So you want to be the next Spielberg or Peter Jackson or maybe just Oren Peli, who directed the hit "Paranormal Activity" for under fifteen thousand dollars. It makes sense to consider Los Angeles film schools because most of the industry is right here. But the most important question you have to ask yourself is: how much are you willing to shell out?
USC is the most famous of the film schools in the metropolis, with alums like George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Judd Apatow and Bryan Singer. The cost for just two semesters? More than thirty thousand dollars, not including supplies or room and board, as per the USC website. Come to think of it, that would be the cost of two Paranormal Activities! They do have great professorsÖ but some classes can have hundreds of students in them.
The American Film Institute is another renowned Los Angeles film school. Tuition for one year alone is roughly forty thousand dollars, as per their estimates. For some people, that amount is nothing compared to the fact that you would have the reputation of graduating from the same school where Darren Aronofsky, Ed Zwick and Terrence Malick came from. But then again, there may not be sufficient space for one-on-one activities with a class size of over a hundred.
UCLA costs a meager six thousand annually if you're a California resident, but if you're not, it's over twenty thousand. Even though you'll be under the instruction of such luminaries as Peter Guber and Joe Roth, classes are still so big.
Another notable school that offers an undergraduate degree on film and television is Loyola Marymount. Their fee is around USD 34,000 a year. Student-teacher ratio is ideal, around thirteen-is-to-one.
Now there is the Los Angeles Film School, founded in 1999. It has featured guest speakers such as Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. Cost: over $41,000, with a student body of 595. A recent graduate co-directed the feature film "Gamer" starring Gerard Butler.
While the programs provided by these reputable schools are equally prestigious, they still follow the typical classroom setup. None of them offer true one-on-one mentors where a student can observe a professional at work regularly and learn on the job.
Women in Film looks like a promising academy but searching the internet proved to be futile - there were no success stories associated with their program.
CBS, fascinatingly, offers a mentor program (in fact, they offer two mentors) for television writing. One of the mentors is a senior-level writer for one of current drama or comedy series of CBS. Over the course of the program, the participant gathers creative feedback on their writing as well as tips on their career objectives. The other mentor is a CBS network or studio executive with whom they meet regularly to discuss their work, get feedback and also get support in furthering their career. This course and the Women in Film program are both free to participants.
It seems like Los Angeles film schools are missing out on a great opportunity - if they offered such one-on-one mentoring programs, there would probably be a lot more stories of great achievements from their students.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น