Ever since high school, I've wanted to be a film editor or a cinematographer. I have no film experience. I am right now in school in Albany, NY as a photography major & am planning on transferring to UT Austin or ASU or Brooks Institute or somewhere else. The only thing holding me back is my lack of experience. I've never written my own scripts or made my own movie. So, if there is anyone on here that had no experience whatsoever in filmmaking & pursued a degree in it & has some words of encouragement, then I'd appreciate it.

USC requires no filmmaking experience. They want to see that you know how to tell a story and have a creative vision.

If so, they're happy to teach you the technical stuff.


I believe the Brooks Institute is the same way. One of the Stark students at my school and her husband went there...her husband goes to AFI now. I am fairly sure that they weren't film experts before they went...

Photography is so close to film, Brighten. Just take the next step and go shoot something! It's not too hard to make a simple story, though it won't necessarily be technically perfect, and you learn so much by doing it.

Colleges don't expect you to have any film experience except for graduate students. You don't need to short films you made in order to be accepted to a school. You can have nothing and the college will look beyond that. One school, either Ryerson or York in Canada(I forgot which one), don't even ask for a video...instead, they ask for photographs to get into the film program. That would be perfect for you. And then there's others who don't ask for anything...maybe a portfolio asking for creative stuff but that's it.

I don't even have experience myself. I'm stuck in community college taking regular old general education requirements so I can transfer to a good film school. I've never made a short, I don't know how to work a tripod(although you probably know), I gave up on Adobe Premiere...the only little thing I have is a video class I took in 12th grade and those kids weren't serious. My main point is, you can still apply to colleges even though you don't have anything under your belt. The college will teach you everything...it's their job and it's your job to learn.