The Toronto Film School

shabam · September 2, 2005

Yes- Mitch- I know it's pointless, but it's fun! I can't help myself!

It looks like Richard gets in an altercation in just about every thread he posts in anyway-so I'm sure he's accustom to the abuse...

and yes, Richard- you're right-the imdb doesn't post everything-just everything anyone might even remotely care about! and it your case in looks like--- let's see-- "fly pooh" as you so graciously put it. You've got a un-original stop motion animation project (if you're going to use stop motion at least do something with some creativity behind it! ie not a rip off of the vintage stop motion Christmas movies which we all know and love and which you've managed to bastardize so well!) Oh- and something called deathdealer.com which was accepted into the prestigious Miami Film Festival (where half the judges are high on blow) I'm sure this film follows in the great tradition of movies with .com in the title such as the box office hits feardotcom or wildwebgirls.com!

the point is what you have produced amounts to exactly two specks of fly pooh in the real world so when I eventually do start to build by CV i will be sure to steer away from the mediocrity that you have so far managed to churn out.

it looks like you need some help with your ideas too- I just went to the bathroom and literally poop out 4 film ideas that I could pitch to you. Each of these ideas are better than anything you've "produced" so far!

September 2, 2005

Oh don't worry guys, just an old fashioned internet insult war :D

Shabam, who ever he is, has been moderately amusing. I have no further responses for him.

Back to the issue at hand....

"where did you go to school? and second did you learn the skills you needed to make it into the business from school or did your degree get you in and then you learned what and how things actually were in the 'real world' so to speak?"

I went to a private university in the USA. The school I attended had their own TV station, a PBS affiliate and their own working motion picture studio. Students could work in either facility and get PAID while they went to school. Typically you worked 20 hours a week at the station or MPS and then went to school the rest of the time. It was considered on campus employment so foreign students like me did not need a work permit.

The station was better equipt than CTV in Toronto, and that's no lie. They had an on-line suite that made any thing CTV had look like a high school set up. The station also had an 18 wheeler fully equipt broadcast truck, used to broadcast all of the football and basketball games for ABC, ESPN, etc etc. The games where run mainly by an all student crew, including all of the camera operators. The ESPN and ABC producers would show up and be shocked that they where going to be using students as the crew!

The station also aired a full half hour over air student news cast each day, the only one of its kind in the US. This was 100% student run. The producer right down to cable puller, all students. I worked on the news cast for a year as the "chief photog", getting paid the entire time. I covered the 92 US election and had Whitehouse press credentials when the candidates came through our state. I met President Bush Sr, and candidate Bill Clinton. Not many people at the student level get these kinds of experiences.

As a private university the school wasn't at the mercy of budget cutting politicians. There was loads of cash for the film and TV program.

So I think there is real value in the school you attend. I was hired by CTV as a full producer right out of school at the age of 25. My work experience at the university owned station vaulted me past the competition, plus I had a pretty good reel to show off. Essentially I was spared working out at some po-dunk station in NFLD or Sask for three years because I had already done that in university. Plus the fact that I had a degree from a US school made me really stand out in Toronto, the VP I interviewed with was impressed by that.

Further to the value of your education and "piece of paper", the USC film school can boast that at least one of their graduates has won an Oscar since I think 1968, it's on their web site if you want to look up the exact year. That really says some thing about their program.

Plus USC is the place where many of the Hollywood elite send their kids, you can make connections there that could happen no place else.

True, none of that is a guarantee of success, but in show business it sure helps a lot.

R,

September 2, 2005

Hey Shabam,

Ok now I get the feeling I know you, I had my reasons for believing that right off the bat.

You let a few things slip out in your last post that only some one who knows me would know.

So you're either posting under an assumed name to have a laugh, or posting under an assumed name because you do know me, don't like me, and want to have a laugh any way.

Either way is fine, but I'm pretty sure I now know who you are via your writing style.

R,

shabam · September 2, 2005

damnit Richard... is the dance over already?!

I have also found this little banter to be fun--- what good is an internet forum if we can't clash every now and again? It was fun while it lasted *sob*

shabam · September 2, 2005

No Richard-

You don't know me- I actually am I student. I've just moved to Oakville from Waterloo and I start at Sheridan in the next week. But seriously, it has been a laugh. I'm sure we'll butt heads again on some thread or the other!