid to Kiev, a distance of about five thousand kilometres. While walking, write. Write about your experiences and give me your notebooks. I would be able to tell who had really walked the distance and who had not. While you are walking you would learn much more about filmmaking and what it truly involves than you ever would sitting in a classroom. During your voyage you will learn more about what your future holds than in five years at film school. Your experiences would be the very opposite of academic knowledge, for academia is the death of cinema. It is the very opposite of passion." - Werner Herzog
 
rsbush said:
"Actually, for some time now I have given some thought to opening a film school. But if I did start one up you would only be allowed to fill out an application form after you have walked alone on foot, let's say from Madrid to Kiev, a distance of about five thousand kilometres. While walking, write. Write about your experiences and give me your notebooks. I would be able to tell who had really walked the distance and who had not. While you are walking you would learn much more about filmmaking and what it truly involves than you ever would sitting in a classroom. During your voyage you will learn more about what your future holds than in five years at film school. Your experiences would be the very opposite of academic knowledge, for academia is the death of cinema. It is the very opposite of passion." - Werner Herzog
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priceless
 
Gordon Prince said:
I don't doubt but I heard it is very elitist also because it is very expensive. I know the majority it is but do you have any idea how much are the fees there?
Click to expand...

Elitist usually stems from the best.
 
I'm currently attending the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking and so far I'm loving their one year program.

website

It's fun, you learn a lot.

It's fairly new though, only been going for a year or two now.
 
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First year tuition, costs of living, etc. with AFI in Cali, about $60,000 according to their website. Second year, about $65,000. Ouch.
 
DVX-Ben said:
First year tuition, costs of living, etc. with AFI in Cali, about $60,000 according to their website. Second year, about $65,000. Ouch.
Click to expand...

But worth every penny of it and then some. That is, if you get accepted.

... not easy at all.
 
I don't know if I'd recommend AFI...was tapped as production designer for an AFI grad-project, a few months ago, and their program seemed to offer all the constraints of low-budget production, with all the constraints of big-budget production, and few if any of the advantages of either.

That said, my perspective was strictly that of a hired-gun professional. I haven't lived their program, from day to day.
 
for those that argue that it is better to make films on your own than go to film school fail to understand the things film school offers...it is not merely writing papers and reading like getting a degree in Political Science.

you are offered an abundance of equipment that would cost you a fortune to secure on your own. you are covered by your school's insurance...something else that saves you a lot of money. you meet an absurd amount of very very talented people which you will work with that will teach you far more from than the classroom or working on your own ever will.

and you are able to get jobs, however; hardly ever paying jobs on legitimate film and television sets that non-students in the los angeles area would die for.

60,000 may sound like an absurd amount of money but in the long run...
 
I dunno...I went to film school, and wound up buying my own 16mm synch equipment while I was there, anyway.

academia is the death of cinema - yes sirree, bravo, and amen, to that.
 
I struggled for a while with the idea of film school. The reason I ended up going is because I couldn't get a $17,900 loan to make a film. I could get a $17,900 loan to go to school with no problem, though.

I've heard good things about AFI, mainly from some of the instructors that taught at the film school I went to.

I can't give any advice on what the best school to attend might be, but I can tell you where not to go: Seattle Film Institute. I think they have a directing workshop, but I took their 40-week cert program and probably would have been better off just going to the library and reading a couple of books.
 
From my indirect experience with it, the New York Film Academy is easily the worst film school I've ever run across.

I've done some work on sets for students of the NYFA making their thesis film. This was at the end of the curriculum, after they had spent $30,000 and a year of their life "learning."

All of the crew was students, apparently the way it works is everyone directs a short film and everyone else helps them make it as crew. So you direct your film, then you are a grip on another project, the sound guy on another, etc. Kind of a neat system.

On one project in particular I spoke to the "dolly grip" du jour, and he expounded on how great the school was. "They don't waste time with theory and books. The very first day you learn how to use a 16mm camera."

Well. It seemed to me that the students had learned plenty of technical stuff on how to make a film, but didn't know anything about the whys.

I can't tell you how much time we wasted waiting for planes to go overhead or cars to go by so they could get sync sound on a slow-motion fight scene. You know, the kind of thing you'd never use the location sound for anyway.

The directors and crew knew how to use all the fancy equipment but had no real conception of dramatic progression, shot composition, pacing, or how to cover a scene. I could tell as we were shooting that the film was going to be terrible, and when it was done, I was unfortunately vindicated. The final product was awful, amateurish, and the kind of thing that you would expect from someone who had never picked up a camera, not "film school graduates."

Anyway, sorry for the rant. But I remember sitting near the craft services table while the directors tried to figure out what the hell to shoot next, and I happened to hear one of them talking to the other crew: "After this, my visa expires and I go back to Italy. This film is going to be my calling card. I'm 30 years old and I have no backup plan. This has to work." I seriously felt like crying.

NYFA is there to take your money and make you feel like you're learning something. But you're only learning how to use equipment, not how to make films.

thematthewbone said:
for those that argue that it is better to make films on your own than go to film school fail to understand the things film school offers...

you are offered an abundance of equipment that would cost you a fortune to secure on your own. you are covered by your school's insurance...something else that saves you a lot of money. you meet an absurd amount of very very talented people which you will work with that will teach you far more from than the classroom or working on your own ever will.
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I agree and disagree. You get the equipment, but in almost all cases it is only available for work you are doing for a class. People seem to have this notion that there's all this equipment laying around that any student can check out for the weekend, for a personal project, like a book from the library.

Admittedly, I haven't worked with every film school, but I know several of the major ones like UCLA and USC will not give you any equipment unless you can prove it is for a class assignment. Likewise the insurance.

Networking is what film school does best, but I think even that can go pretty well, especially in L.A., without going to film school. There's a lot of very, very talented people out there without the resources/inclination to go to film school, whome you can meet by networking and doing films "on your own".

thematthewbone said:
and you are able to get jobs, however; hardly ever paying jobs on legitimate film and television sets that non-students in the los angeles area would die for.
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If they're willing to work for little or no pay, non-students are just as eligible for many of those jobs as students.
 
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