# Preparing for graduate school



## Mike For The Spotless Mind (Jun 24, 2008)

I've been looking through this forum and I was unable to find what I was looking for so it came to this. What must one do to prepare for graduate school? Other than making films/videos for a portfolio and writing great essays and recommendations, what more can one do to be accepted into a highly credited university?
Thanks, Mike


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## valleeboy (Jun 26, 2008)

Mike, don't sweat it. If you work on your portfolio and essays like you said and are able to get solid rec's, you're giving yourself a fighting chance to get into any top-rated school. You don't need a load of film classes or a star-making internship to make it. The admissions committees can't expect you to do/know everything. Otherwise, you wouldn't need film school.

If you want specific information on a school, contact them. Not the graduate advisors, but the faculty that you would be learning from if admitted. Email, phone them, or meet with them if they're willing to spare the time. And they should. After all, every professor wants to fill their program with great students. What better way than making their time available to applicants?


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## Jayimess (Jun 26, 2008)

There is no formula, just put out the best material you know how.

I wish there was a time tested formula, but if I learned anything from my first year at USC and from this site...


It's that there is no formula.

Best of luck!


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## valleeboy (Jun 26, 2008)

Nope, there's definitely no formula, but it does seem that students who are accepted know the most about the schools they're applying to. Not the regurgitated stuff in "getting into film shool" books, but firsthand information from faculty, current students, graduates. Every program has its specific emphasis, even quirks, and the applicant who knows about them is able to find the school that's right for them, and to polish their application with the school's idiosyncrasies in mind.


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## Jayimess (Jun 26, 2008)

See, that's the crazy thing...I basically sent the same writing materials to all three schools I got into...I did my research on this site, from other "film school insider" sites and books.  I didn't come out here until I moved out here before school started.

I went blind, and it worked.

Research can't hurt, though, but if one is unable to do it, it doesn't mean it's impossible.

As for the admissions people, I think Chapman is the exception to the rule wherein they interact with applicants.  Most schools flat out say "DON'T CALL US, WE'LL CALL YOU."

It's such a crapshoot, this getting into film school thang.  I still don't know how I got in.


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## valleeboy (Jun 26, 2008)

There's no reason why any applicant can't research the schools he/she is interested in. Certainly, you don't have to be in NY or LA to find professors willing to spare some time answering questions.

Going blind may work IF you maintain some focus. But there are always people who figure if they send the same application materials to fifteen different schools that they're sure to get in somewhere. Then comes rejection letter after rejection letter. 

And researching on this site isn't going blind. We're all here so we don't have to go blind, right?


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## Daniel G (Jun 27, 2008)

I slightly tailored my applications for each specific school. For Production though, you kind of have to, seeing that they all ask for specific things to ensure they don't get a vanilla app. 

On top of this, my personal essay evolved as each deadline came in one after another. Saying this however, it's not like I sold myself differently to the LA schools as I did to the NY ones. You have to take in some regard for the reader, but at the end of the day it's your portfolio/personal essay.


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## Jerry Prokosch (Jun 28, 2008)

I can tell you that for NYU, possibly the single most important thing to demonstrate in your materials is storytelling ability.  Do you have, for example, a native sense of the difference between a story and a premise?  Do you have interesting ideas and material to tell stories about?  Is this why you want to make films?


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## Mike For The Spotless Mind (Jun 29, 2008)

Thanks everyone for all your advice. I really appreciate it. 

I want to tell stories in a medium that would connect with people and I realized that film was perfect. Coming from a high school experience through the fine arts department, I realized I wanted to do something artistic. I took art all four years through high school and I loved it. My senior year, I enrolled in photography (because the teacher was hot) and I fell in love with it (the art and not the teacher). I was enthralled by the beauty of still photography and got even more interested in moving pictures. I was then set on going to a great art school in Chicago but at the last minute I decided to go to a university because I had other options including art. Through photography and art and many inspiring movies, I knew I had to go into filmmaking. 

Bottom line is I want to tell stories. I can't really say I'm good at story telling, but with the experiences I had, they could translate into something worth telling.


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## Jayimess (Jun 30, 2008)

Make sure you convey that, Mike...the fact that you tried to do something else, something safe, but still had the filmmaking bug.

My classmates and myself, the vast majority, anyway...we all came from different fields, but couldn't stifle our impulse to work in this beautiful medium.  

We've got people who started and stopped med school, business school (yours truly), law school (er...also yours truly, at my parents' insistence)...one woman worked as a badass attorney for almost a decade before a stranger on a plane changed her life by telling her not to postpone chasing her dream because someday may never come.

These are the things they want to know about yo in addition to just how talented you are.


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## Jerry Prokosch (Jun 30, 2008)

Jayimess, business school... honestly, one of the best possible backgrounds for filmmaking, particularly in the low-budget, independent film world where you're doing so many different jobs yourself.  You need resources immediately, you need people to do things, you need to persuade people to do you favors.  I'm always excited when I hear about a film person with a business degree, because I suspect that person is tenacious.


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## Jayimess (Jun 30, 2008)

Ah, Jerry, 

I did not get my MBA.  One of my two majors was advertising, and I minored in Marketing, but just when I was applying to B schools, which I was only doing to be "safe," my mentor encouraged me to go for what I really wanted.  A year later, I began at USC.

I think I made the right choice, because I have to admit, an MBA would've been just delaying the inevitable, and I've already wasted enough time finding my way.

I mean, I've spent enough time "gaining more life experiences," of course.


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## Jerry Prokosch (Jun 30, 2008)

Well, degree shmagree.  Whatevs.  Your mentor was smart.  The reason I appreciate business people is because of the confidence and tenacious... tenacity that goes with the territory.  One year at Tisch has taught me to admire this greatly.


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## Jayimess (Jun 30, 2008)

I know what you mean...the business acumen can be quite impressive as long as one doesn't allow the loss of soul and ethics.

Sooooo.

Do you love Singapore or what??  How do you see your endgame?  Work there, or head back to the States?


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## Jerry Prokosch (Jul 1, 2008)

J.

Well, see, I mainly know Singapore through the lens of the program, which is an extremely tough program.  Briefly, before classes started last fall, I knew Singapore as a place where you sit around outside at night, when it cools down, in this zany city with your new friends drinking lots of Tiger beer and talking about movies -- and this side of things I love quite a lot.  

The program, of course, consumes every minute of the day and virtually every thought, and then suddenly you're waging a film production and then, like anywhere, you get super intimate with the obstacles.  So I've certainly been as frustrated by Singapore as delighted.  I can tell you some serious production nightmare stories related specifically to being in Singapore -- which I guess serve to make the production triumphs even more... um, triumphant.  

You know I'm a directing student, and over the last year I've learned enough to basically go anywhere in the world and put together a serious film production on a modest scale -- soup to nuts.  By the end of the program I'll be an independent film machine.  So this is very practical and great, but you don't have to be in Singapore to learn this.  

To me, the single best thing about being in Singapore, the thing I love about it without reservation, that another program can't replace, is what it has done for me as a writer -- in terms of broadening (I realize this verges on sounding cheesy) the scope of my imaginative landscape.  I've been writing for most of my life, and the last year has, like, thrown a little switch in my head -- the light bulb is on, and it's a different kind of light than I thought it would be -- its circumference on the floor is wider, and there are some items in the room I couldn't see before.  Maybe the best way to put it is that being on the other side of the globe has been like being on the other side of the globe.

Anyway, this has been a long answer.  I have some ideas about my endgame, but right now my class is mainly focused on our 2nd year films.

Sooooo.

What about you?

J.


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## yeoman74 (Jul 2, 2008)

Hey Jayimess and Jerry P:

I'm so happy I found this site because I'm in Ohio and there is really no one I know that has any experience applying to film schools.  Anyway, I'm applying this fall and am really wondering how I stack up against the competition.  I'm wondering how much of a chance I have applying to a USC, NYC, Columbia, etc.

Since both of you are in, I wondered if you could tell me what previous "life experience" you had along with any portfolio work you submitted.

Thanks.
Hugh


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## Race_Bannon (Jul 16, 2008)

Jerry

It was really cool hearing about your experiences at Tisch in Singapore. Stepping outside of the US benefits you so much as a person and does a lot for your creativity. I'm just starting to learn the value of that, living in London. But obviously London is nowhere as different to the US than Singapore. But, regardless of that, I feel the same way here. Even though I'm not studying film yet, I study it a little bit every day by living in a different culture. 

And that's what I really love about filmmaking. It exposes you to so many aspects of life that you might not have otherwise experienced. And it lets people who are interested in just about everything bring all of their experiences together. That's art for ya. Great stuff


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## Daniel G (Jul 16, 2008)

Funny thing. These days parts of Singapore reminds me more of the West than, well, the West does.


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## Jayimess (Jul 16, 2008)

Jerry,

Sorry for the delayed response.

Los Angeles is interesting.  Until the summer, I had only experienced it as a student, driving to and from school and not much else.

So it hasn't inspired me much, I'm sad to say.

School in and of itself, however, has impacted me in ways I never anticipated.  That first day of each class, when we all introduced ourselves, I was intimidated, wondering how the hell I got in with all of these brilliant folks, but I soon realized that everyone there felt that way.  It was a great exercise in building self-confidence.

Self-confidence is necessary, so very necessary, to keep yourself going in this business.

I've learned how to take criticism in an entirely different way than I ever did before, and I'm a better writer because of it.

I learned to trust my words with others, in the often realized hope that together we could make my stories better, all of our stories, in fact.

I've been exposed to people I'd never have encountered in sleepy small town Ohio, and they've helped me to broaden my view of both the world and the people that roam it.  I'm creating characters that I never felt like I knew before coming here.

I've also encountered the pain of writing dark stories, and learned how to cope with it.

Most of all, I've learned that being surrounded by like-minded people is one of the best things that can happen to an artist.  The zealous discussions and support drawn from the six dozen people I've met this year have allowed me to come out of my shell...it's hard to explain, but there is nothing better than kicking around a story idea and knowing that those who are listening can actually hear you, and want to know more.

It's kind of hard to find that kind of folk among the blue-collar Midwesterners I was lucky enough to be given as my beloved family.

I love that we all support each other here, celebrating each other's successes, but also not afraid to rip each other apart.

So, I guess to me the biggest benefits have been my re-education about people, which is great because I'm a writer, writing 'bout people.  Characters make story, and I find new ones every day.

The science (!) of screenwriting and filmmaking are of course also a huge part of my learning this past year, but I suppose anyone can find that in myriad books.  It's the environment that we're learning within that makes USC like heaven to me.

Corny, I know, but there it is.



Hugh,

I saw somewhere that you went to Muskingum.  I went to school up in Cleveland, so I know how hard it must be to find like-minded folks.

All the same, you should know that you CAN do this.  Just from my school, we've got MFA students at Chapman, USC, and AFI.  Two of my classmates are interviewing at studios as I write this, and another works for BET.

All of us from sleepy ol' Ohio.

The life experiences that we've had do not matter.  Why?  Because they're not YOUR life experiences and those are what are of concern when you apply.

Think about what's important to you in life...values, behaviors, attitudes, morals, pasttimes.  Then try to figure out what in your past shaped that.

i.e...I hate milk.  I hate it hate it hate it.  Cereal sucks, too.  Hmmmm...I wonder why I'm the only person I know who feels this way.

Oh, wait...in fifth grade, I remember....

When I was ten years old, my mother poured me a bowl of cereal, and I complained that the milk was spoiled.  Since I always said this in an effort to avoid eating breakfast, she ignored me and told me to eat the cereal.  Suddenly, I threw up in my bowl, sweating and watery eyed.

She went and got the milk from the fridge, and took a sip right from the bottle.

Milk was spoiled.  She apologized profusely, and I got hot breakfasts from then on.

Therefore, to me, breakfast is ALWAYS a hot meal.

So, obviously that's a really silly example, because let's face it, breakfast preferences aren't too significant in shaping who we are as people, but I hope you get the drift.

You'd be surprised what you'll discover about yourself.... 


Best of Luck!

J.


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