Hi everyone. I was encouraged to come to this forum by someone in hopes that I might get some opinions and suggestions.
Here's my situation. I graduated with a BFA where I concentrated in Photography in 2008. The job market has been less than supportive for what I'm looking to work in. I figured that expanding my skill set would be a great way to make me more marketable. Since the state schools in NJ are pretty reasonable (and since I would be just commuting, which saves a ton of money) I applied to a Video Production program and was accepted for Fall 2009. The tuition would be ~$5k a semester, and my parents would be fine with that. Long story short, I already hold an undergraduate degree from one of their other campuses, so I could concentrate just on the major itself, which would be a two year program ending up at $20k.
I don't exactly know how it happened, but NYFA popped up on my radar. This Fall, they're starting a One Year Cinematography program for the first time. With my strong background in still photography (which for the past 3-4 years has been my passion), and my interest in Cinematography itself, I feel that this would be a great opportunity to get training in a job I think I could perform well in.
The 1 year NYFA Cinematography program would cost about $35k with film / processing and traveling costs figured in. I'd live in NJ, so the commute would be about 3 hours a day, I think I can hack it.
http://www.nyfa.com/film_school/programs/f...ematography.php
There's a link to the layout of the program. If you could tell me your thoughts on the NYFA program, that would be great. I know the money is a lot, but I don't see any other options for a concentrated, hands-on Cinematography without paying close to $60,000+.
I have about a week to consider where I want to go. The NJ School would be 7 academic classes (all centered around TV and Media studies) and maybe 8 studio classes with internships involved. The program would concentrate on "News and Documentary" production. Its not exactly what I'm aiming to do, but my original idea applying to this school was to learn video production / editing so that I could find work in NYC around Art and Photography studios.
The advantage of going to the state school would be the free time I would have. Less traveling and a less demanding workload would leave time for me to work outside the class either at a part time job or on other art projects.
The advantage I see to going to NYFA would be really learning about something I'm interested in, within a pretty rigorous program. When I was in art school, I put my life into it. Everything else came second, and I know what it's like to sleep 4 hours a day and be up for 18-20 hours the next day, knowing I'll have to do it again.
I'm really so sorry if this seems scatter-brained. I tried to fill in as much blanks as possible so you could give me your opinions. I'm not naming the NJ school because I'm not so worried about how you feel about the school itself, just the program I described. I mainly want to hear your opinions on the 1 Year NYFA program.
Thank you so much.