University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS)

Some good and some not-so-good with this program.

The Good: The Digital Filmmaking and Media studies track offers students the opportunity to gain real hands-on experience. There are several classes for the production of "The Bluffs", which is a serialized program created as a television show. There is a writing workshop for the new "Season" each Spring, a Production class the following Fall, and then and Editing and Post-production course the following Spring semester, with the final finished season presented at the conclusion of the Spring semester. UCCS also has some really amazing and talented professors who are really passionate about the craft of filmmaking. The Film Production capstone course allows EVERY student the opportunity to create a short film. The course is designed in such a way that each student is responsible for the entirety of the Pre-Production (creating a script, posting casting calls, holding auditions), Production (including shot lists, securing talent releases/waivers, crewing their productions with DP, 1stAD, 1stAc, 2ndAC, Gaffer, Sound Recordist etc.) and Post-Production (editing, color correction, etc.) for their short film projects.

The Not-So-Good: There are definitely instances where the curriculum isn't consistent from one instructor to another. The most glaring instance is the Screenwriting course. I had a wonderful (but tough) professor who emphasized the fundamentals but I know plenty of other students whose professor treated it like a high school creative writing course with no focus on structure or formatting. The department didn't really do a lot to enforce pre-requisites and as a result, we had a number of students in upper-division courses (Directing for Film and Television, for example) who had never even learned the basics. I even know of a student that was in the capstone film production course who was also taking their Intro to Film class at the same time. This led to a great disparity in terms of the knowledge and experience levels between the students in upper division courses.

Something to note... the Digital Filmmaking track falls under the Communication major. There is no formal "Film School" that you need to apply to. If you are admitted to UCCS as a Communication major, you can choose the Digital Filmmaking track.