Film majors

<p>I'm starting my senior year in July and I'm planning to apply to USC and NYU.</p>

<p>So I'm going into my senior year with a not so stellar GPA, but have pretty outstanding film and art ECs and recs. I'm trying to think realisitcally in terms of where I should apply this fall, and it looks like I might have to head to the direction of art schools vs major universities. Although I love Northwetern and UT Austin, I know that I can not get in.
With a small portfolio, what would be the next best place to apply. I like CalArts, but I have my doubts that I could even get in there. </p>

<p>Any suggestions? </p>

<p>Also, I have more of an interest in editing or cinematography rather than directing.</p>

<p>Doesn't Chapman University (Orange County CA) have a great film program??</p>

<p>^ I have been told by many that Chapman is the up-and-coming school in terms of their film department. It is one of my top choices, that's for sure. Perfect location, not too close to home but not too far away either...now I just need to build a portfolio, hehe.</p>

<p>Yeah, I think Chapman is one of my top choices. Great location, good school, too. And I here you on building the portfolio, hah.</p>

<p>Chapman has a really great film program. Alot of opportunities for undergrads. They are also in the process of building a brand new facility that is supposedly going to be one of a kind in terms of film school facilities. I've heard that not even USC has what Chapman is going to have...</p>

<p><a href="http://ftv.chapman.edu/about/Facility/knottstudios.cfm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ftv.chapman.edu/about/Facility/knottstudios.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>For people who asked:
Sat: 1440, with 760 average sat II's...
Gpa: 3.89uw...no ranking but top ten percent of class</p>

<p>Besides being the best summer program for filmmaking in the country (at least in my opinion), the NYU Summer thing really helps gets kids into the program. The normal acceptance rate is lower than Harvards, but this year they took about 40% or something around there, from the summer program...so its still very competitive, but it helps...</p>

<p>Good luck to everyone.</p>

<p>hey tsdad, what was your sons GPA, SAT scores and what not?</p>

<p>Remember he applied in 2003 and scores for both USC and CTV have gone up.</p>

<p>He had a 1370 SAT I, 800 (writing), 700 (literature), 640 (math) SAT IIs. He is a graduate of an International Baccalaureate degree school in Washington DC (the whole school is IB, k-12) with a bilingual IB degree. He studied Spanish for 13 years including three years total immersion and 3 years half day. One of his higher levels was in Dramatic Arts and he directed a play as part of the course. He spent two summers in the film program at the North Carolina School for the Arts. He acted in 10 plays in his years at school and was nominated for a Cappie his senior year. He wrote movie reviews for his school paper, read books on movies, wrote school papers on movies, went to the movies every weekend, and owned over a hundred DVDs. He did a video on the civil war in Sierra Leone that won an award from county library system. He co-founded his campus chapter of Amnesty International, and was very active in local and regional religious youth groups. He spent five weeks before his senior year in the Czech Republic in a program sponsored by the George Sorros Foundation studying with other teenagers from former Soviet bloc countries in eastern and central Europe and Asia.</p>

<p>Safia, I have a friend who did NYU's summer film program. He loved it, and is going to NYU for film this fall!</p>

<p>you people definitely need to do more research. film school is a hit or miss. essentially, it doesn't matter where you go. steven spielberg was turned down twice by ucla and usc. he went to cal state long beach...and didn't even finish there. the perks about the top film schools such as nyu, usc, ucla, or columbia, are meeting people in the industry and establishing connections, which is rare. at least you'll have that name to boast. just remember to be ambitious, methodical, outgoing, dedicated, and most importantly, realistic. be prepared to pay an arm and a leg for private schools such as usc, nyu, or columbia.</p>

<p>usc's film school is very much run like a studio. the best screenplays are approved by faculty for production. production tracks don't usually start till junior year. there is very little creative control, which takes away from the aesthetic. and EVERYONE wants to direct.</p>

<p>columbia's film school takes up to 5 years to complete and you'll end up in a 200,000k debt.</p>

<p>the one thing that i do encourage for film school bound people is that they try diff fields in film, such as editing, camera work, special efffects, makeup, costume, cinematography, music scoring, etc. because it's not as hard to get into those fields as a professional. that's the main problem with film school, EVERYONE wants to direct.</p>

<p>and zach braff did go to northwestern but c'mon...garden state was sooooo overrated.</p>

<p>"when people asked if i went to film school, i say, no, i went to films."
- Quentin Tarantino</p>

<p>ptmagnolia,</p>

<p>What if someone goes to an art school which has a film dept. and turns out pretty good at it--would they have a shot professionally? Can anyone just learn film?</p>

<p>I think you'd have to get exposure in order to have a shot professionally. You'd have to manufacture yourself and your 'pretty good' films.</p>

<p>Question: what are the best places to go for independent/experimental filmmaking? Not for networking/finding contacts in the industry but for studying film as an all-encompassing art form and exploring everything from German expressionism to music videos (especially music videos)?</p>

<p>"What if someone goes to an art school which has a film dept. and turns out pretty good at it--would they have a shot professionally? Can anyone just learn film?"</p>

<p>yes, that is a possibility. one example i can think of is michael bay (the director of bad boys, pearl harbor, armageddon, etc.). he went to art center in pasadena. but it is still a very expensive program. many of the people who go to art schools vs. universities tend to get into music videos, commercials, and other things of that nature.</p>

<p>Interesting. Thanks for the info, ptmag. :)</p>

<p>no problem. haha, i just posted on another thread of yours and didn't notice. feel free to IM me if you'd like to talk more about these messy affairs. my AIM is wemet0nthelevel (the O is a zero)</p>

<p>Thanks will message u l8r today. ;q</p>

<p>"im guessing ptmagnolia has tried himself in the film world- and failed."</p>

<p>what are you talking about? i'm barley going to be a sophomore in college this fall.</p>

<p>"So lets see, how many huge people in the industry went to film school? a ****ing lot of them. how many didn't? yeah, a couple greats didnt, but for every great that didnt go to film shcool, there are about 10,000 who didnt go, and are nobody."</p>

<p>how many people that went to film school are nobodies? it's still a hit or miss, especially if you want to be "huge", like you said. you use the word "huge" loosely. i said in my post that people have a good chance of making it after film school IF they focus on the other elements of film making, since the majority are competing to write and/or direct. it's still risky if you want to be "huge", but of course, the film industry is one big risk, it's just that some people are a bit more audacious and can deal with it. i was just giving some fair warning...not trying to discourage.</p>

<p>"and michael bay is one of the worst directors in hollywood right now, (you wanna talk about over rated?) anyone who takes blow jobs for movie roles can stick their art college up their ass."</p>

<p>nobody said michael bay was a great director. it's funny that you say he's the worst. it's pretty irrelevant, since he still recieves a ****load of money for his films.</p>

<p>"and thats my two cents on the subject, with help of the opinions of two production managers (at Warner Bros.)"</p>

<p>production managers at warner bros.? wow, who cares? my friend's dad is an executive producer at warner bros. i could care less if you believe me, and i also don't find it neccessary to drop his name or the movies he produced, just the studio he works for since it's the same one you mentioned.</p>

<p>in the future, maybe you can try to be more constructive and less presumptuous when giving your two cents.</p>

<p>Is there a ranking of the best film schools in the WORLD? I guess what I'm really trying to find out is, are there film schools in other parts of the world that are better than those in the United States? I realize that the entertainment industry is in the United States, and I will be attending undergrad in the U.S, but film is really a global thing, so for a grad degree, I'd very much enjoy an international experience. I'd really appreciate it if anyone has any info!</p>

<p>there are a few art schools like in england and france, but the film schools in the US are unarguably the best.</p>