AFI 2011

[AmiraAlexandria]

I applied for the Screenwriting discipline and I got contacted for a phone interview. Congrats to those that got the interview.

 

[Munky the robot]

AFI screenwriting. Interview on 3rd feb

 

[Domenico]

I have an interview in NYC on Feb 23rd! I'm a screenwriting applicant.

 

[R. Sid]

hey birdude,

applied for directing. still waiting. they lost my dvd so had to send it in again.

 

[apple]

My interview was few days ago. Nice people. Went great. About 25-30 minutes. They said we will hear between March 15th and April 15th.
Good luck (waiting that long).

 

[KrisKelvin]

Had my interview this morning for screenwriting. Overall, I have to say I'm not feeling too good--not that I did poorly, but I was only asked a few questions by my interviewers (and none of these questions really gave me a chance to distinguish myself from the pack). The majority of the interview was the interviewers asking me if I had questions, and their subsequent responses. I'm quite disappointed, because I had a number of points I wanted to make yet never got the opportunity. Oh well...just have to hope for the best but expect the worst, I suppose.

Going to be a long month and a half until March 15th, that's for sure. Good luck to everyone else applying/interviewing!

 

[UCFfilmgirl]

I recently heard back from AFI offering me an interview, yay! I applied for Producing, I'm ecstatic. I am flying to LA for my interview next Tuesday, and my interview is on February 10th. I interview very well, so I'm not stressing too much, I feel more excited than anything. If anyone has any more advice or stories about how their interviews went, please do share.

 

[ColoradoGuy]

got the call

 

[Private Witt]

Hey guys - had my screenwriting interview with AFI on the 31st as well (via Skype) and my experience was very similar to Kris. They did ask a couple pointed questions ("Who are your cinematic influences?" / "If you had to choose two films you hoped you had made, which would they be?") but the answers to both were pretty concise and straightforward. Other than that they spent most of the 25-30 minutes responding to my questions (which we got to fairly early) and giving an overview of what to expect in AFI during the first year. I'd say the conversation was weighted at about 70/30 in their favor. They did refer to my writing submission on a couple brief occasions though, which means they were somewhat aware of the work I submitted.

What was odd about the interview process was their manner and language. It was all very positive, and it seemed more like orientation than an evaluation. I'm not sure if that is just the general way they go about interviews, or if it spells out good things for my application specifically. Kris, i'm curious - did you encounter a similar sort of dynamic during the interview?

Best of luck to everyone waiting to hear back / interviewing!

 

[KrisKelvin]

Originally posted by Private Witt:
Hey guys - had my screenwriting interview with AFI on the 31st as well (via Skype) and my experience was very similar to Kris. They did ask a couple pointed questions ("Who are your cinematic influences?" / "If you had to choose two films you hoped you had made, which would they be?") but the answers to both were pretty concise and straightforward. Other than that they spent most of the 25-30 minutes responding to my questions (which we got to fairly early) and giving an overview of what to expect in AFI during the first year. I'd say the conversation was weighted at about 70/30 in their favor. They did refer to my writing submission on a couple brief occasions though, which means they were somewhat aware of the work I submitted.

What was odd about the interview process was their manner and language. It was all very positive, and it seemed more like orientation than an evaluation. I'm not sure if that is just the general way they go about interviews, or if it spells out good things for my application specifically. Kris, i'm curious - did you encounter a similar sort of dynamic during the interview?

Best of luck to everyone waiting to hear back / interviewing!

Come to think of it, the atmosphere was a little more positive than I've had in the past except perhaps for my undergraduate interviews. I think that has to do with it not being about a "hiring" per se, and thus it's not so much about "what can you do for us" as "here's what we'll do for you while you're here". Other than them saying they'd let me know on March 15th (at the end of the interview), it did seem more like an orientation than an evaluation.

This is actually an interesting point, because when you consider one narrative statement prompt being what we (the applicants) hope to get from AFI, it's in stark contrast to other programs which specifically want to know--at least to some degree--what we can contribute to the program. If I end up with interviews at any of these schools (off the top of my head I believe they included NYU and Northwestern), I'll be curious to see whether the conversation is more focused on us and less about the program.

BTW, was your interview sometime around 8:30 or 9 PST? I only ask because as I was waiting in the admissions office, they were talking about how they'd just conducted their first ever Skype interview (not sure if that meant for screenwriting or any program). They of course said nothing about the interview itself (and this wasn't screenwriting faculty anyway), but they seemed awfully excited about having pulled it off.

 

[Private Witt]

Hahaha yeah that was probably me. They did mention at the start that it was the first skype interview they were conducting this admissions season. Funny that you were at the admissions office at the time. I assumed you'd have done a Skype interview, since you're hometown is listed as Solaris

 

[KrisKelvin]

Originally posted by Private Witt:
Hahaha yeah that was probably me. They did mention at the start that it was the first skype interview they were conducting this admissions season. Funny that you were at the admissions office at the time. I assumed you'd have done a Skype interview, since you're hometown is listed as Solaris

LOL...I don't really live on Solaris. Though if the movie is true, (SPOILER) <span class="ev_code_WHITE">I guess I might in fact be there after all.</span>

 

[apple]

Who had an interview for Producing and how was it?

 

[Munky the robot]

Originally posted by KrisKelvin:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Private Witt:
Hey guys - had my screenwriting interview with AFI on the 31st as well (via Skype) and my experience was very similar to Kris. They did ask a couple pointed questions ("Who are your cinematic influences?" / "If you had to choose two films you hoped you had made, which would they be?") but the answers to both were pretty concise and straightforward. Other than that they spent most of the 25-30 minutes responding to my questions (which we got to fairly early) and giving an overview of what to expect in AFI during the first year. I'd say the conversation was weighted at about 70/30 in their favor. They did refer to my writing submission on a couple brief occasions though, which means they were somewhat aware of the work I submitted.

What was odd about the interview process was their manner and language. It was all very positive, and it seemed more like orientation than an evaluation. I'm not sure if that is just the general way they go about interviews, or if it spells out good things for my application specifically. Kris, i'm curious - did you encounter a similar sort of dynamic during the interview?

Best of luck to everyone waiting to hear back / interviewing!

Come to think of it, the atmosphere was a little more positive than I've had in the past except perhaps for my undergraduate interviews. I think that has to do with it not being about a "hiring" per se, and thus it's not so much about "what can you do for us" as "here's what we'll do for you while you're here". Other than them saying they'd let me know on March 15th (at the end of the interview), it did seem more like an orientation than an evaluation.

This is actually an interesting point, because when you consider one narrative statement prompt being what we (the applicants) hope to get from AFI, it's in stark contrast to other programs which specifically want to know--at least to some degree--what we can contribute to the program. If I end up with interviews at any of these schools (off the top of my head I believe they included NYU and Northwestern), I'll be curious to see whether the conversation is more focused on us and less about the program.

BTW, was your interview sometime around 8:30 or 9 PST? I only ask because as I was waiting in the admissions office, they were talking about how they'd just conducted their first ever Skype interview (not sure if that meant for screenwriting or any program). They of course said nothing about the interview itself (and this wasn't screenwriting faculty anyway), but they seemed awfully excited about having pulled it off. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

my interview was exactly like that too! it was not more than 15 mins though! they just asked me my fav films and how i came to hear about afi and yeah my finances and stuff.


i m seriously worried here. every one s interview's were more like an orientation.
what does this mean guys? private and kris?

 

[KrisKelvin]

Munky,

I wouldn't get down about the interview. If EVERYONE had a similar experience, I don't see how it could be a bad thing. The fact they wanted us all for an interview suggests they're interested.

Plus, from what I've heard admission depends primarily on your writing sample (or the equivalent for a different discipline). The interview is more about getting to meet the person behind that writing, a chance for the faculty to see how this person conducts himself/herself and whether they seem like someone who would be a good fit at AFI.

As long as you didn't do something utterly disastrous during the interview, I'd consider yourself firmly in the running. Come March 15th, if we all get rejected we can cry foul.

 

[Munky the robot]

Originally posted by KrisKelvin:
Munky,

I wouldn't get down about the interview. If EVERYONE had a similar experience, I don't see how it could be a bad thing. The fact they wanted us all for an interview suggests they're interested.

Plus, from what I've heard admission depends primarily on your writing sample (or the equivalent for a different discipline). The interview is more about getting to meet the person behind that writing, a chance for the faculty to see how this person conducts himself/herself and whether they seem like someone who would be a good fit at AFI.

As long as you didn't do something utterly disastrous during the interview, I'd consider yourself firmly in the running. Come March 15th, if we all get rejected we can cry foul.

kris!!!
you make it sound so good!
awwwww.


good luck buddy with all ur applications!!!

 

[jacqinvan]

I had my phone interview on the 28th of Feb. There were only 2 questions: they asked me to introduce myself and how much I knew about the Producing Program. And I asked a couple of questions regarding alumni's employment opportunities and copyright of the works. It was about 30 minutes and it was fairly pleasant. They also told me in the end that they will notify people on and after March 15th. I guess that's standard since everyone has that.

One more month!

 

[Private Witt]

Originally posted by KrisKelvin:
Munky,

I wouldn't get down about the interview. If EVERYONE had a similar experience, I don't see how it could be a bad thing. The fact they wanted us all for an interview suggests they're interested.

Plus, from what I've heard admission depends primarily on your writing sample (or the equivalent for a different discipline). The interview is more about getting to meet the person behind that writing, a chance for the faculty to see how this person conducts himself/herself and whether they seem like someone who would be a good fit at AFI.

As long as you didn't do something utterly disastrous during the interview, I'd consider yourself firmly in the running. Come March 15th, if we all get rejected we can cry foul.

Kris, maybe you can ask your planetary pal Solaris to perform some sort of psychological inception on the admissions faculty and have us all accepted? Just sayin'.

March 15th is a hell of a wait though. I spoke to the admissions office at Columbia and they said their interview requests usually go out in the second week of March. IF we get into AFI and IF we get interview calls from Columbia, I wonder how much of a gap we'll have between having to accept the AFI offer and receiving an offer from Columbia.

Nerve-racking.

 

[Munky the robot]

haha yes Kris please work ur magic on the admissions committee!!

Wow! As if the wait for AFI to get back to us wasnt bad enough!

Seriously, having applied to Columbia as well i dont know what I m going to do!!!
How long do you think AFI will give us to decide in the event that we are selected?

 

[KrisKelvin]

Hey guys and/or gals,

I'm certainly rooting for us all to get accepted, though I'm afraid my psychic abilities are sorely lacking and thus I don't think I can help our chances.

As for Columbia, I don't think it'll be a problem. I've heard of people accepted at one school asking for an extension so they could know all their options. If AFI accepts you, it means they want you. I'm sure they'd give you a couple extra weeks if you asked nicely and explained the situation to them.