Orange Coast College or Los Angeles City College for a film major then transfer? (Long Beach: transplants)

[shorty2241]

Hi

I want to go to either OCC or LACC for a film major so don't bother writing about SMC. Which is better for a film major? I can't afford to go to the other ones, but I will transfer to either a CSU or UC after. Also which one is it most easily to make friends?

Thanks

[JonathanLB]

Honestly I'm in the film industry and I've never heard of either college you're talking about. I wish I could help but even as a producer (i.e. employer) reading numerous resumes I've never once seen anyone from those schools. I see a lot of talented students come from some "lesser" reputation schools, like Long Beach, but I've never heard of those two schools. Hmmm... wish I could help you more.

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by JonathanLB

Honestly I'm in the film industry and I've never heard of either college you're talking about. I wish I could help but even as a producer (i.e. employer) reading numerous resumes I've never once seen anyone from those schools. I see a lot of talented students come from some "lesser" reputation schools, like Long Beach, but I've never heard of those two schools. Hmmm... wish I could help you more.

thats because you dont put your junior college on your resume, just the college you graduate from

[NaplesRes]

Originally Posted by JonathanLB

Honestly I'm in the film industry and I've never heard of either college you're talking about. I wish I could help but even as a producer (i.e. employer) reading numerous resumes I've never once seen anyone from those schools. I see a lot of talented students come from some "lesser" reputation schools, like Long Beach, but I've never heard of those two schools. Hmmm... wish I could help you more.

Actually Long Beach State has a pretty good rep for film school. And it will likely get better as the biggest movie studio in the world is being built by the LB airport (at a former Boeing plant) and LBSU will be allowed to use the facility.

[calipoppy]

Originally Posted by shorty2241

Hi

I want to go to either OCC or LACC for a film major so don't bother writing about SMC. Which is better for a film major? I can't afford to go to the other ones, but I will transfer to either a CSU or UC after. Also which one is it most easily to make friends?

Thanks

If you will eventually be transferring to a 4 year university and are trying to pursue a career in the film industry, I would recommend LACC (which puts you closer to an area where networking is a better possibility.

Think about USC, UCLA, AFI, Loyola Marymount or CSULB(maybe). You really want to be in a film school that has really great alumni presence, internships and industry connections. A film school without these elements is mostly a waste of $$$

Good luck!

[JonathanLB]

Oh I wasn't trying to say Long Beach wasn't a great university for film, I was only saying that right now it's in the up-and-coming phase, just as Chapman was previously. Calipoppy you gotta keep up, haha, LMU sucks compared to Chapman, and frankly so does UCLA. Yeah, every year, no matter what, they rank UCLA as one of the top 3 film schools. That despite Chapman's vastly superior production facilities (they're even superior to USC, but need not worry USC students -- they are building their empire up again and USC will retake #1 best facilities shortly, haha), the fact that Chapman stole away most of the best professors from UCLA, and the fact that UCLA really hasn't graduated that many promising students in a while. When I've hired personally, I haven't even seen many qualified people from UCLA. It's all USC and Chapman at the top. You see a scattering of AFI students, also NYU transplants here, etc.

I was accepted to Chapman as an undergrad with a presidential scholarship, but I didn't go. I chose LMU instead, which isn't much of a film school. Nobody of significance has graduated from LMU, besides the guy who directed The One, which I like a lot, but I mean come on. Chapman is not for everyone, as far as undergrad goes -- too uptight, you have to stay on campus until you're 21, and the girls and guys dorms are like a mile apart. At state colleges guys and girls sleep on the same FLOORS, not in entirely different buildings, haha. So I didn't want to be part of that uber-religious, prude structure. But for graduate students, Chapman is awesome. I toured the campus with a friend who went there for grad school, he just graduated, and they have a great group of alumni now, they have just amazing facilities.

The USC students will smugly tell you that Chapman isn't really on the map because it's in The O.C. instead of being in Los Angeles, but that's really irrelevant. When you're at film school you'll mostly be working at the film school and around it, anyway. But it's true you will have a lot of commutes up to L.A. for film-related errands if you go to Chapman, as good as it is.

And calipoppy is right about one thing -- film school is a total waste of money if you're not getting a lot of connections out of it. I quit two film schools in my life, that's two more than most It was never worth the money, not for stuff you can easily learn better on your own. If you didn't want to learn on your own, you can hire professionals to teach you one-on-one cheaper that at any of these film schools. I went to Los Angeles Film School for a bit, we were paying like $75 per hour of class. Do you realize that any professional basically will work with you one-on-one for $75 per hour?! I mean I have hired very professional DPs for $300/day for 12 hours. You're not going to get the DP of Gladiator to instruct you personally, but guess what? You aren't going to get that at L.A. Film School either!!! They have a lot of hacks working as teachers, like 27-year-old failed film professionals who graduated 3-4 years ago from their own film program, and now they're teaching students. It's shameful. It depends a lot on your mentality but for self-starters and people with lots of motivation, film school is really a waste of time and money.

[amc760]

Originally Posted by shorty2241

Hi

I want to go to either OCC or LACC for a film major so don't bother writing about SMC. Which is better for a film major? I can't afford to go to the other ones, but I will transfer to either a CSU or UC after. Also which one is it most easily to make friends?

Thanks

If youre going that route, why does it matter? Youre going to end up doing mostly general ed before you transfer anyways.
Youre only going to need a few prerequisites for a film program that are film related. I think stuff like photography and a couple of theory classes.
But your mostly going to be doing the boring general stuff(math, earth science, biology, English, etc). Does it really matter where you get that stuff done?
Just get good grades so you have a chance at transferring to the better schools.

[Cosmopolitanwithbigdreams]

Hey im currently a film student from scottsdale community college- do you get any interest from students who went there?