Hi! I recently submitted a portfolio with the application to my ED school, which is a big reach for me. Alongside a ton of scripts and short stories, I added a film that I made as a ‘two week project’ about a young woman in human trafficking and her subsequent escape. However, because of how rushed the film was, I played the main character, and my acting was ROUGH. Laughable for my family. Also, our editor left out some audio and about two scenes, so the entire thing is pretty confusing at some parts. Honestly, the script was 100x better than the actual product. Depending on what perspective you look from, it could help my application or hurt it. When looking at it as a high school project entirely orchestrated by students and written/filmed/produced in ten days, it’s pretty good. But looking at it as an actual film, it’s pretty bad. (If you want to help more, look up ‘Favoring the Bold’ on YouTube. First result.) Oh, also, the film has a few swear words in it to. I drop an F-bomb a couple times. The acting is just bad and I’m having a lot of doubts, but the only way to retract it from my portfolio now is to take it off Youtube. Technically it’ll just be an empty file in my portfolio, so I could always email the office once we re-edit it and say we had to repost it because of technical difficulties. Or I could just leave it as is. Just someone help, please. I’m freaking out!
Thanks!
From what I’ve heard, most portfolio submissions are pretty intense, like the top scorers are people whose films would win prestigious awards intense. It sounds to me like the submission would either do nothing for your app or hurt it. I don’t know if I would recommend reuploading a new video because that seems ethically… murky, but you would probably be better off without the short film. Especially because your portfolio has other elements to it.
In general any arts portfolio at a top college should be of exceptionally strong quality – at or close to conservatory level. I think the fact that you sent “a ton of scripts and short stories” and a “rushed film” will not help (and could possibly hurt) your application.
Also, the video you referenced is twenty minutes long, and unless you’re applying to an art school I can’t imagine a counselor watching the whole thing…
I had a friend apply for film at UCLA. Although he had several films that won at different film festivals, he accidentally submitted a raw, unedited version for one of them. Subsequently, despite his star studded portfolio, he was denied. I would say don’t upload it if you can. Good luck