Hi everyone,

I'm new here and I live in Iowa and I have dreams of becoming a filmmaker and actor. I grew up wanting to be like Jackie Chan and Jet Li and other people in film industry and I want to make good action films and others types of films. I recently visited Full Sail and seem to be too fake for me. I've been looking the catalogs of NYFA and Columbia College Chicago. Most of you guys say NYFA is pretty good place to be in Universal Studio and Columbia College Chicago let you any classes that you want and plus have about five stage fighting classes (which be fun to learn). I would like you guys thoughts and opinions, it mean a lot to me.

Cool.

Well, Besides NYFA and Full Sail and Columbia, there ARE other colleges out there.
For example, I am pretty sure I will be going to Full Sail for the A.S. and then go to University of TX or SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), or might even check out one of the "typical" filmmaking universities (eg. NYU, UCLA, USC)

Just keep researching, because there are a LOT of good schools out there, you just need to keep on looking.

Good luck with all of that!
LATERS

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J.MICHAEL | COMING 2004

... but stay away from Full Sail. Very ambitious, talented and strong willed people can get something going but would be alot more productive at say FSU or NCSA.

I have seen WAY to much garbage come out of that school (I lived in Florida and met someone from just about every "semester" of that school over a 5 year period). As in most things in life shorter is'nt necessarilly better.

Dont drop $30,000 there if you are going elsewhere anyway.
R. Michael

"Luck, is when opportunity, meets preperation." "There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, and none of us are lying" -Robert Evans
Tizzy Entertainment "Redemption" Hi-Def trailer

first choice imho NYU or USC. NYu has the big advantage that you shoot film ( a lot of film ) from your sophomore year on, and NYU is in manhattan, the best place to be in the USA

USC is an awesome school, but extremely competitive. At NYU, everyone does a 16mm color sync sound film, at USC you will probably find better connections to hollywood.

UCLA or Columbia or FSU, all very good schools.

North carolina university of the arts is imho a great school and it is not extremely difficult to get accepted. I heard the same about School of visual arts in NYC.

I am sure there are plenty of other schools around

Cammo made this point in a previous post...
Why do you bash FULLSAIL if YOU never went?

Did you have a friend that went there or something? Because I have talked to a lot of people who had an AWESOME time going there, only a few regretting it.

And the ones that DO complain, are the ones that aren't made for this kind of industry. It doesn't matter where you go...If you don't get off your ass, then you won't get ANYWHERE..

The ones I have talked to that DID have a bad experience, are the wimps that DID sit on their ass, and now they complain about 30,000 they lost...

In fact, You don't even HAVE to go to school to be a filmmaker..
Education has NOTHING to do with your ability to make a good movie..
You either have it, or you don't..

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J.MICHAEL | COMING 2004

here is a good list of film schools i found. Its not concrete, but you get a good idea of most of the universities that have good film schools. Not alot of art schoools listed however.

heres the list. There is another one i go by but i cant seem to find it at the moment.

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Alex Conway
Mind-Trip Films

To answer your question J. Michael I have had several friends who went there. In addittion I was a part of a film festival for several years and saw student entries from them time and time again (In addition to what the friends who went there showed me) Bar none the best looking stuff to ever come out of that school is on this site.

The first being "The Body" By Gabe Sanchez
The second being "Porcelian Malice"

The later isnt even that great but rather a MUCH to long winded fart joke gone ary.

Gabe can tell you how the faculty hacked his script down and kept him from shooting crucial scenes.

I can tell you not one film from there was ever accepted at the film festival in question and seeing as I was making dubs for the judges i got to view them myself and can see why.

Yes they shoot 35mm ONE per semester and there is no guarantee as to who will do what. Ive watched two "BTS Docs" from there where snotty rich kids talked about how it was BS that their script wasnt being made and how they werent doing jack to help the selected production.

All Imsaying is the school isnt cheap, so why possiblly waste a year there when FSU will provide film stock and processing for 16mm by year three and award 5 five selected filmmakers $25,000 each as a budget to shoot their thesis film by year four? On top of that it is a strong program with skilled instructors as are the ones at NCSA the Savanah Arts College. My two cents.
R. Michael

"Luck, is when opportunity, meets preperation." "There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, and none of us are lying" -Robert Evans
Tizzy Entertainment "Redemption" Hi-Def trailer

Well, at least you gave your reasons.
Most people say 'just 'cause'...or some other BS.

I am actually going down there this coming sunday for the tour, and then I'm going to think about whether or not I should do it..

I still have time to decide where I want to go.
Kinda makes it hard when I keep hearing mixed reviews about a school, especially when it'll be about $52,000 (thats adding all living expenses, etc.)

Well, anyways, thanks for your 'two cents'...

I'll keep that in mind...

BTW, If anyone has any questions ABOUT fullsail, lemme know, cause im going to that tour soon, and i will be asking a bunch...

I'll take some pix, and let you all know how it went..

LATERS

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J.MICHAEL | COMING 2004

In fact, You don't even HAVE to go to school to be a filmmaker..
Education has NOTHING to do with your ability to make a good movie..
You either have it, or you don't..



education has so much to do with making a good movie...it helps you so much and makes you a better artist. You can believe me that

While I do agree with Tizzy that Full Sail is expensive and shouldn't be a decision you make lightly. I fell like I should shine some light on to one of the arguements from above.

The reason alot (not all) of the films do not come out suppar is because unlike most 4 year film school the films made at Full Sail are much more of a colaborative process. For example, I direct one of my classes 35mm final projects and while I ultimatly had the power during the shoot, once the shoot was over I no longer had the power. Meaning that I had no control over which script gets picked or how the edit goes. This is ultimatly why alot of the final projects are decent at best and a big of a mess at times. But you must remember it is a school and everyone deserves to learn, not just the director. While this may make for decent films at best it is still school and does make for more people to learn more things.

If you are going to school to make a great film at film school: maybe Full Sail isn't for you.
If you are going to learn all the aspects of film so you can one day be a great filmmaker then Full Sail is probably more for you.

Cammo

i wanted to go there but i heard from several of my friends that their experiences were almost identical to those posted at full sail sucks.com...and i guess the fact it has a site like that doesnt help...but i DO hear its an excellent gaming school.

okay, just because some fat ass computer nerd decides to make a hate website on fullsail, isn't a legit reason for not going.

how many -sucks websites are there? HUNDREDS! (fullsail, nyu, microsoft, yahoo, sprint ALL have hate sites...)

any nerd today can create a hate site, and i can BET a lot that the same person made the majority of those reviews, under a different name each time..

so if you based your decision on something like that, then i feel sorry for you...

THE SITE EVEN LOOKS LIKE BS!

in short, if you are unsure about a school...
hop on a damn plane, go check it out, and then YOU make the final decision...

not some fat nerd

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J.MICHAEL | COMING 2004

I'm sure the fact that Fail Sail has a web design program is part of the reason it has so many anti Full Sail sites.

If anyone has a specific Full Sail questions I'll do my best to answer.

Cammo
Cammo101@aol.com

Nah Cammo, I think people just don't have enough things to do...

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J.MICHAEL | COMING 2004