I need help in choosing schools!

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by MisterDuke

Your father is spot on. You can go to Chicago (and hopefully you will learn a lot) then New York, but professionally it will set you back a couple years.

And in the mean time you end up as another waiter/waitress/barista/cashier/etc working for tips because your education wont get you anything else and you need to make enough money to afford somewhere to live and something to eat while you wait for your break

[Sambazon]

MisterDuke, I wasn't enthusiastic about attending Chicago's Art School for it's prestige or whatever; I saw that as my quick ticket out of the house and to be able to experience a brand new city. I'm beginning to realize that that's wrong, and my priorities are skewed.... especially since my parents would be the ones footing the bill for something that probably wouldn't even work out in the end.

I spoke with my dad a half hour ago on this to get more of his input. I'm becoming more convinced of his side rather than my itching to get out. I'm trying really hard to keep an open mind here. With my two older siblings, they've taken the "move out of the house" route but have only ended up coming back, which is exactly as my dad had predicted. I'm the youngest child and I want to break that sequence; the last thing I'd want to do is to move away, waste thousands of dollars and come back home because it didn't work out for me.

[NYSD1995]

Go where your industry is. It's not in Chicago.

[nurse_emily]

If you can't afford a private school the next best bet is a "Charter school" they are a hybrid which is part corperate and part Govt. funded. The will fire bad teachers and they have high standards.

As you know the public schools have Unions that keep the principals from firing dangerous horrible teachers. The Union teachers can sit there drunk, make horrible comments and yell at your kids and the Unions will make sure that they can never be fired. In LA they have a building called "The rubber room" That is where they have the teachers go and just sit because they cant fire them but they are too dangerous to be near kids.

Resources: 20/20 [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4pN-aiofw[/url]

[Sambazon]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

Go where your industry is. It's not in Chicago.

I finally got that through my head. I actually posted this on another forum and the first reply I got was, "It seems to me that you are pretty set on wanting out of So cal, and chicago is a great city, especial for art, and film makeing and such."

...Laughter ensued.

[Latchkey Kid]

Sambazon, can I ask a couple of questions so I don't offer advice on assumptions? First, what type of filmmaking are you interested in? I'm assuming because you haven't specified, you are interested in feature films, but if it's something like documentaries, that's a whole other thing. Also, what year are you in college in?

[RobE]

The problem is that Chicago probably isn't going to be as good a place to network for the film business as L.A. If you go to USC, which is, more than anything else, a good networking school probably with at least a few students whose fathers are in the film business (if they're not in the creative end they may be in the business end). There may also be other film students at USC who want to eventually go to NYC as you do and if they have the right "in" lined up you might be able to piggyback on it if you've "worked the room" right.

Personally, if I were a film major, I would double up with another major to either have something to fall back on if the film career turns out to be a dead end. Plus just the more stuff you know the more you will understand and that could be helpful to you as a film maker.

Whatever you decide, good luck. It's not an easy business to be in. You will have to hustle your behind off.

[Sambazon]

Originally Posted by Latchkey Kid

Sambazon, can I ask a couple of questions so I don't offer advice on assumptions? First, what type of filmmaking are you interested in? I'm assuming because you haven't specified, you are interested in feature films, but if it's something like documentaries, that's a whole other thing. Also, what year are you in college in?

Documentaries are specifically what I'd love to do as well as music videos. Aside from shooting my own material, the editing aspect is one of the most fun things for me. Piecing together the material to effectively tell the story, color correcting, etc.

Originally Posted by RobE

The problem is that Chicago probably isn't going to be as good a place to network for the film business as L.A. If you go to USC, which is, more than anything else, a good networking school probably with at least a few students whose fathers are in the film business (if they're not in the creative end they may be in the business end). There may also be other film students at USC who want to eventually go to NYC as you do and if they have the right "in" lined up you might be able to piggyback on it if you've "worked the room" right.

Personally, if I were a film major, I would double up with another major to either have something to fall back on if the film career turns out to be a dead end. Plus just the more stuff you know the more you will understand and that could be helpful to you as a film maker.

Whatever you decide, good luck. It's not an easy business to be in. You will have to hustle your behind off.

Great point, I originally started off college as a kinesiology/exercise physiology major, switched to pre-med, then film, and now my gut feeling is telling me to throw my original major back in the mix. Anything that involves studying the science of exercise, nutrition and all that (as I originally aspired to work in the fitness/healthcare industry) is something else I'm also incredibly passionate about; perhaps coming back to my long lost love would make me more of a well-rounded individual and as you've mentioned, I would have something else to fall back on should I not get my foot in the door with film. *knocks on wood*