Outside Los Angeles, you will discover quite a few New York film schools in New York City because they are considered the biggest center for filmmaking. A lot of them are world-renowned, and a few have waiting lists many years long. While there is little doubt that you can get a quality film education in schools like New York University, Columbia University, New York Film Academy and numerous others, there are particular key flaws in how film schools in general are set up-flaws which eventually prevent many film school students from actually going to successful careers as producers, directors, screenwriters and editors. Before enrolling in one of these film schools, let’s take a brief go through at the inherent problems with film schools in New York.
THE COST The expense of tuition for most film programs is exorbitant, to the point that one could actually fund a movie for what the school requires in tuition! It could be challenging to take up a career after you graduate when you still have lots of debts bugging you even when you have enough connections in the industry.
LACK OF REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE Most film schools, including New York film schools, educate their students with classrooms, simulated environments and “student film” projects. This sort of approach is actually inadequate on your preparation of students to prove themselves in the film industry as well as not being set for the accumulated body of work and knowledge for the dynamics of a real film shoot. The film industry now won’t acknowledge your attendance to film school as a real-world experience so that it is hard for graduates to land a job.
NOT ENOUGH CONNECTIONS This is possibly the worst flaw in the way traditional film schools are structured. The film business runs using industry connections-you simply don’t get work unless you have them-and because film schools use separated, isolated environments, most students graduate these programs without any connections whatsoever. Whatever be the quality of education, the schooling is useless without connections-it’s like being “all dressed up with no place to go.”
THE SOLUTION: MENTOR-APPRENTICE LEARNING
A forward thinking approach to film education known as the “mentor-apprentice” approach is now setting out to bridge this gap for film students, helping them get real-world experience and industry connections along with a quality education. Film schools using this approach place students in actual film production companies being apprentices whereby one can learn from their mentors who are film professionals managing real film projects instead of just establishing simulated environments for them. This offers the students the opportunity to become industry insiders while they are learning, so that it is much easier to discover work upon graduation-plus, the cost of education is really a fraction of what most film schools charge for tuition.
You ought to take the Mentor- apprentice approach into great consideration when choosing your film school. It solves the situations found in New York film schools.
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