Okay guys so I had my Directing interview on Tuesday Feburary 7th at 11:10am. I arrived to AFI at 10:40 with plenty of time. I live by the motto if your early your on time if your on time your late. I wore a black suit with a white shirt, black vest and a pink tie. I like to dress up and it doesn't hurt. So I walk to the addmissions office at 10:45 (parking can take a while). I was greetted by Jeffery who called me and schedule my interview, offered my some water but I had my own. Then I met Karin Tucker who is the manager of admissions. She was very nice as well.
I was given a page on the two people interviewing me which was a huge plus! Before I could look over the paper they took me down the hall to take your picture (they take everyone's picture who interviews). I looked over the paper and saw that I was interviewing with Peter Markham who is the senior filmmaker he directed 2nd unit on Gangs of new york. As well as Kevin Jones who is a thesis mentor and was vice president at Paramount in the early 90's where he over saw films "Coming to America", "Ghost", "Hunt for Red October" and more. So then 11:10 arrived and both Karin and Jefferey escorted me upstairs to a long hall way and a little room on towards the end and in this room were Peter and Kevin. They stood up once I entered the room, I shook Karin and Jeffery's hand said thank you they wished me good luck, I shut the door and greeted the two men with a firm handshake.
Then came 45 minutes of slightly nerve racking, yet quite comfortable conversation with two adults. I noticed they had my application right there in front of them, with my narrative statement and a note pad with notes on it about me but I couldn't read Peter's handwriting upside down (I hope it was positive). One of the first questions they asked me were what type of director's I like, Have I seen any recent films. I commented on my thoughts for "The Artist" and "Drive" (Nicolas Winding Refn is my favorite director right now). Peter ran the interview it was almost like good cop bad cop with Peter being the tougher one. he asked if I read books, favorite films, why I wanted to attend AFI, they asked about me making my debut feature film at 20. How it was working with Michael Kenneth Williams from HBO's "Boradwalk Empire", also asked about my trip to Cannes where my thesis film got into the short film corner. Then asked why if I went to film school, made a feature, got into Cannes why do I want to attend another film school or just make my 2nd feature film. I answered very honestly and they will get very personal with your questions guys, just be honest. Asked what I learned from making my first feature film, They asked about your personal goals for the school and then they asked me if I have any questions, I had a few. They were both very nice and I believe I made a good impression. Then Peter told me something interesting about the "selection process".
So I interviewed the first week of Feb they probably will still be doing interviews till the last week of March. Notification date is supposed to be APRIL 2nd for Directing students!!! Peter told me that once we end the interview process the faculty will pick there TOP candidates and ALL of the faculty go away for a weekend and they basically compare all of us that they think are the best and screen are work again look over everything again and will make the decision down to the TOP 28!!!
Hope this helps guys GREAT LUCK ON YOUR INTERVIEWS!!!