University info?

M

madmanali93

New member
Hello,
I am new here and this is my first post :D
What are the top 10 universities for directing? and can anyone give me additional info like what coarses do i take? What is the GPA requirement to get in? and any other additional info i need to know.

Thank you,
 
maybe a little more info can help answer the question. for example:

do you want a certificate, an undergraduate degree or post-graduate degree?
what country?
how much are you willing to spend?
etc.
 
i am planing on studying in the US. and i want to get either a master or PHD. i currently want to know what are the requirement and what are the best universities. I will be graduating next year but i want to know what is needed so i can plan things out.
 
Film School

Film School

I know I'm going to get some flack for this, but....USC!!! Fight on! :cheesy:
 
I didn't go to USC, but based on an unbiased perspective (actually I got rejected once from USC, so I'm sorta biased) I still think USC is the best film school in the world. I would say that Chapman is very competitive now, however, not only with a great staff from what I understand (they have poached teachers from USC and UCLA) but AMAZING facilities. USC has more money to keep their facilities always cutting edge, but briefly there Chapman passed USC in quality of facilities. USC can always quickly respond, however, and has continued to maintain a top standard of excellence.

What I can't understand is who keeps ranking UCLA #2 film school in the nation. I have been in the industry for 3 years and I don't think I've seen more than like 1-2 UCLA graduates ever. I don't even know what is going on with that, I never hear about any successful students from that school, it's underfunded, their equipment sucks, it sucked when I toured, it still sucks now, and it has been living on reputation for 20 years. USC is a far superior school. A lot of quality directors have graduated there in the past 15 years even.

The one thing I will say, however, is that USC students in general don't know what they're doing on a set. They are the big picture thinkers, the directors, the producers, etc. They are not good crew. If you want a good DP, look for someone with Chapman on their resume, it's crazy how many good DPs come out of there. If you want good crew, you look at AFI graduates, they're excellent. LA Film School crew are ok at the lower levels, but the school is pretty poor in my opinion (at least it was when I went there a few years ago) and doesn't have too many above-the-line successes. They do a good job educating their students how to navigate a set, though.

UCLA, again, I have hired tons of people for my crews and can't even remember running across more than a few of their graduates. I don't know what these people do out of school as I have yet to see many.
 
My post was not very helpful, but I couldn't agree more with JonathanLB. I did go to USC, and it is true that many people that graduate from the SC film school don't know much when it comes to crewing on set. Also keep in mind that there are 5 different majors within the Cinematic Arts program at SC - Production being the only one geared toward...well...film production. Even the production program, however, is fairly broad and general in the scope of film. Which is why it would turn out, there aren't many world class DPs or Electricians coming out of the school. It is definitely geared more toward the Directors and Producers, but the real benefit of USC in my opinion is the network of people and opportunities that the school presents. If you go to USC and just take the classes, you will learn a lot and it will be fun, but if you team up with people and do projects outside of the school WHILE taking the classes...that's where the real bread and butter is.
 
Yeah absolutely. I have two friends from high school or college who graduated USC with a Masters, one in producing one in animation.

For me, when I was in high school, USC was my #1 choice. I was told I had a 95% chance of getting in, but I was rejected... and four of my classmates who all had both lower grades and lower SAT scores were accepted. I was devastated at the time, to be honest. I ended up going to Loyola Marymount as a film production major. I have no comment on their film school good or bad, really. I wasn't there long enough (one semester) to make any sort of educated judgment, lol. Suffice to say it is considered somewhat of a mid-level film school, not that acclaimed but at the same time it is in Los Angeles and classes are taught by professionals so I'm sure there are still knowledgeable people coming out of there.

If you are going to go to film school, the quality of your classmates is very important. Everyone kept saying at LA Film School how, "Look around you, these students who are with you now will be your life-long connections," blah blah, etc. This was nonsense. Of the class of 35, only 18 graduated, and I was one of the ones who quit -- after 8 weeks. I ended up realizing I wasn't a film school guy, I'm a hands-on, learn-in-the-real-world kind of guy. I was too old to be taking orders from anyone anymore, frankly, I couldn't tolerate paying for an education and having someone treat me rudely when I'm the customer. I don't find that acceptable at all. This is America, I'm paying for a service, I expect to be treated highly and with respect. Otherwise it's just not going to happen for me. Of those 18 students who graduated, most of them ended up moving back home. Three of those were my friends, and they're all still attempting to do some film work, they're all good guys and I thought they were talented, but this is a very tough business and if you don't have any money, it's even tougher.

It may sound cynical and it may sound unfair, but I would highly recommend against anyone attempting to make it in film without money. You should have enough to sustain you for 2-3 years without making anything down here, so you can give it a legitimate go without having to take a day job or move back home because you're broke. In any case, nobody from that film school class was a good connection whatsoever. They were all useless. The best connections I've made are way older, people who are in the industry and very talented, well connected, etc. Not n00bs I went to film school with briefly. I'm the best connection any of them could have, and I dropped out, and I'm not a very good connection either so that's really not saying much at all!! At least I hire people and have equipment, though, so I'm not begging for work like everyone else.

I don't think film school is usually worth the money in this industry, unless you have the money to spend and don't care, and also if you're the type of person who really needs guidance along the way at every step. I will say it's a lonely wilderness trying to learn this all yourself. I've probably read 50 books on filmmaking since coming down here, at least, I've put together a lot of my own projects pro-bono just to gain experience, and I've tried to make my own connections in the real world to learn whatever I could. It's much tougher cobbling together that knowledge when it's not in a well-ordered film school fashion, but at the same time I also feel that for me it was the right way to go about learning and more effective than sitting in a classroom. Almost exactly three years ago, I came to LA without knowing much of anything about filmmaking. I had only a strong background in film history, with no practice. Now I'm directing my first feature film in 6 weeks. If I had went to a three-year film school I don't believe I'd be this far along. I also have my own media company and we have a pretty large client this year, so I just feel like I'm a lot ahead of where most film school students would be at this point.

Film school should be a year long, at most, not three years. It's too much time.
 
I never went to film school. I originally started off as a computer science major and switched to media after I learned that I hated programming. My school didn't have a film major at the time.

I was already editing video as a hobby already and all of my school projects were videos that I shot with classmates without guidance. All of my media teachers either made me write essays on why TV violence is bad for kids or just gave me a instructions and said "make this video". Absolutely zilch about working on a set.

Ever since then, I did a feature for someone, several shorts, and now work as an editor. Hopefully I'll be getting my first film that I'll be writing and directing in production next year.

If you're going to go to film school, go for the ease of equipment access. Make sure you still keep in touch with your buddies/teachers there for some freebies after graduation.
 
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