London Film School

You might also want to check out the University of Westminster's film courses. If you are EU it is much less expensive and even if you are from further afield the fees will be much cheaper than LIFS. Also for an industry 'in' it is very good - I know several former students who have *good* jobs in film.

Both schools attract a really diverse intake of students, but the students at U of W are only partially from the demographic I call International Jet Trash. LIFS is ALL IJT.

Well, I would be international if I went there and my parents seem to prefer that I go to LIFS then my original first choice, Lodz Film School in Poland - so if they want to spend their riches, so be it. (I'll still be poor, as they only pay for education.) :( On the other hand, I should hope that erases any tendencies towards being spoiled. And pretentious...well, whatever.

In any case, I haven't yet been accepted anywhere, so it doesn't matter much. I looked into the Westminster site, but I had problems loading up some of the pages, so I'll look into that later at work today, where I have a decent computer.

Are LIFS students just really disliked around there?

That's the Westminster site, but it doesn't seem very practice-intensive. More theory, it seems.

Do you know know Lynne Ramsay?

Practical film courses can be much of a muchness - considering that outside of the standard University system they can charge pretty much what they like for the reasons Suzy mentions above. Theory/practice courses aren't a bad idea anyway, either that or get your parents to buy you a decent DV camera and set you loose for a year - its quite possible that in this day an age you'd learn as much.

Other London based places to look would be the vartious courses under the London Institute umbrella (I'm led to believe that the London COllege of Printing film courses are excellent and varied).

A few friends (people who are doing everything from assisting Terry Gilliam in post-production, running C5 or being Asif Kapadia) went to Westminster and did the Photography, Film and Video undergrad course (Asif went to the RCA for his postgrad, though). That's a really good one.

LCP is well worth checking out plus is in a great neighbourhood, ha ha.

(They're doing a lot of work on the LCP at the moment actually, though their HR policy for the London Institue was not smart enough to get someone with a clear track record to run their students union).

(I will hopefully be in your position sometime over the next year as I'm submitting my portfolio for film schools here in Cali).

Also they are lazy about set-ups and seem to cut after every line--which I suppose is an accepted method in Hollywood now. But it pays little mind to pacing, etc.

Haven't seen Project Greenlight, but I try to ride a narrow path between the pillars of over-pretentious "art" and overly retreaded bland genre exercises. It is a perilously fine line, strange to say. That being said, I've erred both ways - but then again, that's why I'm going to film school.

On the risk of sounding pretentious...I really think I just stumbled upon a film concept that is so good I don't want to risk any chance of fucking it up. The kind of idea that I'm certain is a once-in-a-lifetime event. I'm being so careful with it, I'm thinking of intentionally shelving it for twenty years or so, just to make certain that I am fully capable of making this movie without regretting anything about it later. It means that much to me.

The line producer is my favorite this year "Some people are just PRICKS"

Anything in particular you want to know?

As I said above, I went to have a look a few years ago and I really liked it, I just didn't have the money/portfolio to apply at the time. But you never know...

Also, because I work at a film school now, I'm beginning to sour on the idea after seeing all of the politics and bullshit. I'd like to know that there are still good schools out there that I might apply to? What did your submit for application? You've done some promos and 16mm features, right?

The trick lies in realizing that's at EVERY institution -- and trying then to figure out which would be the least stressful while offering the most opportunity.

I feel sorry for all the poor bastards that pay money to go here, and I hope that if (somehow) I get a chance to do some more school, I do not unwittingly make the same mistake they have. Though if you just want to learn how to wrap lighting cords, I'm sure this is the place for you.

That's pretty bad and others probably are much better -- but if you're trying to escape from office politics and their deleterious effects, you're not going to, I'm afraid.

Sure. Not very much lately, but it is the LFS pub.

And do you have a teacher called Erik Janssen?

Not to my knowledge. Haven't met anyone by that name yet. But I suppose I might down the line. But not yet, no.

I was just curious about the school. What's their equipment like? Is it easy to get your hands on it? What are the faculty and students like? What seems to be the school's agenda? (Is it a particularly technical school or more focused on self-expression?) Also, how long are you there for? Are you going to complete a feature there or a demo reel?

Well, I'd say that the school is designed to allow self-expression in the sense that you form your own "units" which collectively pick which scripts get made. The faculty may try to advise on which scripts might have problems, but ultimately what gets made is what the groups decide on their own. Technically, however, the curiculum is designed to get you up to date on conventions and practices as they exist in the industry towards the aim of giving you the practical ability to work properly at any studio in the world. So the technical side is not just about what, say, F-stops are, but also tips and tricks on how to do certain things and how each job functions in the hierarchy of the crew. Again, the idea being that you could step onto any set in the world and be competent and need little additional training.

The equipment is pretty much only for official school projects, but you can and are encouraged to work on other groups' projects as well, so it's easy to end up working at least ten to twenty productions before graduation. It's a two-year program. The equipment ranges from Arriflex SR to a Panavision Panaflex on permanent loan, from flatbed 16mm editing machines and splicers to Avid workstations, from Nagra to DAT, and so on. And there are several projection cinemas and at least three fully fitted stages for studio work. We work on two 16mm projects, a documentary that can be 16mm or DV, two 35mm projects, and then have to produce our own graduation film for the final term. Most of these aren't going to be longer than 15 minutes, although theoretically your graduation film can be as long as you want, given you can afford it (we get a generous amount to start with, but it's not really enough to do much with unless supplemented with additional funding).

Also, because I work at a film school now, I'm beginning to sour on the idea after seeing all of the politics and bullshit. I'd like to know that there are still good schools out there that I might apply to? What did your submit for application? You've done some promos and 16mm features, right?

Yeah, the politics seems not to be a big deal with the staff here. I mean, most of them also do work in the industry, so it's not like this is their sole existence. There are editors to teach editing, camera operators to teach camera theory, sound techs to do sound, etc. They tend to stay for a good amount of time because they do like teaching, and they all seem to enjoy seeing what the students make of their time here. Again, it's early, but I do like all my regular instructors I've had so far.

Really, Ned? Because the staff at this place simply couldn't give a fuck about the students, and have no problems changing policy at a moments notice, making their underlings (i.e. ME) enforce it despite its almost farcical incompatability with the projects the students are trying to complete, etc. etc.

The curiculum here is pretty standardized and established in a way to emphasize planning and organization, and above all professionalism, so something like that would almost be antithetical to the school. We all know what we are going to be doing each term for the rest of our time here.

@d@ml, although I never studied at LIFS I was kinda an honorary student for a while due to various connections I had... the staff, at least then, were very cool and committed to their work; the students were, well, film students - mostly wealthy foreign students with a tendency to talk utter, utter shit and really think they were the first people to every study film theory. But I guess 18-year-olds are all pretty much like that...

Seems almost spot on, I guess. Except I don't know any 18 year olds here. The youngest in my term is 21. Most tend to range from about 22 to 32.

But...this could be one of them.

What exactly are you looking for and what specifically do you want? I know what I want out of a film school, but I don't know if that's what you want.

Almost all of the terms (except terms 2 and 6) have a limited number of films that will be made. All the students are broken into units of 5 or 6, and each unit usually does one or two films (depending on the term). All the students write scripts, and a script panel consisting of the unit members and usually a staff member or two sit down and help everyone work on their ideas. At the end of several weeks of work, the students in the unit decide which ones they're gonna pick. From there, crew positions are decided by the students.

As far as equipment, stock, and all that goes, usually the term exercises have strict rules regarding what they're doing. Like first term is 4 100' spools of 16mm b/w stock (Kodak 7222 to be exact), you have three days of location work and it's with a specific equipment set (which has room for creative choices, but you can't really add anything to your gear aside from some more reflectors). I don't think that the equipment usually is allowed to be used for non-exercise work, but generally they keep you busy enough that there's not much time to do other work.

What else?

Anyway, what I said above is the official party line. But, I seem to have heard some rumblings about people sorta borrowing a little equipment from the camera dept here and there with permission...I think. But I really can't say if that's true or just my imagination filling in gaps that don't exist.

But, shit, if you wanna buy a Bolex, you can do that for far less than it costs to go to film school. Let's face it, for the money any film school costs, you can buy some nice equipment. I'm guessing, though, that's not necessarily why you'd want to go to film school for - at least not exclusively for.

I haven't seen you post on here lately, so i don't know if you're checking in.

(If somebody that knows Girolamo has a bona-fide email address for him, would they mind passing it on? many thanks)

If you feel that these are too specific, you're not obliged to answer. I remain as curious as ever.