I have no direct experience as a student there. But I have hired graduates - and I have been less than impressed with their knowledge. I'm sure each individual is very different, but I have hired 10 different graduates from Full Sail over the last five years and each one hasn't had much of the basic knowledge and experience I expect from a film student.

Ten for ten tells me that I won't ever hire another Full Sail graduate.

On the positive side - in July of 2004 I hired a Full Sail grad who I really liked. He didn't have the basic knowledge, but he was a hard worker and a great guy. He told me he learned more in the three weeks on my movie (getting paid) than he learned in two years at Full Sail (paying them).

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

thanks for the info.

Ss

Yeah, I don't buy into the whole "Film School" thing myself. It can't hurt, but I would never hire someone just because they went to film school.

NOTHING makes up for experience you gain on a real film set, where you have to figure out problems as they come at you and you don't have your teacher there to help you out of the mess. Plus trying to teach people every aspect of filmmaking is a mistake, since there is so much to know about even one field, more less all of them. If you want to be a Director, learn directing. If you want to be a camera assistant, learn that trade.

The worst thing someone can do is try to learn to be a CG artist, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Gaffer, Camera Operator and best boy at the same time. Not to say that it won't help if the director has some knowledge of producing and some knowledge of cinematography, I'm just saying that you should stay somewhat in your chosen career field and only venture out to get the most basic, bottom line knowledge of other key positions.

Landon D. Parks

Well film schools can help mould your aesthetic sense more than technical provided you attend a good one. No one can teach you filmmaking in six, eight or twelve weeks. You can get familiar with different aspects of filmmaking that way but the real thing only comes with hands on experience even if it's on your handycam. One of the best ways to learn effective film technique is writing short scenes and shooting them on a handycam or anything better you can lay your hands on and see how well you've done with them. After having edited them on any home pc based software you'll have learned something about lighting, acting, shot compositions, editing etc. Do keep in mind though that the piece of work you are creating is not solely for your personal consumption, but for others to see and genuinely admire it. This way you'll always strive to do better than the standards you've merely set for yourselves. It's effective and rewarding. If it sounds boring and a cumbersome process to you, then you are not really cut out to be in this field and might as well take up Accounting. Good luck

My producer went to film school at Chapman University. He as able to get permits, insurance, locations, audition locations, crew volunteers, and audio equipment that really helped jumpstart the production. Two hitches though (1) A lot of film schools own the rights to films shot by students using their equipment (2) Film school students tend to have short attention spans when it comes to shooting a full length movie. They all faded after a few months worth of weekends and I can't really blame them.

So having said that my indirect experience was pretty positive. Then again I didn't have to pay tuition or go to classes.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

One thing I don't like about film schools: Those that go into the Directing field are generally cookie-cutters. Meaning that film school has thought them one way of doing things, therefore when they get into the real world, they all do it the same way. If you have an artistic ability to be a director or cinematographer or editor, you'll know well before you head to film school. Having an artistic ability cannot be "Learned". Either you have it, or you don't.

Film Schools can teach you some of the technical side of filmmaking, and give you a very good idea of how a set works, but again, these are all things that IMHO are better learned on a real film set where you have to deal with problems by yourself and work out artistic ways around them.

While school's can teach you film history, creative writing, ect as well, these are all things that you don?t have to pay $30,000 to learn. Your Library is a gold-mine of film literature and history and if you?re really interested in writing, you should have took a creative writing course in high school.

Has anyone noticed one thing? Back in the days of Hitchcock and even further back to the very beginning of filmmaking when the truly great films where made by the masters, there was no "Film School"... "Film School" is one of the reasons I think some of today?s films are so bad. And generally, the truly great films made by modern filmmakers generally points to the fact that the specific person did not go to film school or entered film before there was a such thing as film school.

Hey, also new here, first post actually, but I was going to say that I went to visit full sail just about a month ago and was extremly impressed by the mass of equipment and the freedom that the students are given. They seem to run by the philosphy of "You make your only bed and lie in it." It seemed to me that it was what you made of it. Personally, I think that film school would really hurt, but if you are thinking of attending a school just remember that they can't teach creativity. They can give you technical means, but they can't give you creativity. Alot of people fail to see that. And film school is exspensive as hell.