<p>Hey everyone, I'm a sophomore at a community college. I will be getting my associates degree in liberal arts in May. </p>
<p>However, I appear to be stuck. I'm not sure which film school to apply to. I'm not looking for an expensive school, but I would like to go to a school with a good reputation. I don't have much filming experience. I've only filmed 3 small things in my life, however I have written a couple of scripts.</p>
<p>My grades aren't terrific, but they aren't bad. I average around a 3.4 high school GPA. I bombed my SAT's and got a 1000 (I can retake this if I remember correctly.) My ACT = 21. My college GPA as of right now is 2.7 but I look to definitely increase that over the next 2 semesters.</p>
<p>So, what are my chances of getting into a decent/good film school?
Is it too late for me to apply to a film school?</p>
<p>as people said before to others, experience isn’t something universities depend on. it’s kind of why they’re there. they’re looking for creativity and that special factor that makes you stand out. they can teach you how to use a camera but they can’t really teach uniqueness and creativity.</p>
<p>your grades as you stated aren’t spectacular which means you’ll have to rely on whatever you submit even more. From what I hear grades for these types of industries come secondary but obviously they come into play the closer you are to the fence. If you’re portfolio is junk they won’t even look at your GPA.</p>
<p>honestly, nobody can tell you how good your chances are of making it into a school. Although I’m an animator and not a film student per say, my suggestion is that you submit work that shows who you are. Being like everyone else is a sure fire way of being ignored. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure you can apply for next fall if that’s what you were talking about. and I hate to tell you this but most art based schools including film schools with a good program/reputation won’t be cheap.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying. I’m not really worried about the creativity part because I’m a pretty creative person I think. As for my portfolio, I guess I’ll just have to beef it up more. I have a pretty decent video camera, Canon HF100. As for the cost, I figured there aren’t really any cheap film schools, I was just hoping someone knows of one. FSU = $30k, among the cheapest that I’ve found.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend Full Sail. If anything, graduate from the cheapest school, make a killer portfolio, and then apply to a masters at USC or NYU. Either that or find a cheaper undergrad to transfer to.</p>
<p>Being brutally honest here, caseycim… I think your GPA will prevent you from being accepted to a top film school. As for decent or good…it’s really what you make of it. My son is at Chapman which is considered a decent/good/maybe-even-top film school. Last weekend helped out on the set of a film that a friend was making. The friend is studying film at a community college. S said that he thought this film looks more promising than many of the ones he has worked on at Chapman.</p>
<p>Start getting some experience. Go to Craigslist and look under “Gigs” and “crew” to see if someone is looking for volunteer crew members for their film. Ask some questions before going though, to make sure they aren’t making a kind of film you would not want to be involved with.</p>
<p>I think there are a number of things you can do that will increase your chances of being able to transfer to a college that has a filmmaking program for your junior and senior years. Several have been mentioned by other posters.</p>
<p>1.) Try to bring up your GPA as much as possible. The higher your GPA, the more universities will consider you as good material for a transfer into their school. Even if you are a fabulous filmmaker and a film school is dying to have you, if you don’t meet the basic criteria to transfer to the university where the film school is located, you can’t assume that the admissions office will accept you.</p>
<p>2.) Get yourself some film/tv experience. If your cc has film courses, take them. Check out the offices at your cc that handle internships and jobs. (Sometimes this is one place, sometimes two.) Find out if students from your cc have been placed in internships of part time jobs at local tv stations or at small production companies that make tv commercials. (If you are in an urban center, there should be a lot of possibilities.) Talk to the internship folks about what you would need to do to get one of those internships. If there are no internships already set up, approach the places where you’d like to be an intern on your own. The student job people should be able to help you will a resume and skills to approach different companies. Meanwhile, if your school has any kind of a broadcast program, get involved. Learn to do lighting, or editing, or shoot video, or whatever interests you there. </p>
<p>3.) Look at the giant list of colleges with film programs at the top of this board. Some of these school require that you be accepted by the film school in order to be a film major there (USC, NYU, FSU, Chapman etc.) At others, any student can declare film as his major – just like deciding to be a history major – and go for it. Find out the GPA you need to transfer into these schools. (If it isn’t posted online, call the admissions offices.) Figure out if you are eligible for financial aid at any of these schools if you enter as a transfer. See if any of your instate universities has a film program that interests you, as this would likely be your best bet financially.</p>
<p>4.) Some cc’s have terrific film programs. If your cc doesn’t have one, look around to see if there are other cc’s in your area that do. If you don’t want to switch schools, see if you could take some courses in the other cc’s film program.</p>
<p>Thank you guys so much, I really appreciate the posts.</p>
<p>Timely, I live in New York. Full Sail was actually the first film school I ever looked at. I like most things about it. The only thing I can’t handle is the price. 70-somethin grand for 2 years. I have a friend who goes there and he loves it.</p>
<p>Nester, those are some very good suggestions. Thanks for pointing out that part about Craigslist, I didn’t even know that site had the option on it.</p>
<p>As for experience, I just started filming my first short film. I’m having a great time doing it. I will continue to work hard to higher my GPA. </p>
<p>I’m still frustrated about not knowing which school to go to, and which schools I could afford, but I’m sure everything will work out. </p>
<p>Thanks again guys for the posts. Feel free to leave more suggestions</p>