In need of guidance

Scott Fritzshall · February 5, 2009

Regarding AFI, I know some people who went there as well, and my understanding is that if you're going there after learning Cinematography at Columbia, you really do know quite a lot of what they're going to teach you, so at that point you're not really going there to learn so much as to do and to meet people. You go there to end up with a great reel, but mostly to meet writers and directors and producers and production designers who are really talented, and who will almost certainly be working when they graduate, and will hire you or refer you if you're good too. So it's kind of a $120k networking opportunity- I guess it can be really useful if you're good and you have the time and money, because it can jumpstart your career, but it's certainly not necessary. Having not gone there, I obviously can't make any real judgments on it.

John Allen · February 5, 2009

I went to Columbia College Chicago and can recommend it for the right people. It's not $35k/year though; tuition is $18k for the fall and spring semesters. I guess if you're living in their housing and paying over $1k/month then that adds up, but you can live off-campus for much less. It is pretty absurd to pay that much for their Gen Ed classes, though, especially since they're really not academically rigorous in any way. A lot of people go to community college or something for a few years beforehand, get their Gen Eds out of the way for very little money, and then come to Columbia and just focus on their major. That's actually what I did, except that I did it at UW-Madison (out of state for me; I don't remember what the tuition was but it was actually significantly more than Columbia's), so that effectively became my incredibly expensive community college Gen Ed. Not that I regret having gone to Madison, of course! But yeah, Columbia's Cinematography program is really excellent and produces a lot of really good, really serious graduates. It is very intensive; I spent 3 years at Columbia studying cinematography even with all of my non-major requirements taken care of.

Yeah, I was including the living costs. I have thought about living off campus, so I will look further into that.

One thing that I noticed is that the people who did really well were almost always transfer students. Kids who came in straight from high school were more often the ones who thought "I like movies, so I'm going to go to film school," and then found out that it's really hard, and got discouraged. I don't know if they've changed it since I graduated, but when I was there, Columbia had an open admissions policy, which meant that basically as long as you were functionally literate and had money, you could get in, but they countered this by having really really intense introductory film courses, which meant that those who weren't serious about it got weeded out pretty quickly. Many of the really successful students I had class with were those who had transferred in from somewhere else, or who had been out of school for a while doing something else- they were the ones who, having had more experience with other things, had decided that they were going to get serious about filmmaking, and had committed themselves to it.

So I don't know exactly what advice to give to a 17 year old. I guess I'd like to say that you should do something else first, in part because it's difficult to know what you want to do when you're still in High School, and it's a lot of time and money to spend on such a highly specific field of study if you're not really really certain that it's going to be useful to you, and also in part because knowledge of other disciplines and "life experience" are really valuable things to bring to the table as a filmmaker.

Sorry if that's kind of a derail...

No I completely agree with you. I have known many guys who are just like that. They say, "Oh I'm a movie buff so I want to be a film maker," and I'm just thinking, "dude there is sooooo much more that goes into it than just liking movies." This has been a passion of mine ever since I can remember. So far I have given it my blood, sweat, and tears and I know for certain that I am not going to back out now. I mean so far I have already had to put up with many discomforts in the process of making films. I have not yet been shot at I know, but I have had many other things happen to me that have made me question myself. I have always decided to keep on pushing. I seriously would not be able to live very happily without doing what I love, which is cinematography. I know that God is my ultimate source of happiness, but I get sick even when I'm haven't been on a shoot for as long as a month.

Not that you were looking for a sob speech from me or anything. lol But I hope that convinces you that I'm not just another one of those kids that like films. Those kind of kids are one of my greatest pet pieves cause I know that when people look at me they see that I'm 17 years old and they automatically think of me as just another, when I am most definitely not.

Thanks for the comment though. I totally understand what you're saying and I mightily agree. I am definitely willing to work as hard as I can to get to where I want to be.