Latest Film School Reviews

The 5 week International Film Institute of NY program was, without a doubt, the best learning experience and ultimately, the best weeks, of my life so far. While I have been passionate about film for many years and have attended some summer film classes, this program really teaches you what you need to know to create a film. The goal of the 5 weeks is to produce a 5 min short film (particularly great if you need a portfolio to submit for college applications), and you do everything from writing the script, casting the actors, choosing the locations, instructing your crew (of fellow students), directing the shoot, and editing. There's a reason it's called 'intensive' filmmaking program; you are going nonstop for all five weeks. I was thrilled with the quality and accessibility of the professors, including Misael Sanchez and Kyle Wilamowski. I made a ton of friends among my fellow high school students and even some of the adult students. It is wonderful to be part of a community that is so passionate about filmmaking If you think you might want to have a career in filmmaking, I highly suggest you take the course to figure out if it is for you.

Cameron Lee
November 2015

I graduated from Chapman's MFA program back in 2012 and I have to say that my experience was very positive.
I was specialized in Editing and the program was very robust.
Chapman's system is broken into a conservatory model (they kind of treat you as if you've never have any experience with film in general). Your first year is spent on the foundations/basics of film. Shooting, writing, editing, directing, etc. These are then supported by projects that you do that is meant to take you through the steps of an entire short film. You will also be taking your specialization specific courses this year as well, but at the basic level. During the first year, you are also required to assist the 2nd years in their cycle films on set and sometimes even in post. This is to help build your general knowledge of filmmaking so you don't go into the industry looking/sounding like a fool who has no idea how things are done.
your second year is the time in which you really go into the specialization of your choice (that you were accepted into). You will also be working on atleast 2 short films called Cycle Films. This is a collaboration between ALL the students from each department. At this point it really tests your ability to work in a team as well as being able to independently work and make decisions as needed.
Finally your 3rd year is all about your thesis film. All you do at this point is work on your thesis film.

Between all 3 years you have the choice to take as many classes as you want. There is an "Interterm" where you can take additional classes or just take time off, (although I would suggest you try to get into one of the filmmaking classes so you can build more experience. During summer you can also get yourself certified in programs like Avid Media Composer or ProTools.

In regards to professors, you're looking at current working professionals and also those who are very well known in the industry. Everyone that I had the pleasure of studying under have all been extremely helpful and it's entirely up to you to make use of these resources.
Equipment wise, it's very well maintained and you just need to make sure you make a request for specific cameras that might be in demand early.

In general, there is a lot of things you can learn from here, but it's up to you to go for it. I learned sound mixing and foley/adr in my free time and got certified in both Avid and ProTools, so it's just up to you on how pro-active you want to be to make use of the money you spend.