Resources for Film School

edna

edna

footloose and fancy free
#21
#21
What would you want to study in Film school exactly?
This place offers wonderful workshops in editing and technical stuff. They also offer them at a very reasonable price compared to others. My fiance took an HD editing course and enjoyed it, said it was totally worth it.
http://www.dctvny.org/workshops/Summer08/Summer08.html

Also, I don't know much because I didn't go to film school but I am about to start grad school. I understand your feeling incomplete with your prior education. I was happy in college but at times frustrated because I hadn't yet tapped into what I actually wanted to be doing with all that knowledge. Grad school is offering me a very focused opportunity to sharpen those skills and to be able to use them in the real world. Continuing your education cannot hurt you and you can always leave if need be. I'm also of the mind that money should never hold you back from getting an education, NY State has amazing grant and tuition assistance programs. If your heart is in love with going back to school you won't be able to avoid it.

My dude got his MA in Screenplay writing at Columbia. When he talks about his connections from school I am always amazed. He thinks thats just how the world works, meanwhile I could never get a random screenplay read by important people (other than him) but he definitely could. So there is something to be said in that I guess.
 
Anna.

Anna.

Imprvsr #12-24563465-D05
#24
#24
Curtis is also a genius. (And I can't compete with that.)

Thanks, Edna, you're saying exactly what I want to hear.
Fuck you, Curtis, for being right also.
 
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Hal Phillips

Hal Phillips

I Am Hal Phillips
#25
#25
I felt the same way about wanting to go to film school and about going back to college in general. I ended up going back to college solely as an escape route. No desireable career of any kind was going on, I was working at fucking KB Toys, I couldn't handle living with my mother any longer, and I needed to get the fuck out. College was a way to delay shit-jobs and see if I could open up any sort of interesting possibilities.

Film school or not, I don't think there's anything wrong with that approach. Graduating college and thinking that means jobs and success and happiness and finding out it doesn't = harsh. Once you've faced the bleak nothingness, I think it's valid to kinda retreat, regroup, and buy some time to figure out what's next. People are gonna tell you that all the valuable stuff you can get from going to college is stuff you can get without it, i.e. networking or whatever, and they're right-- but I think there's a lot to be said for putting yourself in an appealing environment and seeing where it takes you.

As far as film school, I considered going, and all the advice I heard told me not to do it. I knew some people who were professional filmmakers, and all they ever did was mock film school-- especially NYU. One guy used to make fun of NYU film students because they learned filmmaking in a film school context and used all the latest equipment and didn't know what to do on the set of a low-budget film when things weren't textbook. His impression of NYU film students was "we can't do that thing you wanna do 'cause there's not enough light". And this was before digital video was where it is today. At this point, you can make your own amateur shit and put it on YouTube, etc.

But I guess I still would've done it, if I'd still felt like I wanted to (my interest in film drifted). Going back to college was one of the best decisions I ever made, because after the desperation and directionlessness I had to deal with, it felt really good to buy some time and think about the future without all the pressure and immediacy, and to do it right the second time around, with more of a sense of purpose.
 
F

Fultron

Member
#26
#26
I would just say be careful with that debt. Debt can stalk you like a serial killer that takes you apart in small, soul-crushing pieces. If you have $10,000 of debt and pay it back at about $100/month, that will take you about 10 years to get rid of. You can get Netflix 7 DVDs at a time unlimited for half that amount!

I think if you want to make films, you should start making films. Classes or not. I don't know what the harm in classes would be, as long as you can afford it, but I'm guessing the price of going to NYU for 2 years would eat up anybody's savings. If you get enough financial aid, it could be a good deal.

I think the best idea would be, assuming you already know you want to go into film for at least a while, buy some equipment, learn how to use it, then rent yourself out as a videographer. If you spend roughly $5000-$6000, you can get the kind of equipment that would allow you to rent yourself out, sounds dirty, but it's not, for at least $200/day, maybe more. If you even just post something on craigslist, say you're willing to work for $150 or even $100 because you're just learning, and have the right equipment, I'm sure you would get responses. That way you would even meet filmmakers from outside the improv community. Pretty good networking.

As far as your friends helping you out, there are plenty of people here with good acting agents, and some even with good writing agents, but I don't know of anyone with a good directing agent. Filmmaking is a different beast, I think. I think you have to just go out there and do it, because even if you have an MFA and don't make films, in my opinion, you're not a filmmaker. I don't know many people in the world who are in a position to just give people a job directing things. Chances are you'd have better luck getting that just by working your butt off rather than trying to meet the right people in grad school.

Also, if you're really interested in the do it yourself route, I've heard that this is actually really good for teaching camera work:

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/


Good luck.
 
Anna.

Anna.

Imprvsr #12-24563465-D05
#27
#27
I will learn to make films whether I go to NYU or not. It's just really hard to let go of that idea.

I was telling a friend last night that the reason I know I want to do this, albeit now a tad more doubtfully after reading some of these responses, is that when asked the question "What would you do if you won the Lottery today?" my first answer is always "Go to NYU film school!" then it's "Get my masters and also buy some kick ass equipment!" or "Get my masters, buy some kick-ass equipment and enroll in culinary school!" (You get the idea). For me, it's not the means to an end, it's the end. That may be silly and impractical and, most-likely, my enthusiasm will wane with bitter, passing years...but I just didn't want it to get to that point.
 
Hal Phillips

Hal Phillips

I Am Hal Phillips
#30
#30
The most recent dream I remembered is that I went to the UCB office and opened a refrigerator and saw a tube of cookie dough with a note saying that the intern the next morning was supposed to bake cookies for Ian Roberts.

Go to film school.
 
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