# What do i need to get into film schools?



## wdy (Mar 21, 2004)

Hey everyone.  I'm in grade 11 right now and have begun thinking of what I'm going to do after high school, considering next years is my last year.  I know I want to goto Algonquin College to get a 2 year degree in Television Broadcasting.  Although after that or before that I'd like to goto a film school.  I'm currently living in Ottawa, Canada.  I was wondering if some of you could recommend some close by film school, states is fine just nothing too far away from home.

Also I'd like to know what alot of these film schools requirements and importants are to get accepted.

I'm currently focusing on my englishs in school right now.  This semester besides my marketing and com tech course, i'm taking a college level grade 11 english as well as and english media course.

Thanks,
Andrew


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## wdy (Mar 21, 2004)

Hey everyone.  I'm in grade 11 right now and have begun thinking of what I'm going to do after high school, considering next years is my last year.  I know I want to goto Algonquin College to get a 2 year degree in Television Broadcasting.  Although after that or before that I'd like to goto a film school.  I'm currently living in Ottawa, Canada.  I was wondering if some of you could recommend some close by film school, states is fine just nothing too far away from home.

Also I'd like to know what alot of these film schools requirements and importants are to get accepted.

I'm currently focusing on my englishs in school right now.  This semester besides my marketing and com tech course, i'm taking a college level grade 11 english as well as and english media course.

Thanks,
Andrew


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## SPENSER (Mar 21, 2004)

the good news is most top film schools in the u.s. dont look at your films, which means you dont even need to know how to make a film to get in. You need money and good grades. If you have those you can go very far in any arena.


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## Boddington (Mar 21, 2004)

So, are you basically looking at college programs? If so, there are various good colleges that have film programs you should look into. Off the top of my head, I would suggest looking into Humber or Sheridan. Usually, guidance counsellors are very informative, so if you check with them, I'm sure they would have some good Ontario/Canadian colleges for you to consider.

From what I can tell, Humber's Film and Television Program seems like an ideal program for you, because of your interest in film as well as television brodcasting. You should definitely check out that link. When I applied to the program, they asked for a resume, letters of reference, and an essay. The next step was an invitation to the school for an orientation session where they had a bunch of students come in to write an essay, and fill out some additional material. The essay was to be about a film or tv show you recently watched. From what I heard, this essay is pretty important. They faculty member I talked to said that the admissions committee was not so interested in the subject matter, but more so the grammar and structure of the essay. 

As fas as Sheridan's Media Arts is concerned , all they asked for was a resume - with specific information they wanted included on it. From what I have heard, the grade requirements are pretty high. It seems like a fairly intresting program though. Other than that, I don't know much else.

I applied to Algonquin's Television Broadcasting program, but am not really interested in it right now. They sent me some info about the next steps I had to complete, but its not really what I am looking for. They get you to schedule a day when you can go in to do some testing, etc. I think they might ask for a resume, or letters of reference, etc. 

Anyways, you might have already known a lot about what I just said - but I hope it helps. Good luck.


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## Pan Modo Productions (May 19, 2004)

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SPENSER:
the good news is most top film schools in the u.s. dont look at your films, which means you dont even need to know how to make a film to get in. You need money and good grades. If you have those you can go very far in any arena. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's bad news for a lot of people, me being one of them, since I do not exactly get amazing grades, still pretty good though. I find it hard in high school to do stuff you know you will never use in life.


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## NotaMono (May 19, 2004)

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pan Modo: 
I find it hard in high school to do stuff you know you will never use in life. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's not a good attitude for a filmmaker (Or any other artist) to have.  With the exception of calculus, most of what I learned in High School (And college) has come back as relevant information in my filmmaking and/or in other aspects of life.  Are they forcing you to learn underwater basket weaving or something?  Poor grades can be overcome, but don't discredit the value of information.

Nota "Still has a lot to learn" Mono


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## dancingbear (May 21, 2004)

Nota is right (as usual). I'm really happy about the time I spent in High School with my friends and I never reallly got into the whole homework thing, but I really regret (now that I've been a subsitute teacher for high school) that I didn't pay attention to academics. There's so much to learn and especially at that age. You'll meet a lot of "artists" who NEVER cared about education and (while there are exceptions) most of them (even if they are talented) just don't know enough about a lot of different subjects. I don't know if everyone will agree with me here, but I think the best filmmakers are exactly that (A Jack of all trades: politics, art, history, literature, etc.)


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## Pan Modo Productions (May 27, 2004)

Yeah, I can understand that. I like to learn new things, but at this poor excuse for a school you hardly learn anything, either it's the exact same thing, or they just give you homework to do, without lesson. The marking system has really taken away any chance of creativity. On some of the projects I worked extremley hard on, I would get horrible marks, and if I slapped something together I would get good marks. I personally hate high school. It's full of the same people thugs and jocks, and they take school as not a place to learn, but a place to do drugs, deal drugs, make fun of people, etc. Sometimes they get so bad, that the teachers can't even teach.


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## loveoctaviopaz (Jul 7, 2004)

Wow! I am currently at a film school and thinking of either dropping out or picking up an extra degree by correspondence because of the lack of academics. It's not that I love hard work, it's just so vital to have some substance, something to say. Have come to believe that film-making should be a tool and not an end in itself. Unfortunately not possible for me to get overseas to a grad school or would go that way...


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## jerez (Jul 28, 2004)

Hey im wondering what these film schools actually look for in your portfolio. Im currently putting one together and wonder what i should focus on. Please let me know.
Andrew


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## RFranco (Jul 31, 2004)

most of the film schools i've seen do care about your film projects and what you have done prior to going to them. 

i've also noticed that anything that isnt' a screenplay or a film gets ignored, and if it IS a screenplay or film, it better be damn good. 

the idea for most of the big film schools isn't that they're there to teach you film, but to allow you to be more creative and interesting with your film making, which means you need a lot of talent and knowledge before going in.


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