How do you get in?
Ok you are certain you want to film school road. How do you get admitted? Quick, how do you get into a
trade school or seminar? Answer be early and carry cash. That is sign up fast and pay upfront. You will be
surprised how fast propriety trade school or seminar director will take money. Colleges are same, only
slower. So getting into a trade or seminar setting mostly means signing your name and paying before the
spaces fill up. What about colleges.
Getting into a reasonably good college-level film school requires that you do a blown up application, not
just the little forms the college admission office provide. Most film schools have a separate more difficult
procedure and standards. Most require you to be admitted to the college prior to the film school and a few
demands that you have some college credits under your belt before even looking at your application papers.
So step one at this point is: get the film school’s application stuff! This stuff is likely different than the
general college paper work, and likely only available from the film school department itself, not from
college admission office. Do not believe any college catalogues, they are out of date before they are
printed. And, be skeptical of even www page because of updating delays there. Get film school application
information and forms directly from the film school application information and forms directly from the
film school administrative assistant or secretary. Bring him/her some flowers, and get correct info the first
time.
Most film schools want these things in your specific application submission:
A personal statement (giving your life goals, why you want to go to film school, your favorite animals,
etc. here is your chance to shine with your own creativity and personality. Absolutely and
unconditionally – write this statement yourself. Advisors and friends can look over it, but be the sole
author of this statement. Why? Especially shy when you could hire somebody to write you a great
personal statement. Well why is because you will have to be the person described in the statement and
very person expressing yourself in the statement when you actually get into the classes. If the person a
film school admits is not the person the statement represents, the fit between the school and the person
will be terrible. Likely, the person will fail in this school because he/she was admitted without the
thought that this kind of person has kind of personality and set of skills, but was really a different
person. Do the things you and let the chips fall. Then the real you will be there (not the fake one). Too,
remember, shorter is better.
Grades (in your previous courses, everywhere. Often the film school will have a set cut off at an
average of B+ something. Of you below that grade, apply anyway: may be you will shine in other ways
and get lucky.)
Portfolio of creative work. This is tricky. If you send too much creative work- like your 300 page novel
of your 13 part TV series, you will overwhelm the school evaluator and loose the points. Of you send
crap, you will lose many points. If you think you have nothing good enough to send and send no
portfolio, you will lose most points. So what to do? Then answer is deceptive, yet simple: send your
best work and only your best work. That way, the film program evaluator will discover both a sample
of your creative work and a sample of what you think is good work. Again, try honesty, and have the
film school admit real you. Items in the portfolio can be anything, which will show you in your best
light. A short written narrative a part of feature script, a poem or two, a storyboard, paintings (or
photograph of your drawings and painting or sculptures, but label them as such, not as work in and of
themselves, i.e. not as a photographs but as a photographic records of the works in other media.)
cassettes of your music or voice saying something, your photographs (if prints send in original and
gloss etc. and if slides, send them inserted in slide plastic pockets- keep your original and send only
good copies.) of any other thing that will demonstrate your creative abilities. Notice, my stress on
brevity, my caution to send only copies of anything, and my absence of notation specifically of films
or videos! If you must send a videocassette of your moving script work, be absolutely sure, it is
absolutely unconditionally super good. Nothing is worse for your application that for an evaluator to
go to the trouble to get the video player, dig the cassette out of your packet, put it into the player, and
then see a silly, juvenile video that is dumb beyond belief (or is a copy, these days, of Blair witch
project.) if a guy the status of Francis coppole says your video is good, then and only then send it. If
the submission of video is mandatory, good luck, and make the best and the shortest one you can.
Note; read the individual film schools list of required submission materials, schools differ, some want
less or more then I have listed here.
A fancy wrapper on your portfolio sometimes is a turn of f, esp. if the wrapper is all you have going with
you. Try making the wrapper 1) functional so that if securely holds all your application materials together
even with inevitable rough handling and 2) reflect your personality and a reinforcement of honesty that is
inside.
At the better schools, the admission cuts are brutal with hundreds being turned away for every one
admitted, so apply to every school you would actually attend if admitted to spread out risk of few turned
downs. You are going to have to spend lots of application fee money, but then how many times in your life
are you going to apply for film school.
A visit in person to your top picks of two or three colleges or schools is advisable because you can absorb
the flavor of the places beyond the advertising materials the college send out. That is good time to
personally pick application forms and information. Parents sometimes want to come on the trips, but for
gosh sakes, do not allow your parents to speak for you if you meet faculty or administrators. I have had any
numbers of parents who entered my office child in truculent tow, who proceed to interview me. I silently
wonder who is applying, the child or the parent, but will never voice such a concern, of course. But I do
make a mental note that it is likely this applicant can not stand on their own feet- making a very week
candidate for the rough and tumble of film school. Do not over do the visit to Profs or department heads
because it is crystal clear if you are there just to impress.
Ok you are in what now
Your film school admission letter arrives, what now? Once you are admitted (think positive) you need to
device a strategy about which courses come first. If you a beginning freshman, take basic education course
first and be sure to learn a lot and build a superior grade point average there. Do not jump into film courses
right away unless you want to get used to campus, to college level study, to let alone attitude of college
teachers and to temptations in the campus. Get all of the general courses done right away. You will need all
your energy and concentration for film courses, and you do not want to have other subject’s requirements
hanging over you. Take latter is esp. true for those folks who jump into the film courses and wait for their
fifth year to fill out the needed basic requirements. (Sanchez allowed to happen to him which is why he ran
out of money and had to bunk at my house. What you hope for is that you will shine so brilliantly in the
film classes that you will be offered a job right after graduation. But, if basic courses still are lacking you
either have to defer that film job offer while you complete the requirements or will have to forgo your
college bachelor’s degree. That latter path is really stupid after you worked so hard to get so near the
degree. So get the basic courses out of the way first.
Then what film courses should come first? Answer all of them. Naturally you would want a course in film
directing prior to making your first film but then you will need to know the basics of shooting film before
you can fully benefit from a course of film directing. A class of production management will help you
break down your script and efficiently plan and execute your film shoots, but may be you should have a
script writing course before that. You should know, for example what scenes in your potential script cost
more than you can afford before you write the scene, and you likely will not know that prior to studying
production management but taking production management will be so much assisted by having had a script
writing course. Get the picture?
The film schools professor hopefully will have a best compromise sequence of courses ready for you. If it
seems well thought out, follow the prescribed sequence. Do not allow your needs for cash jobs to other
distractions keep you from taking the film courses in the sequence specified. Be prepared to work harder
that you ever have in your life. And if you cannot devote every ounce of your self into film school, don’t
bother to go at all. The business is like that, too- unrelentingly demanding and totally rejecting of anyone
who does not give 110 all the time. (If you do not believe me on these points, take a look at Sanchez’s
Haxan diary pages from his efforts to make his “Gabriel dream” film- its on the web. Here is a day –by day
record of real, hard work done!)
If you are spectacularly lucky just really good, you may get a film job prior to graduation. Like the great
college football player who is recruited to the pros before he finishes the degree, you will be tempted to
grab the first real job and defer the graduation. Unless the job is to replace Spielberg, as a director on the
feature, resist this temptation. If your abilities attracted the job offer prior to your walk up to get your
diploma, they will get you even more a few months or a year later, after graduation. And you will be able to
command more from you first job, you may never get back to classes to finish and will life goal unmet and
dangling.
So now you are in film course. You have several challenges, the first of which is to overcome the limits and
evils of your fellow film students. Their limitations may be obvious, but their evils in the form of
competition – may be harder to spot. At a big northeastern film school-editing students were known to steal
and destroy their fellow classmate’s half edited filmstrips exile they hung in the edited bins. A guy went to
lunch and came back to empty bin with a year’s collection of reversal 16 mm footage totally gone. In class
I taught students went to the library to tear out assigned chapters from books so that others in the course
could not read them and score well on my tests. I had put all library-reading assignments on Xerox reserve.
Fortunately the Haxan guy’s alma mater, UCF has much more cooperative sprit. We Profs at UCF exhort
mutual support and assistance. And they very hardheaded reason for this standard goes beyond simple
honesty, although I really like simple honesty, too. We teach that no one can make film alone. Students
need each other for crew of nothing else. The guy you screw today may be the guy whose talents you need
tomorrow, so be nice to everyone. The Haxan guys bonded in film school stuck together the hell of editing
the Blair witch project and even kept the faith in each other after their huge success. Each contributed skills
the other lacked, and egos were checked at the door. Filmmaking is collaborative, so be nice to everyone.
The challenge involves courage and artistic integrity. To express something significant or moving or even
scary or funny- about the human condition is the artist’s goal. To reach purely a clear compelling human
story told from the heart to the gut s expressive goal of the artist. To express abject fear (the Blair witch
project) or soaring delight, wild humor or any other of full range of human demotions and conditions id the
goal of the artist. Such and achievement requires courage the courage to dig into one’s self and play them
dramatically for all to see. And courage is required to forge ahead when all are telling you (and even you
are telling you sometimes) to quit, the idea is stupid or worse will flop at the box-office or festival. The
Haxan guys hit their low point when editing phase of Blair. Hale says that everyone was depressed they
even had two versions simultaneously being worked on, and neither was satisfying. But various members
of the guys took turns maintaining their courage. And they rose from ashes. The courage to dig deeply,
emotionally and to keep trying must be present in the e filmmaker.
Artistic integrity also is a necessary ingredient. The filmmaker must pursue his expressive goal without the
compromise pandering or second-guessing what the market wants. By the time you spot a trend in feature
movie content it is too late to make your version of that trend. Better just male the movie you are driven
toward have an overwhelming urge (now popularly called passion for) to do, can think of nothing else, etc.
than drive and dedication will show on the screen better than any formula thinking or trend chasing.
Graduation comes…and?
So you have survived the film courses, the dreams fulfilled the thrill of seeing your vision realized… and
the all fighters the squabbles, the false hopes and so on… and you have emerged, somewhat more educated
and with a little reel of film that you believed in. what now?
Choices: job, graduate school, bumming around. Reality bites.
Regardless of which choice you make your family watch them. The usual and best route to get noticed is
via film festivals. Festivals are hungry for new movies and will look at anything set them that are even
close to their requirements. Thus if you want to get noticed amass more cash to pay for the entry fees and
send in your dear babies. If your work is selected for public screening at a festival you now have a
screening credit and some sample of the public’s reaction to your movie. Maybe you will also win a festival
prize. All this attention gives you a track record for others (people who hire you) to use evaluate your
abilities.
It is best garner some festival attention prior to trying to use your movie an as entrée for film job
application s. if you do get festival a winner already deemed worthy rather that just another video cassette.
(If you have one or more of your movie worlds put together that is called a demo reel even though now it is
a videocassette not a reel of film. Because the movie business is so insecure and can never accurately
predict in advance which person or movie will be a big fives, some track records is a huge help in the
business.
Here is a big gotcha related to festivals- most fests want to show film not video so they insist on first seeing
a video copy of your film for screenings. Festivals want film not video. So somehow your work have to
make an expensive screening print of it and video copies of it- costly and necessary. If you shot on video
you will; have to plan during the shooting for the eventual bump up to film because video often still looks
like video transferred to film and transfer is costly. May be you want the video look, but otherwise film
school if a good place to learn how to try to make video look like film. Origination on video still means you
will need a film screening print of your baby. Festivals demand for film prints is slowly changing as large
video projectors improve in quality and lower in price, but the standard remains, today: film for large
audience screenings.
The Haxan guys had to go the extra mile and blow up their Blair footage and from the camera original hi-8
video and 16 mm film footage to 35mm film for screening print in order to satisfy the sindance film festival
needs, of course it was worth it for them but maybe 800 or so other features were submitted, and many of
them had a 35 mm print in their hoped for futures too.
Another bood will have to rell you the exant stpes and details of the comparative merits of shooting on
video of film posting in video or film and how to make good copes in both media. I could tekk you but
instead on to the subject at hand.
As a s selection judge for the florida film festival for seven years I hace seen at least a thousand features
socumentarues and shors in addition to seeing schore of UCF student films each year. What I have learned
from all this eye strain? I have learned that unique creativity wins the day. Of course ther are some subjects
that are more likely festucal winners that others, but when VCR if finally turned off, the movies that pop
back into the tired judge minds are those which were fresh innovative compelling and even unforgettable.
No one can watch the Blair witch project for example and say hey I have seen all this before . even while
the audiences are puking and shaking from shaky cam they are not saying that.
A little research on specific festivals slant can narrow down which places get your treasure. The florida
film festival for example specializes in truly independent films (features, documentart, animated and
shorts.) their selection committee (judges) seem to favor edgy but not truly far out so terminally cute film
about your cat may not rise too high ther but an expose on a guy who with red blood gushing, jams his face
with turkey skewer may also get the nod. Look at festivals actual selections from previous years to get
some guidance.
Festival selection is based both on the merit of the movies and on politivs. The politival portion of the
vattle to get seen is often overlooked by beginners. Festinal personnel- adminstratives and judges- are
people and are influenved by ling friendships by liking your work previously and by the doing of fovors for
other people ( and may be the movie distributors) most personnel try to be fair and unmoved by things
other than merit but get real these are human beings just like (or almost like) most of us. What they want is
a festival that people will want to attend and to talk about afterwards. If your movie forward that goal
great. But take the effort to see help the personnel see that your movie does just that. Go to festivals meet
the decision makers talk up your movie even before it is finished and leave something tangible ( a business
card, a poster something) in their hand for later reference.
Blair witch got notived for a really rare midnight screening at the sundance film festival 1999 because it
was so original and compelling but also it was rep-ed by a guy who is close kin to the co0founder of that
festival who also knew sundance in and out and knew how to create a buzz that the sundance decision
makers just could not ignore. Take a lesson.
The single best place, because it is so open to new folks is the famous IFFM the independent feature film
market , that has a big festival in September at the charming angelika theater in new york…at immf you
can hawk your movie even of you did not get a screening slot and can put your script on file there so others
(people who hire you ) can read it . this is a must attend for any serious independent film maker. Just pay
the admission price for a movie there and you are IN (or just hanf out in the lobby/café or even street
outside). You can also meet other festival decision makers and even distributors there- watch for distinctive
badges. Get tips from other folks doing what you are doing too.
Successful festival acceptances boost your applications for jobs and for graduate film school admission.
Why go to graduate film school? The answers are 1) you do not yet know enough and 2) you need access to
gear and faculty to make a bigger and better “demo reel” film. (or your undergraduate degree was not in
film and you want to change fields. Graduate school is nive because you usually have smaller classes more
direct and more extensive contact with professors and greater access to the best gear school has. And
graduate shool provides a couple more years for you to make “forgive-able mistakes”. That is mistakes you
make in schools are universally forgiven ot not even know. Howwver, the film you mwke in school, when
it comes out to festivals and the public, have the harsh, full light of criticism focused on them no more
cushions.
One strategy related to film schools is to take an undergraduate degree at a smaller cheaper school and then
hit the biggest reputation film schools for a graduate program to cap off your schooling. On the other hand,
if you want to be a more well rounded person consider taking an undergraduate degree in business or pre-
law, ot history of literature or art or whatever, and then concentrate on film school at the graduate level.
Graduate film schools usually cost even more then undergraduate and your costs to make your thesis film
will run higher too. And graduate school delays your entry into your working career by two or three years.
And you in a hutty.
Bumming around after graduation is not a bad option if you have cash. Take a student/hostel style trip
through Europe or south asia. Travel is broadening (lot of sitting, heh heh) and you will pick up scads of
valuable life experiences to tuck into those scripts you want to polish.
The job!
Your first job may be a referral from your film school professor or may come as a result of working your
butts off as an up-paid intern of from someone who saw your film at a festival. Survey some books on job-
hunting and keep your demo fresh and ready to show.
But may be you will want make your lfe dream, your feature movie. If so please turn to the page labeled
“do it now”