<p>I’ll give you my two cents, even if it’s not what you originally wanted to hear</p>
<p>USC, NYU, UCLA and the like are expensive. Nowadays, spending 40k-60k a year is absolutely preposterous unless you’re getting a degree with a guaranteed high return rate (such as chemical engineering, or medicine). You can buy a great, great set of film equipment for under 10k, and you’ll own it forever (no sharing either). New camera models like black magic offer high quality footage for under $1,000, and if you pick up a nice DSLR tutorial online or in a book, you can easily learn how to adapt your digital format into something resembling 35mm film (the standard industry format)</p>
<p>First of all, before you make the relatively small investment of a good set of film gear, you need to find out if you (pardon me) suck at writing. It’s harsh, but better to learn now than later. Read some books on screenwriting, and enter some contests: the big three are the Nichol fellowship, trackingB, and Austin. Slamdance, Sundance lab, American Zoetrope, BlueCat, and Page are also worth looking into. All of them have a small fee to enter (between $30-$80), but it’s a small price to pay in order to find out if you’re any good. If you place in any contests, whether it be finalist, semi-finalist, or quarter-finalist, that’s a great sign. If not, that’s a bad sign. At this point, it may be a good idea to post a couple pages online (check out DoneDealPro the website, it’s awesome) or get some professional coverage</p>
<p>Now, assuming you’re not horrible at screenwriting, on to the equipment. You can get yourself (for under $10,000) decent-good quality…</p>
<ul>
<li>camera</li>
<li>35mm lens</li>
<li>steady tripod </li>
<li>sliding dolly</li>
<li>3 piece lighting kit </li>
<li>china balls with large bulb and socket</li>
<li>shotgun microphone with XLR cable</li>
<li>boom pole</li>
<li>digital audio recorder</li>
<li>basic audio mixer</li>
<li>extension cords</li>
<li>bounce board/reflector board</li>
<li>editing software</li>
<li>OPTIONAL: steadicam (handheld costs less than vest/arm model)</li>
</ul>
<p>This is an AMAZING set of film equipment, on par with the kind of equipment used to shoot indie movies today. The best way to learn filmmaking is to go out and shoot short films, making as many mistakes as possible along the way. Get your hands dirty. Use your resources. Don’t rely on the cushioned environment of a classroom: many kids who go to film school fail out in the real world because they’ve become dependent on teacher feedback and having someone kicking their butts. Out in the real world, the only person you can rely on is yourself. No one will come to you with a job. You need to come to them (in some cases, or most, you need to fight and claw your way to get to them). I feel as if many film schools teach students that opportunities will fall on their doorsteps as soon as they graduate, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you want opportunities, you got to make them for yourself. There is no path set out for you to take, like so many other careers. You’ll need to carve out your own path </p>
<p>There are many amazing books on filmmaking and film production that’ll teach you 100x more than any film school classroom, for 1/1,000 of the price, and in a fraction of the time. One of my favorites is “from reel to deal”. You can also check out “the five C’s of cinematography”, “filmmaking for dummies”, “master shots”, and “shot by shot”. My three favorite screenwriting books are “writing for emotional impact”, “dialogue secrets”, and “scriptshadows 500 tips”. Ignore formulaic scheme books like “story” or “save the cat”. Gurus like Blake Snyder and Robert McKee won’t teach you how to think for yourself. To make yourself a triple threat, and all the more likely to succeed, I suggest you read some film production/financing books as well. Many creative types fail because they’re unwilling to learn the business side of art. Always remember that show business, above all else, is a business, and the ones who succeed are the ones who understand this business </p>
<p>I’ll give you one last nugget of advice here before I sign off. Everything you said about ACT scores, SAT scores, GPA’s, Honors and AP courses, APUSH exams, school newspapers, tennis, debate, etc…</p>
<p>It amounts to nothing in the world of filmmaking </p>
<p>Sure, if you want to tout yourself around colleges, these are all important. College is, after all, a bit like an expensive pageant nowadays. But know this: if you want to succeed as a screenwriter or filmmaker, only one thing matters. The quality of your work. You can get great test scores and take all the AP classes in the world, and still be the worlds worst writer. On the other hand, you can flunk out of school and be a filmmaking/screenwriting genius (Tarantino anyone?). Producers and studio heads don’t give a rats ass about how well you did in high school. They care about whether or not you work hard, are easy to work with, have marketable ideas and strategies, and above all else, write well. If two screenplays pass the desk of a studio exec, one amazing and written by a dropout, the other good and written by a USC grad, the dropout will always win. I repeat. The dropout. Will. Always. Win </p>
<p>Well, that’s it I suppose. Sorry if this response was long and boring, but I’m just trying to help you out so you don’t fall into the same trap hundreds of thousands of students fall into each year. It really sucks reading/hearing about people who saddled them with debt to go to school for film or acting or writing, and then exited to face the harsh reality. If you found this even remotely helpful, share it with any other poor souls considering dumping 60k into a school like USC for something like screenwriting </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
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