I am in my second month at the Los Angeles Film School.
The key to any film school is how much you put into it. If you bust your *** then you will learn so much and you will be exposed to people that you couldnt meet any other way. if you lag *** and dont take every project you do seriously then you will fail not only in school but in the industry as well.
With that said, I have nothing but complements for the LAFS. The first day you arrive you are checked out an XL2 and you are assigned your first project, due only 4 days later. In your first term you take classes in every disciple before choosing an area of emphasis or major. Alot of people that are looking at film schools think that this is a draw back of this school, but let me put a different spin on this. I think this makes the school much stronger as it forces you to learn everything you can in that one subject therefore better preparing you to enter into the work place. My production teacher said it best, "someone who thinks they can do it all is a master of nothing and a jack of idiocy."
The school is oriented toward the studio system as most of the teachers work withinthat structure. Before going to the school you have to know exactly what you want to get out of your experience. If you know that then you will go to film school, kick some major *** and then get a great job out of school.
Now let me talk about the best part of this school and those how have visited may know. The best part is the access to equipment. The majority of your first quarter films are shot onthe cannon XL2, but you are able to take full advantage of these great cams as the school also has the necessary lenses to achieve that exact look you want. They also just got the ps adapater which allows the xl2 to use 35mm lenses, furthering the film look. The school also has arri and panavision 35mm cams and 16mm as well. They also have 3 sony hdf-900s the same hi def cams used in collateral. Plus access you any lights and gripping eqiup you need to use on their 2 soundstages.
For editing they have 2 labs with Avid Xpress Studio Pro. Then 2 systems with Avid Nitris and finally one Avid Nitris DS, thats professional, hd ready editing.
There is more and more, and no i dont work ffor the school, i am just throughly please with what i have experienced so far and from everything i have heard it only gets better.
