Film School

[roach]

Here's a thread for all the film school students and those who are contemplating going. It kind of grew out of the Super 8 thread.


I am currently going to Fullsail University in Orlando. Some of the classes I've had so far are
History of Motion Pictures...this was a fun class as I love movies and the history behind them
Lighting I,II and Advanced Lighting
Photography class in which they gave us a camera to take pics with
Storytelling which was another name for screenwriting
Sound for Film in which we went over the equipment and proper placement of mics and booms
Digital Cinematography...we shot a short film on digital
Directing
Documentary Filmmaking...we did a doc on a Marvel vs Capcom tournament held by the local comic shop
Editing....we learned the basics of Final Cut and After effects
Make up for motion pictures....this was a fun class...we learned how to do beauty make up and monster make up...also learned how to do trauma make up
HD Productions in which we learned the positions of a tv show and then made a 30 min travel show
Production design...this is where we learned a program called Vector works that makes blueprints on our computers...we'll use them for our up coming 16mm project.
Cinematography where we learned the procedures for shooting on film.

Currently I am in Film production I which is preproduction on our 16mm short film and Art direction in which we build the sets for the project.

Feel free to share your experiences

 

[Lord]

I'm planing to go to a film school too but i still have to finish high school (or what you could call high school) and possibly move to the united states (since i'm european and in my country to be a film maker you have to be rich and have a powerful family)

 

[moviedoors]

I did the New York Film Academy month long bootcamp when I was 16 and I attended The College of Santa Fe for 2 years.

I'm iffy on the whole concept of film school. NYFA was cool as an experience (getting to shoot on the Universal backlots was badass) and looking back, I like that on day one we were getting practical hands on experience with 16 mm cameras. Real "throw you off a cliff and see if you can fly" type of learning experience. I learned an unbelievable amount of technical skills in that month.

The college experience was a huge let down. In hindsight, the most beneficial part of it was getting to see movies I would never have had the opportunity to see otherwise on the big screen. That part of it is precious to me. As a way to get better at making movies, it was useless and a waste of money. Way too much talking, not enough doing. Theory, theory, theory. I was not pleased with the faculty either. They were pretty much all a bunch of overly pretentious never-were's who had little to offer young people that wanted to learn how to make movies. I dropped out and ended up getting my degree in audio engineering.

In this day and age, with all the massive leaps in affordable technology, you're better off taking those thousands of dollars you'd be spending to go to class to buy a Canon 7D or a Rebel and Mac with Final Cut or PC with Avid and just start doing it, and you'd spend less money. Or, find some local indy shoots (it's not hard) and PA for them. Buy some books, listen to some commentaries, really pay attention to the movies you do watch, and just go out there and do it. Experience will be way more useful to you than 4 years of school and a piece of paper with your name on it. Investors don't care about degrees, they only care if you can make something good enough that other people will want to watch it, and you don't have to go to school to learn how to do that.

 

[roach]

I agree with that to a point.
Sometimes the connections made in film school can help out better than trying to do it on your own. Having gone to a particular film school may get your foot in the door quicker than being some guy/gal off the street.

I am glad my school is very hands on...some of my directing classes were like this..."Go out and film a scene that demonstrates proper 180 rule...you have 30 minutes." or "Go film a comedy scene...you have an hour"

 

[Lord]

Your school seems great, because they give you chalenges and that's a good thing, it also helps you improve and in the film industry you're allways facing difficulties.

 

[roach]

the only con i have are the price....if it wasnt for the 9/11 GI Bill I would not afford this school

 

[Lord]

You're a war veteran?

 

[roach]

yeah... i was in the US Navy and got burned out on it after 11 years and decided to go to film school

 

[enterthemadness]

Film School is crazy expensive. I got accepted to LA Film School (they accept anyone really...just a matter of if you can pay). I needed like...close to a 40,000 loan just for 9 months. Yeah, parents wouldn't sign it.

If you can handle the Navy for 11 years, you'll make it in film school.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

i currently a film major at a community college. after two years there i'm probably going to transfer to CUNY Queens or Purchas. i got accepted to five towns college, which is a great college for film/theater/music majors, but it was way too expensive for me.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I got in to Sheridan's Media Arts program - They take only about 80 applicants. Last year I think 800-1000 applied. I finished Media Fundamentals too (which was REALLY basic) but I used that base level program to my advantage; I networked a LOT and am way ahead of a lot of the others my age. In my first year out of highschool I wrote a short film, directed/shot one, composed a couple, acted in a few, and edited over a dozen. I've also worked as a member of the Grip Team on a bigger budget set, and as a Second Assistant Camera man on an independent film. After working as an AC, I had the opportunity to work with a 16mm camera - it was freaking awesome!

Right now I pride myself on my editing (editing in surround sound, working with special effects and being fluent in Vegas, Avid, Premiere and FCP, as well as having a lot of experience with sound design and DVD creation). I've also done a lot of graphic design work to provide art for my works.

Tuition for Media Fundamentals was 3.5g, and for Media Arts it is 10g a year. If I follow up with VFS, it's about 30-40g for the 1-year advanced degree program, and I'm not sure on the pricing for AFI's Graduate Program. Also, a lot of people think that Film School is a waste after you've learned your way around the field, but it's actually all about networking - especially with VFS and AFI. School's like Sheridan and Full Sail are good for the learning curve and hands-on/theory academics.

 

[The Jester]

Though it might be good for people who want to get a basic idea of what it's like to make movies, I don't believe film school is necessary if you want to pursue life as a filmmaker. Being somebody who has not attended film school, I can easily match what Astroid-Man said in his post above. I'm not trying to make comparisons at all, just that going to film school or not doesn't make a difference. It all depends on the person.

I made videos all throughout jr-high and high-school, which is just an absolute joy to me. Once the summer after graduation came, my friend and I did a lot of web design work so we could save up and purchase a Canon XH-A1, which is a pretty high-quality camera. With that, we did a lot of freelance work doing club promos and music videos for friends of ours that had bands. With that work behind us, we started getting contacted by local bands to do paid videos. After doing two years of projects for bands, clubs, sporting events, interviews, and our own short films, we now own two Canon 7Ds, two audio recorders, boom mics, and microphones, lighting equipment, lenses, dollies, and whatever other misc film equipment we thought we might need. My friend and I are also just 19 just finishing up our second year of college.

Along with internships for production companies and post-production facilities, working on independent films in the area (recently a film called Lebanon, PA which currently has a limited screening across the country), and owning a 16mm Bolex camera to shoot my own 16mm projects, I can safely say that film school is not the only route if movie making is what you want to do.

 

[Majik1387]

Full Sail is a pretty amazing school, everyone tends to go onto bigger things if they've gone there. A couple of my friends go there as well, some of them have tried organizing a youtube channel for their projects.

There's not much film schools in Florida, especially Orlando; I think the DAVE school is the only other legit one.

 

[RedSkull]

Not to undermine your experiences...but the things you described at full sail sound pretty rudimentary/entry level to me. A bit of my background (as someone in internships after college who went to film school)

I took a summer course when I was in high school that started to introduce me to basics of filmmaking. When I was in high school after that, I was in an arts magnet program with a film department and I worked on several productions there, some which went fairly far in the independent circuit. I went to a prominent film school in Boston MA and worked on more productions than I care to count and I can say that I covered every aspect of writing, producing directing, acting, etc etc over and over ad naseum to properly prepare me for the busines through a structured (and damn expensive) program. I've gotten a lot of opportunities through this like working with or meeting people like Maria Menunous and Howie Mandell, Jay Leno, Robert Downey JR, etc.. Film school is a lot of commitment monetarily and time wise but it can turn out awesome. I did look into full sail, but I know a lot of graduate programs and internships dont consider it like a real college. From my high school in the arts magnet, a lot of film majors went to FSU.

 

[roach]

I would agree with it being entry level...but we do get in deep into the whole film making process.
I'm not sure about graduate programs but I know we get a lot of companies here looking for interns...Lucasfilm was here a few months ago

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

If there had been a film school in Glasgow, I would have probably applied to it when I got out of school, the closest was in Edinburgh, and there was no way I could have afforded to live there. In Glasgow Uni it was all film theory, but I wanted to do practical stuff. So I went to art school instead, I only ever did one video project there in my two years.

I had been making my own 'films' with my video camera for a couple of years, until my camera's tape heads got messed up when i lent it to a fellow art student, grrr. When changing departments in art school my vids went down well with the design department head who sanctioned my transfer.
I got booted out of art school, but despite this was invited back 7 years later to that very department to show my videos and discuss them with the students.

After art school I did a 6 month video workshop, where you made videos collaborating with the other students, and at the end of it you made your own video.
I don't have any of the videos I collaborated on, but I have a copy of my final piece which turned out quite well. It's the only video I made where I own everything about about it, as I scored the soundtrack too. I doubt I would be able to ever upload my other videos to youtube, as I just indiscrimanently used any record I thought fit the scene.
edit: That was the only time I ever got to use a proper editing suite, with all of my other videos, I 'edited' them as I went along, if I got a bum take I would just use the slow rewind button to take me back to the end of the last scene. They turned out pretty good anyway, and flow very well, so when it came time to use an actual editing suite it was a total breeze.

 

[Mandalore464]

I just graduated from a French film school. It was a two-year course with the first year being somewhat of an introduction to the major departments of a film production (directing, lighting, editing, sound, producing...) and the second year focusing on a particular field. I chose editing and special effects since they were the two fields I knew the least about and I very much feel you need to know everything to become a good director.

Now, I agree with people who said film school isn't necessary to becoming a filmmaker, and a lot of directors are here to prove it. But the real difficult thing in that job is getting your foot on the door, and that film schools can do.

In my case, I had to complete 16 weeks of internship while on my first year and I managed to get a job as a second assistant editor on a major French production that was released in theaters, as well as a more "low-key" internship on a made-for-TV production.

I got to spend 6 weeks in the editing suite with the director and chief editor talking about what cuts should be made and why, and I got to learn a lot more during these 6 weeks than on my two-year course. And getting to see your name written down at the end of a movie is an experience that's both extremely weird and gratifying.

I now have a handful of contacts from within the industry which will undoubtedly prove useful in the near future when I move to Paris and try to find a real first job while I keep writing screenplays in the hope of getting them produced one day.

Is film school necessary? No it isn't. Are connections necessary? Yes, more than anything else. If you don't know how to get them, film school may be your way in.

But don't get your hopes down if you cannot afford film school. All you need to do is buy a couple of books on the subject (There are a LOT of good ones no matter whether you want to become a director or a DP... or anything else), and they'll teach you just as much as any film school will. Then once you have the basis, get a cheap camera and SHOOT, get your films out there, if you're good they will get noticed.

 

[RedSkull]

amen to the bit about connections. Film school does provide you with tons more connections than you had previously and that can help you "Crack" the industry.

What are you hoping to be Roach, out of curiousity, director? Producer? Actor? Cinematographer?

 

[roach]

Writer/Director

 

[Lord]

Good luck then, i hope to one day be the same, but with those schools being so expensive i might go to the army for some years to get some money.

 

[Bat-Gasm]

Just go out for a year and shoot a $6000 black white film about following people.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

^ I see what you did there.

I go to Syracuse University, school of visual performing arts for Film Drama (the directing major there). I made a short film last semester to get in and I'm excited for my first full semester in film school!

 

[roach]

nice

 

[SPIDERMAN117]

Does anyone know how good the Film School at UT is? Because I plan to apply there this coming school year and I really want to know how good the school is there.
Heres a short film I shot for a contest but sadly i didnt win.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2whmmetJ15M

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I've heard great things about Texas. I would definitely apply. You're definitely gonna have great equipment and faculty there.