La Ville Lumiere, NFTS or Vancouver?

[Camila]

Hello everybody, how is it going?

 

Here the weather is pretty confused with sparks of enthusiasm.

 

I've dedicated the past few weeks of my life looking for a very good graduate program in film directing.

 

It's all come down to EICAR, Paris and NFST, Uk. I looked into LFS as well, but read lots of posts written by very disappointed former students that discouraged me. Plus the cost of the school is sooo high...

 

Anyways. I also heard about VFS, and went to have a look to the web site...

Looks very cool, I think I will be sending an application over there as well. Problem is, you don't get a MA or MFA at the VFS, since the course lasts only a year. But then again...if it's good...who cares!

I lived in Toronto for some time and the idea of trying Vancouver is thrilling.

 

Still...EICAR...

I'm pretty confused as you can see. Has anyone heard from it? I found few reviews on the web. What got me suspicious is the fact they were all good.

 

Hope I didn't bore you to death.

 

I'd really appreciate any kind of help/information/opinion/advice.

 

Camila

[Laurent Andrieux]

Hello

 

Sorry I didn't notice your post earlier.

 

First of all, do you speak french ? It's a major point to consider to come here and learn.

 

second, Eicar is not the only private school here and some others like IIIS or ESRA have a good reputation too.

 

I teach in both ESRA, in Nice and in a public school. This one is free, and if you Pm me or mail as to tell me more about your age and background, I could tell you if you could enter this one.

 

One of my students went through EICAR before she came to our school, so if you wish, I can give her your mail as well as she can tell you more about it.

[Morgan Peline]

Also do you want a general course or a specialist course? At NFTS you have to specialise in one subject e.g. cinematography, directing, production desigh or editing.

[Guest Brian Danin]

I'm here in Vancouver at UBC. UBC has a decent enough film program from what I'm finding. I also have a lot of friends that are VFS grads. The result is unanimous: Too expensive for their one year program. The people from VFS do have a certain degree of technical know-how, as well as the connections from VFS seem to be the biggest benefit for going there. Another problem with the one year program is that it's important to get lucky and have a good class. I've seen some people from the school who had a miserable time because it sounded like their class slacked off. On the other hand, I've seen a class that stuck together for three years now afterwards and they have a wonderful community of people to go to for support.

 

If you want technical, look into BCIT, and I've also heard good things about Langara's two year program.

 

UBC is more academic, less technical.

 

And also look at SFU, I've heard that people have liked it, but not many specifics.

 

It's odd though, the groups from the different schools don't seem to mix much from what I've found. I don't know why.

 

That's about my entire Vancouver film school perspective.

 

Vancouver is an interesting place for film-making though. It's very independent and offers a lot of freedom and options for landscapes or general urban backgrounds, but the community is a bit spread out in Vancouver in general.

 

I love it here, and am glad to be here though. Wouldn't give up this opportunity in a million years.

[Saumya Roy Choudhury]

Dear Laurent,

I have been selected by Eicar for admission to the first year of their B.F.A. course in direction beginning this October. Could you please tell me how they admit a student to their second year. Is it on the basis of performance in the first year or are there other things as well? I am just learning French. So possibly there is no scope of getting an admission to one of the other institutions. Is their a scope of getting admitted to another institution after completing the first year. In that case will I be able to join in the second year of studies or will I have to start all over.

I have completed 10+2 in 1997 and am 28 years old. I live in India and have been working as a freelance still photographer for 5 years and as a videographer for about a year. I have also worked as cameraman in a national Television news channel.

Lastly if you think it will benefit me and if you deem fit could you please give me the e-mail of your student who came through Eicar.It will be of help to me if I can have an idea of what to keep in mind while preparing for Eicar.

I will be very glad if you can provide me with this information.

Saumya