I’m currently a sophomore in high school and I’m starting to look for colleges with a good undergrad film production program. Not to sound overconfident or anything but I have pretty good chance on making any college with a declared major in English if I stay academically strong. So far i have a 4.5 GPA and I already took the SAT with a 1500+. I have really strong EC and volunteer so that wont be a problem. My parents earn around 500k a year so I dont have any financial trouble. The problem is my parents wont straight up let me take a film major because of my many talents(They are also asian so they also kind of hate it). i dont have a lot of experience in film because of their discouragment but Im really passionate about it and my greatest strength is story writing and creativity. My dream job is to become a film director but that is something I wish to start pursuing in college.
So anyway my “plan” is to go to an academically strong college with a low acceptance rate(Like ivy league level or one tier below) to get my parents out of the way. I’ll take some intro film courses freshman year college and eventually get a degree in film. Then, if my goal is still on track, I’ll go to a good film grad school and hopefully get a mfa. I want the school to have a good film production program but must schools Ive researched like Columbia only have film studies, not production and is mostly Grad oriented.
So do you all know any top tier schools that have a really great film program? And do any of them offer a BFA in film, or do they only offer a BA?
USC in LA is arguably the best in the country for film production. Only 3% acceptance rate so it’s extremely competitive, and there should be relevant EC’s. My cousin graduated from USC film school and it was amazing. And the list of famous alum from USC film is incredible (and many were involved to a certain extent). Do some research though on what’s required in the application— I remember it being a more involved process so good to start planning for it. Good luck!
BFA programs will admit on the basis of a portfolio in addition to grades and references. For a school like USC, your portfolio would have to be amazing. USC rejected Spielberg.
From your post you said “I’ll take some intro film courses freshman year college and eventually get a degree in film. Then, if my goal is still on track, I’ll go to a good film grad school and hopefully get a mfa”
So your plan is to enter as an english major but then switch to the film school to get a film undergrad degree? Note that this will be very hard to impossible to transfer into the film school…they are incredibly competitive and I would guess that many just simply don’t allow transfers in.
If your end goal is to get an MFA in directing, you can apply without an undergrad degree in film, it will 90% depend on your portfolio, not what your undergrad degree was in.
I would suggest you get a camera and start shooting film. There is probably a group of HS students in your area that have similar interests and they work together on projects. You will help write, act, or do props for a friend’s film, and then they will help you with yours. This is how you end up with a portfolio to be admitted to film school.
You need solid grades, and you have them, to get into film school, but the real hurdle is the portfolio.
Your Ivy League path could work, but I would suggest focusing on your writing skills and working on the theater productions while you are there.
Best film school lists are below. Some of these programs offer entertainment business degrees. Maybe getting a minor in business or a dual degree in business might sell your parents.
Most super competitive film schools will not let you change your major to film prod, bc people have tried this. So for USC or NYU you have to be admitted to film prod as a freshman or as a external transfer student. At these colleges, film prod takes so much time that it’s pretty much impossible to double major.
Lastly, remember that even though your GPA and SAT might be great, for film school it’s more about your film submission and film resume on your application.
To show you how hard it is to be accepted at USC, my D got accepted to Yale early action. For Usc film school she made it to an interview process (where they eval the “maybes;” there are a huge pile of nos and a tiny pile of yeses) and then she got rejected. USC SCA acceptance rate is lower than Yale’s acceptance rate.
USC, nyu, ucla you have to apply directly to film prod. There are good ranked schools like weslyann, Boston university, northwestern, Syracuse which are much less competitive to get into film prod and don’t require a video submission. These colleges you can get into English and then transfer once you are in the school.
There are places like Chapman and LMU which are lower ranked bit have “better” film prod classes.
Lastly my info is a little old so things may have changed. My D started college in 2012 when the SAT was still out of 2400.
Also USC has a “business or film” major where I think you can also take some film prod classes. If you are any other major at USC, you cannot take any film prod classes.