Question about USC's Cinema-Television program

S

sbryan

Well-known member
I think this is as good of place as any to ask about USC... there might even be somebody from DVXuser at that school.

My question is: what are they looking for? Is it grades? An impressive portfolio? Community Service/Participation/Leadership? Or will they just scrutinize everything as general practice?
 
for graduate school or undergrad?

General info not specific to USC:
For undergrad you have to meet the university's academic minimums. There may be other academic requirements. At University of Texas, anyone could be in the Communications College (Department) who got into the University, but to take the film-major classes in your 3rd and 4th year in the Communications Dept. you had to have a certain GPA from your 1st and 2nd year. But Robert Rodriguez was able to beg his way in to the program anyway based on his work.

At UCLA the undergrad may be different than I described - depending on how much they run their undergrad program like a conservatory vs. a university.

As for Grad schools in the creative arts, the following holds more or less true across the board I think:

They will care less about your GPA and more about your work and professional recommendations. They want to see two things 1) that you have talent and 2) that you are dedicated to the field you are a applying for, disciplined, and that they can work with you. The first will come in the form of work samples, the second will come in the form of working in the field (probably as an assistant or apprentice - certainly in getting on as many film sets as you can) and in the form of letters of recommendation from people that mean something to the program you are applying to.

But the best way to find out the most accurate information is to ask USC.

Just call the department, tell them who you are and what program you want to get into, and then ask who you can speak to about the requirements and the types of experiences, accomplishments, work samples, recommendations, and GPA you need to have.

Good luck.
 
well, from my experience getting turned down, they're looking for geniuses who live in California.

average incoming ACT this year was 32. Mine was 33, still didnt get in. that's the 99.4th percentile.

they also take a ridiculously large number of in-state kids. upper 70%ish

portfolio matters somewhat, but they never wanted to see anything I did when applying, just a lengthy write up.

really, from what ive seen, you have to be either lucky or rich. keep in mind, they turned Spielberg down, what, 3 times? so really talent must not play a factor.

sorry, i'm still a tad bitter about it. they were nice enough to reject me after the deadlines for application for every other school had passed, so i get to take a year and be less competitive next year for application.
 
A few opportunities to work on a film crew may arise, but this is Nebraska, after all. I'm planning on taking 15 credit hours of USC's summer program next year. I hear the teaching staff is pretty much the same as during the school year, so it would give me the opportunity to establish relationships with staff and other prospective students. Plus it's like a 5 week bootcamp for filmmaking, which is an opportunity that this state doesn't have.

No disrespect intended, but in my opinion, I'd be wasting my money by going anywhere else. You never know though, there is an allure to NYU because of its location...
 
NYU Tisch has a summer program also...and if you don't feel exhausted enough, you can double your bootcamp time over at the New York Film Academy.
 
I'm good friends with three former student managers at Trojan vision at USC. I asked one of them the very same question you're asking here, and his short answer was, "They're looking for the next Steven Spielberg". His longer answer went into how the school is mostly concerned with maintaining their reputation and prestige, and their ever-present goal is to find and cultivate the greatest story tellers they can, so that when people research the people winning Oscars 20 years from now, they will see USC on their respective biographies.

In short, the most important thing about your application to the USC film/tv school is your essay. You need to convince them that you are better at telling stories than the thousands of other applicants. After all, above anything technical about making movies, the most important thing is your story and how well you tell it.
 
Yes. The grades are not nearly as important as your passion. Whatever you do in your essay, PROVE your passion.
 
sbryan said:
I think this is as good of place as any to ask about USC... there might even be somebody from DVXuser at that school.

My question is: what are they looking for? Is it grades? An impressive portfolio? Community Service/Participation/Leadership? Or will they just scrutinize everything as general practice?
Click to expand...


I just finished working on a Music Video (Mandy Moore). The director went to USC film school and it just happened we started talking about their program... He didn't like it at all and ended up dropping out after 1 year, which is funny as most famous director s that went to that school also ended up dropping out. I think his biggest critisism was that the program doesn't focus on creativity... Most of the assignments he got were to re-shoot a scene or two from an existing movie the exact same way as in the original, or copy a camera move from an other. I guess is point is that the school teaches you safe methods rather than working on your own creativity...

I guess dropping out was a good move for him. He is 24 years old (youngest director I have ever worked with), has done over 20 Music Videos, Nora Jones and Mandy Moore are his two latest, + national commercials... And he is getting ready for his first feature.

So much for USC...
 
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