Film School Question

Im going there now. Im in foundations and then doing digital design next year. It's a really great school and you make a lot of contacts and put out a lot of work throughout the year.

If you want my review of foundations. I would say do your foundations of art elsewhere and then come to vfs for one of there second year programs. Nothing is wrong with the program persay... I've learned so much since last october but...

The problem is more so the selectivity. They will basically let anyone into the program and I kind of feel like I'm going to school with a bunch of rich kids that don't have the same amount of drive as I imagined my classmates would.

That being said I've met some really great people who I will be friends with my entire life from all around the world. The school is filled with international students and you really get a perspective on character and beliefs of others from around the world. Your classmates are vital to your success at school and this is why I feel a bit odd when I see someone who paid a 20k price tag and dosent bother showing up to class or giving it their all on assignments. The second year programs are much more selective and it's not uncommon for a couple people to drop out along the way. From students I've talked to, second year is when it gets serious, foundations is a vacation (if you want it to be).

If you have the drive and you put in work, you will gain a lot from going there. But remember film school won't make you good and it won't necessarily give you a job. They give you the tools and mentor ship to build your style and the direction to become good. When they teach you something, even if it seems redundant, you have to think for yourself what you can do with the tool they just gave you. The instructors are awesome, knowledgeable and most work in the industry and will probably bump into you later on in your career.

I heard some negative things about the film production program before coming here. VFS is sort of known as VFX school. But they have done a complete revamp of the program and hired some new people and the presentation they gave us looked pretty convincing. You will work on 20-30 films in your year there that you can add to your portfolio and they have some huge underground studios in gastown where you build huge sets and such.

Anyway! Hope that helped. Let me know what program your thinking of taking and I can try and break it down if you have more questions

Thanks so much! That was exactly what I was hoping to picture the school as. I live about 3 hours from Vancouver so it being close was a huge draw for me even though it requires a border jump. I have quite a resume of work already but hearing that they are not selective for the first year programs is somewhat of a relief. Thanks for the help!

Portland Art Institute is pretty awesome. So is USC and NYU if you're a boss and have good enough grades. Not to discourage you, but keep in the mind that the job market is very limited for film majors (and fine arts majors in general). You really gotta stand out and bust your ass in college if you're looking to stand out and get jobs. A friend of mine that graduated from USC told me that a lot of his closest friends were film majors there (the #1 film school in the nation) and are now bussing tables in LA scraping a living. From my small knowledge of film school, its not enough to just get a film degree. You really gotta stand out if you want to get the jobs out of college.

Yeah I definitely know the risks. I am still not 100% but I have a 3.7 and got an 1880 on the SAT so I have options out there. I might end up sticking around here for 2 years for a community college but if not I want to head to UBC. I have done my homework and honestly its a want more than a guarantee. I am working with pro freeride/DH bikers and companies in the industry right now and film school has been in the back of my head for a while.

In my experiences to get the good jobs and high paying work you've got to hustle. Degree or not, if you don't have a shark attack type A personality you're probably not gonna be making big bucks as a director or producer. If you want to be a camera operator or editor you don't really even need to go to film school, just get some equipment and start networking. If you don't want to hustle or network; a film school degree will get you an entry level film job, logging tapes, PA, some other bullshit, and you can slave away if you're lucky enough to get hired to a production company and not a production, slowly work your way up or into some random department. If you do go to film school partner with the best students, not your friends or people who have personalties you're drawn to, if you want your reel to be worth a damn at the end of it.