PCFE Film School

I've learned loads here. The teachers are all very good to excellent. The school's equipment, with the excpetion fo a few dodgy 16 mm cameras, is good - and you can get your hands on it whenever you want. Prague as a city can't be beat. The school does feel new - which has its good and bad points. On one hand everybody seems to be making a huge effort, but sometimes you feel samll program glitches, like being informed o fimportant program details and such at the last minute. That said, I feel I made a very good decision coming here and reommend this place enthusiastically.

I am very happy with PCFE. Teachers are very committed and competent, the staff is exceptionally friendly and the school is very accommodating. I've learned more here in 6 months than I have in my entire schooling back home. I attribute this entirely to the school.

I'm extremely happy with the school; small, intimate classes; hands-on projects and an experienced teaching staff who really know their stuff - In particular screenwriting and directing... Film Library could be improved but that's a small qualm...

"There is no teacher, one learns from what one does." But that alone is not everything, else we wouldn't need a school. I've been in the advertising industry for over 7 years working in the capacity of an art director and creative supervisor with India's no. 1 advertising agency - Ogilvy & Mather. I've always been interested in filmmaking, and finally took off from every distraction and plunged into it. I worked on the short film RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW in 2003 as a technical advisor, art director and lead actor, the film won the Best Short Film award at many international film festivals including Syracuse and Scnidth. Apart from which it was also nominated for Tribeca Film Festival, which I am particularly proud of as this festival is conducted by Martin Scorsese. Post this I worked on quite a few scripts and then arrived at a point where I had some money collected and some borrowed from banks with which I wanted to make a film, so I decided to go over to a film school, to get the opportunity to re-assess my skills and get like minded creative people with whom I could give this script or possibly another one that could be written at the school itself, a life. Make a film that I can take places. So I looked through a lot of options and based on the assurances given to me by Tariq and Tomas two really proficient marketing people who sold the school to me pretty well. I believed the school had a great reputation and a brilliant alumni. Once I committed to it and reached there and invested all this hard earned money, the little I got from selling my farm, and some that I borrowed into this school education, I discover that my batch was the very first 1-year program the school ever had. They were still figuring out how to crawl when they'd promised me they were running it. Also, they promised me that all my fellow students were just as competent and were people with at least 6-10 years of professional experience in Media and Art, but I reached a classroom full of 20 year old kids who had never had any exposure to art or any media and were still busy playing computer games. There goes all of it. I made a final film I am proud of but there was no help from the school, and no crew to speak of. The only two people who helped me were exceptions to this school and I am glad I was able to find them. I agree that it's also my fault to not have researched well before I put in my money into something, and before I let myself be sold into whatever was told to me by two complete sweet talking total strangers. On a later date once I was well into the deal, there was no sweet talking, in fact I did face quite a lot of humiliation at their hands and some days of total torture. I come from India and hence need a Visa to be in Prague, again the school had reassured me that they will arrange for it, and failed at it as well just as they did with all their other promises. As a result I had to spend thrice the money going up and down between India and Prague, not an easy task emotionally and financially. When everyone was working on the pre-production or post or their film I was in India pleading at the Czech Embassy in Mumbai for a visa. So I am writing this only for anyone looking at a professional course in filmmaking and is serious about it. Take an informed decision. If the school has learned from its mistakes great for them. But I wish they had not made a guinea pig out of me. Thomas T. George

The following was taken from a end of term or session evaluation review. Nothing has been changed or re-edited for this posting. If you wish to contact the person(s) who originally wrote this review, please email me at Josh@filmstudies.cz "It’s Nick Brennan from the July session. I never got a chance to thank you for all the help you gave me during the production of my film, Knives Kill, this summer. I'd been meaning to find your email address to get in touch with you, but I couldn't get ahold of it until, low-and-behold; you sent me an email about the Animation program, which sounds really cool. Did you ever get a chance to check out Knives Kill? The blue screen sequence wasn't as long as I'd hoped it would be, but it was still a nice effect." - Nick Brennan

The following was taken from a end of term or session evaluation review. Nothing has been changed or re-edited for this posting. If you wish to contact the person(s) who originally wrote this review, please email me at Josh@filmstudies.cz "Review for computer animation course in Prague (PCFE) Just started a computer animation/graphics course in Prague. It's much more and much better than I expected. The guy running the course not only has loads of transferable hands-on, industry experience, he's an extremely competent teacher (I should know, having been a teacher for over 10 years!). He's also motivated in giving the students a tangible, marketable skill at the end. As for the school, it has the right equipment needed for this kind of course (including a blue room) that's in a cool basement setting. So, if you're looking for great course in a laid-back city, check out their website." - Elizabeth Bardenhagen

At least in the year program of 2004-2005 there were many problems with this school. First of all, the management of the school was extremely poor and the ones in charge of the program know nothing about pedagogy and very little about film. There was no solid curriculum that was adhered to, no readings in the syllabi, no exams or evaluation system, or homework (which some people might like). Several teachers were well known filmmakers but that didn't make them good teachers, in fact many students were unable to learn anything in some classes due to lack of clarity, coherence, English skills, and learning methods. There is no internationally accepted qualification given and in fact we never even received any certificate or acknowledgement that we finished the course, even though we were promised one. When the lot of students made complaints and suggestions for improvement of the program, instead of accepting and respecting the needs of the students the management argued. On the positive side there is a lot of exposure to video using a Sony PD170, though no exposure to a 35mm camera. It is great to have time with such great filmmakers if you can figure out how to learn from them. The editing suites use Avid Express Pro and are almost always free and available. There is a DVD library but most are illegal copies. Prague is a great city, but you can live there, buy your own equipment and just learn by doing for much cheaper! There is some potential here if they get their act together but so far it hasn't been reached!