NYFA vs LAFS vs Others

[TylerLeisher]

So I've tried looking into UCLA/USC but, unfortunately they either don't fit into my schedule or my budget (For some reason, USC accepts people for the next Fall semester in the previous years fall semester, which means I wouldn't start there til Fall 2011, which is too late for me).

I've been looking into the AS/AA degrees offered from NYFA and LAFS. But I'm looking for some more up to date opinions (Theres a thread on here but its from 2 years ago).

I'm curious if these hold any merit, or if I should just make films. I've already made three short films (None too amazing, but some good) and I have more planned for the future.

If so, which do you recommend?

 

[cool_splash1]

I'm looking into this myself I was looking into Full Sail originally I wanted to go to NYFA then Full Sail for more of the tech stuff that was when they still had the one year program. But hell FS is too damn high.

I've been looking into others for a while now trying to decide
http://compassfilmacademy.com/home
http://seattlefilminstitute.com/
http://www.nyfilmschool.com/
http://sfdigifilm.com/ but I really want a chance to learn film as well as video
there is also http://www.summerfilmschool.com/ in Australia
I only just found out about this one http://www.newrenaissanceflorence.com/tours.htm

 

[JonathanLB]

I can't comment on schools I don't know, but I toured both NYFA and LAFS, and attended LAFS. The tour at NYFA in Los Angeles was terrible, if you go to the one in L.A. (which is the city you SHOULD be in no matter what) then I would say it's a pretty terrible school based on appearances. Also, what kind of school doesn't even have its schedule on a computer? When I toured, they wrote their schedule on a white board, by hand, and they started students by using 8mm film. That is pointless and stupid. Why waste your time shooting something nobody uses anymore? It's like saying to be a great race car driver you should start out by riding a go cart or a lawnmower or something. Makes no sense. Total waste of time.

As for Los Angeles Film School, I went there and quit after 7.5 weeks, just before the end of Term 1 -- I would have passed Term 1 no matter what, though, I had a perfect attendance record so I finished Term 1, basically. I quit on the last day of the term. It was a terrible school. At the time I attended, it was just a one-year program, but that was only a year and a half ago. This new two-year program is just to extract more money from you. And the irony is if they had switched to a two-year program earlier I wouldn't have gone at all.

I feel there is now a strong opening for a better film school in Los Angeles. It just needs adequate initial capitalization and it's a fantastic growth opportunity. There's so much money to be made off people pursuing film, but you can do it in an ethical way and actually give people an education for their money I already have a four-year college degree, graduated summa cum laude with a 3.97 GPA, straight A's until my last term. So for me, I wouldn't have attended LAFS if it were a two-year associates degree school because I don't and didn't need an Associates Degree. I just wanted to learn film. So now there is only NYFA and Full Sail, and since I'd never have gone to Florida for any reason, I would have been forced to go to NYFA, interestingly enough. That should benefit them.

I could give a million reasons why LAFS sucks hardcore, but I am not going to go on and on explaining them because that's in the past. All Avid, no Final Cut stations, despite the fact that almost everyone in the indie world uses Final Cut and you need to know how to use it, especially as it's easily the dominant format going forward, I mean it's not going to LOSE market share, it's only going to GAIN further on Avid. Even if Avid remained dominant for feature films, Final Cut will always be competitive for a lot of other work, from broadcast to music videos to corporate work. You can't call yourself an editor and get hired if you can't even list Final Cut knowledge on your resume, yet if you go to LAFS you won't learn Final Cut unless you buy your own system and learn it yourself. By the way, my friend there, my editor now, he went to LAFS and the only reason I hire him to edit is because of what he learned outside of school -- he already knew CS3 and Premiere, and with my setup he learned Final Cut (we said screw the school and went Final Cut from the start, because it's a superior program in every respect), plus at the school he learned Avid, so he's proficient in all three plus various support programs like After Effects to some degree and Photoshop. He mostly learned by doing, however, not from the school. He didn't quit, and now he's saddled in debt, can't find a job of any sort related to film, except from my company and I'm not currently doing even close to enough work for him to make much money.

If you want to direct, you learn by doing. To pay that much money to come out of school with ONE thesis film, one actually good piece of work, that's really pathetic. Spend the money on your reel and buy books. Better yet if you want to blow that much cash, and it's a ton of cash, just hire professionals one on one. You're free to do the math if you want, but you're going to pay about $75/hr of class. How many professionals in Los Angeles do you think would NOT work for $75/hr private instruction?! Try just about none. I could get a pretty freakin' sweet DP for $75/hr to do anything I wanted. I can get a great DP on a project he wants to work on for $400/day for 10-12 hours, so if you wanted to pay a DP to teach you for $75/hr almost anyone would say yes. Same applies with every other position. You'd learn 10 times more this way and pay less, since you'd not need nearly as many hours of instruction to learn a lot more information. It makes no sense in a class of 25-50 people to have to pay more than $10 to $15 per hour of instruction. It should be spread out among enough people to drive down costs, not keep them high.

Also LAFS hires for the most part crappy teachers. A few are true professionals and great at what they do. The other 55-60% are n00bs, they are failed filmmakers, former students, or in general have no idea what they're doing. Not that this is actually true, but bear with the example. It's like at USC, you get the guy who produced The Godfather. At LAFS, you get the guy who produced the second straight-to-DVD American Pie film. It's about like that. It's second or third rate teachers, who really don't know enough to be teaching you.

They openly tell you, again and again, that you're really going to learn this stuff by doing it. So get out there and practice. They also said we should be HAPPY when we graduate to make $50/day doing anything, and should smile and work our butts off for 14 hours for $50 because that's Hollywood, get used to it. I thought to myself, no, F*** that, I'm not paying $40,000 for "skills" that aren't worth $50/day. No thanks. If I pay $40,000 you better be able to guarantee me some success if I work hard. If you can't do that, I won't waste my money. It's one thing if you want to charge $15,000 and say, ok, look it's a risky industry, we don't promise anything. But for $40,000 they should be trying to get their students prepared enough and then connected enough to get real jobs, like other schools, which don't promise anything but usually DO deliver anyway! My friends at other film schools, three year programs, have had good success at least getting entry level jobs. People I know from LAFS, they have mostly moved back home and totally failed. I quit because I figured, heck, with the $28,000 I'll get back I'll just buy equipment and at least have some assets I can rent and use on my own productions.

Stay away from LAFS. I can't say that any more strongly. I feel strongly about this because I feel they are guilty of false-advertising in getting students there, I believe they need to have a class action lawsuit brought against them, and a lot of students feel this way, we all hated it, basically everyone in the class hated it, of the 35 students only 18 graduated, and of those 18 I knew most of them and most of them hated it. I'd say 6 of them liked it, the other 12 hated it. The reason I feel very passionately is because not everyone is as fortunate as me. Only maybe 5 students paid in cash, in full, like I did. The others had to take out expensive loans, generally $60,000 to $70,000 (the max at the time) to cover cost of living, housing, and tuition. Now these poor people are having trouble getting work and their lives are ruined with these student loans. That's a tragedy, and I'd rather not see anyone else have to face it.

 

[triglyph]

Yes, they both suck Los Angeles Film School and New York Film Academy - major suckage

Yes, they both suck Los Angeles Film School and New York Film Academy - major suckage

Both LAFS and NYFA are major ripoffs. They exist for one reason only: to collect the government loans the students bring in. I went to NYFA briefly and graduated from LAFS and both were a waste of time and a horrible waste of money. Neither one is a "real" film school. AFI, USC, UCLA, Chapman are real film schools and worth every penny.

As I've worked in the film business I see people from those real film schools rapidly get ahead and advance. The people from NYFA and LAFS should never have bothered. They should have saved their money and lived better for the first few years they were in the film industry and they would end up in the same place. Avoid both of them. Go to a real film school.

The teachers at LAFS are mostly bad (a few good ones, but not many). Some of the "professors" are hardly older than the students and some of them have no real qualification other than they went to some noplace film school somewhere. Some of the teachers have no background at all except they went to LAFS. Yeah they have great toys, but it is not the toys that ultimately matter in film school. It is the teachers and the other students. You are always working in groups in film school and if the other people in your group are idiots then you will end up not learning as much and not producing anything you are proud of.

The students at LAFS are the biggest bunch of lamebrains you can imagine. Why? Because they will admit anybody who comes in the door. As long as your check clears you are in.

Don't fall for their fancy tours where they show you all the great toys. The toys are not that important.

 

[j]

> I wouldn't start there til Fall 2011, which is too late for me

Don't be so eager... There is no reason to make a rash decision. There is nothing wrong with waiting a bit to get what you really need. In fact, wait a while and work two jobs and save some money so that you don't have to work while in school, or so that you have some cash for your senior project.

Do it smart.