Film Schools?

RyanT said:
I really hope that's not true...:(
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It's definitely true for USC, and I think NYU as well. Not sure about UCLA.

Schools that like a film background or don't care as much are Chapman, LMU, Syracuse, U. Miami, etc. I know from applying to these schools and seeing the applications, talking to students, hearing it elsewhere, and from the fact that at schools like USC the large majority of their film undergrads and grads come from a non-film background.

If you're applying to schools like that I would suggest focusing on unrelated studies and extracurriculars in your application.
 
I just hope that doesn't discourage kids to try filmmaking before college. I feel like I learned the most making movies when I was 15 with all my friends...I know too many people who waited and it was obvious between the ones who made movies before and the ones who hadn't.

Oh well...
 
SK3055 said:
It's definitely true for USC, and I think NYU as well. Not sure about UCLA.

Schools that like a film background or don't care as much are Chapman, LMU, Syracuse, U. Miami, etc. I know from applying to these schools and seeing the applications, talking to students, hearing it elsewhere, and from the fact that at schools like USC the large majority of their film undergrads and grads come from a non-film background.

If you're applying to schools like that I would suggest focusing on unrelated studies and extracurriculars in your application.
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You can still express your love for film in your application, but just make sure that you present yourself as someone who wants/needs to learn how to make films. Do not fill your portfolio sheet with short films, make it varied and include other art forms such as writting, poetry, music , etc....
 
Good luck in applying to Film School - research like you've never worked before when it comes to prospectuses. I did that and I'm currently in my first year at University of Glamorgan in Wales. It's pretty amazing and it's kind of a mainstream choice but the more mainstream choices were really hard to get into and not quite as good for what I wanted to do.
It's worth really looking into it and doing what's best for you and not anything else!
 
I'd also recommend looking into the National School of Film and Television in England. It offers the British equivalent of an MFA in numerous areas in filmmaking. Roger Deakins amongst other filmmakers studied there, and the institution boasts that their master graduates find high level work (read: not PA) in the British film and television industry within a year of graduating the program. Now, a lot of schools say that, but I think I only believe it about NSFT because of what I know about the British film industry. See over there, there isn't much of a divide between television and film like there is here in the United States. The general conception about American television is that its "low culture" and actors "start out" there before making the transition to feature films, if they are good enough. Of course it isn't true of all television or all actors, but the argument can definitely be made.

In England, that stigma doesn't exist at all. The quality of British television is much more in the league of British theater and feature film, unlike it is here. Take for example The Queen which is a British made for television movie. That movie won an Oscar. Think about that for a second. That'd be like a Lifetime or Oxygen network movie being nominated for and winning an Oscar. Here, that's unheard of. There, it's not. And that's why I believe that getting higher jobs in television and film is something that NSFT can boast.
 
I spent 7 years as an undergraduate in Radio/TV/Film production with minors in music/journalism/aviation. That was as a professional student and worked at every radio and tv station in the area. I am ABD for a business degree since the company paid for it. And an adjunct professor when I was director of several university television engineering departments. The past 28 years have been with a major studio/network. During this time I have been helped by and have helped alumni from my school. I have arranged internships at the network and studio. Where you go to school does make a difference in my experience.

My son has expressed an interest in film. I will give him every opportunity that I can muster and guidance in selecting a school. He is shooting with his friends and taking classes at a local film center (Jacob Burns in Pleasantville, NY) He is also taking acting and standup classes and doing films and plays. He has an agent. I told him that he has to know as much about behind the camera as he does in front of it. Now he wants to major in film and continue to act. Busy kid....

On the other hand, his older brother, a exercise science major at Buffalo, is DPing a project Memorial Day weekend in LA. Through his uncle's USC alum (law school) connections from a previous project. I might consider getting him a steady cam if he continues to get work.
Thanks for the advice guys.
 
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To be honest, I think the filmmaking network is made up of people from all different journeys and backgrounds. I can think of 10 incredibly famous filmmakers (and singers, musicians, actors, ect ect) who never stepped foot in a college (some not even graduating high school), yet are millionaires doing extremely successful films in the Hollywood circuit. Then I can think of 10 off my head who also did things the exact traditional way. There's literally almost no specific route when it comes to the truly talented filmmakers, talented filmmakers create projects that are so good that they get attention, or much like Rob Zombie, some filmmakers get very famous with other art forms before becoming a sudden filmmaker, which again, relates to how talented you are at a certain field. The honest truth is that college is for people who A. Want to have a career that the government doesn't allow you to practice without a degree. or B. Need an education and expect their money and degree to get them connections and projects. With the age of the internet and vast selection of books and local projects, the need for a 4-year $100,000 program is declining rapidly, something that seems more the luxury of someone with rich parents and good health.

It's not that I'm against it though, I believe that very generally, if you're educating yourself to be a filmmaker, that it's going to take a good 4 years to become educated properly in the field and if you're doing education, you might as well surround yourself with social opportunities, people your own age, and the college lifestyle, but because of how corrupt our government is at the moment (and has always been), college is not an option that everyone can do. There are people in wheelchairs who have to pay $50,000 a year for surgeries because we don't have free health care, yet those very same people don't have the hope to become filmmakers because they think they have to go to college and waste more money that they don't have. That's simply not true, the paths of education that some people have to alternatively do to make ends meet have virtually no negatives if that's simply what you have to do. Make a talented film, send it to festivals, it's not hard as long as it's good.
 
LA City College has a film program, i'm a film student there. The whole program is like $800 and lots of the students have gone on to land gigs and make big features. Funny thing, Clint Eastwood was a student at LA City College but didn't major in film lol. It's about the connections you make rather than where you go. Why not invest all that money into your films? Besides there are busses that take you to UCLA/USC and the students there are always looking for help, you get to help out on their films and at the same time you meet people and add to your reel/credits.
 
Two to avoid: New York Film Academy and Los Angeles Film School. Both are scams and a waste of time and money. The teachers at LAFS are not good (with a couple of exceptions). Both these schools will admit anybody whose check clears. They are both diploma mills. AFI is the Harvard of film schools but hard to get into. USC and NYU are great film schools. UCLA is very good and so is Chapman.
 
Are any of you familiar with UNCSA? I haven't seen any one mention it in this thread.. but they seem to have a pretty strong cinematography program. I'm visiting this spring.. not sure when I'll apply.
 
Steve Laramie said:
AFI is only a grad school. NYU is not the top film school in America USC is (based off of all the ratings I have read). I am planning on going to a small cheap film school IN LA and using it mainly as an excuse to use gear and network. Location + University of DVX + contacts = success in film.
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Amen to this. Thank god I didn't spend Tens of thousands of dollars on grad school! My BA was bad enough!
 
Bonedog said:
Are any of you familiar with UNCSA? I haven't seen any one mention it in this thread.. but they seem to have a pretty strong cinematography program. I'm visiting this spring.. not sure when I'll apply.
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I got called back for an interview in february for UNCSA cinematography program. I think I will end up here I have heard great things and the actual major in cinematography is appealing.
 
Yeah, right, Film School. And then there's Faith Granger! All she had was herself, a dream and one or two people from this community with a little bit of advice here and there. Basically she taught herself. Anyone who wants to see the results from someone who actually "Gets It" for real, should visit her site at Deuce of Spades, pick up a copy and look at what someone who never even saw the front door of a film school produced as their fledgling first attempt at making a movie on no-budget.
 
Even allowing that you can teach yourself production skills using online resources, which is true to an extent, there are plenty of reasons to go to film school.

As some have mentioned, you'll meet other students to collaborate with and those same students might ask you to work on their projects after graduation and this might lead to a career. Or you might ask them for help when you're making your project. Read some bios on IMDb and you might be surprised to see how many famous talents were roommates or classmates before they were big. It's all about who you know after all.

Film school also gives you years to hone your skills on someone else's equipment that you probably can't afford. This means cameras, support, lights, audio, studio space, editing bays, etc. All you need is your student ID card. Now obviously you're paying tuition, but it's probably not such a bad deal if you run the numbers. And that's not even counting classes, which some people seem to undervalue. Certain schools give you even more for your money. Unless things have changed in the last couple years, Chapman will fully fund your student films if you go through their grad program in film. Plus their facilities put them on par with industry studios due to the generosity of the donations from their wealthy community. Not such a bad deal at all.

Finally, the classes themselves are worth more than you think. A well educated person often simply has more to draw on in their creative endeavors, whether it be from history, philosophy, theory, or any number of other disciplines. When people dream of going to film school, they're often just fantasizing about holding a camera for four years. However, some of the best classes in a film program are those that teach you film history and film theory. Those who specialize in production might scoff at these since they're rooted in academia and seem to only prepare you to become a professor, but what often separates great, celebrated filmmakers from the ordinary ones is an understanding of film theory and history that they apply to their work. It's not mere coincidence that these filmmakers can cite their influences from the French New Wave or Italian Neorealism and can discuss the elements of film theory that characterize the films from these movements. And while it may be possible to read a book on film theory and watch all of the French and Italian classics on Netflix, you might not get as much from it as if you were to attend lectures for a few years in which very intelligent professors explain these concepts to you and curate a very specific selection of films to illustrate them. Filmmakers who engage in this type of study can typically tell you why they chose to compose each and every shot in their films in a given way and the answer won't be "because it looked cool and a lot of top box office films use shots like that these days." But I know a lot of people frown on film as art and are more interested in film as commerce, so this might not actually be a selling point.
 
nandreetta said:
Even allowing that you can teach yourself production skills using online resources, which is true to an extent, there are plenty of reasons to go to film school. ...
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There's plenty of excellent reasons to do all sorts of things which have little or nothing to do with actually making a movie and nailing it first time out of the gate. Just don't kid yourself that film school is a requirement because that old saw just doesn't cut it.
 
craigbowman said:
Yeah, right, Film School. And then there's Faith Granger! All she had was herself, a dream and one or two people from this community with a little bit of advice here and there. Basically she taught herself. Anyone who wants to see the results from someone who actually "Gets It" for real, should visit her site at Deuce of Spades, pick up a copy and look at what someone who never even saw the front door of a film school produced as their fledgling first attempt at making a movie on no-budget.
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+1

Shane Caruth made PRIMER without ever making a single film, let alone film school. And he created one of the classics of the genre.

Having said that, I'm currently in my final year of film school, so that kind of shoots myself in the foot ;)
 
I am curious to hear if anyone has gone to an Art Institute and what they thought of it?

My impressions after talking with a rep were less than positive. Seems like a diploma mill.
 
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