Hi everyone,
I've been a director and DP for 6 years, based in Paris. My work is mostly cinematic, visually driven documentary — I'm usually both the director and the cinematographer. I have one fiction short I'm proud of, but that's it for fiction.
My dilemma is which program to apply for:
- Directing Fiction — where my heart is, but my portfolio is mostly doc
- Directing Documentary — my portfolio fits for that
- Cinematography — I have strong visual work, but becoming a better DP isn't the goal
My dream is to direct fiction. To learn what I've never had the chance to learn — working with actors, interpreting scripts, building scenes with performance.
But is applying to Directing Fiction with a mostly documentary portfolio realistic? Or should I take a safer route in?
Any honest advice is welcome. Thanks.
Hi!
I am currently a Documentary student at the NFTS and I might have some insights. That being said - it's a very tricky question with no right answer.
The Cinematography and Fiction course are the most sought after courses and are very hard to get into with hundreds of applicants and only 10 people actually getting in. So if becoming a DP isn't the goal I would not bother with that as the application dives deep into your motivation and dreams.
I actually have a more fiction based background and tried to get into the fiction course 3 times and didn't succeed. Over the years I did some documentary stuff, but not a lot and applied to the documentary course because I'd slowly fallen in love with documentary and got in on the first try. I'm enjoying it quite a lot! You shoot your own stuff, but get to work with the editors, sound designers, composers, production managers and sound recordists. You also regularly interact with the fiction directors and Cinematographers in the NFTS bar, but won't work with them directly. There are masterclasses every week by different industry professionals they bring in, open for any student of any course to join and sit in on. We've had masterclasses from Martin Mcdonaugh, Thelma Schoonmaker, Alex Garland, The Ceo of Netflix and many more. It's a challenging course, but I love being at the NFTS, interacting with other creative people and making cool documentaries.
This decision is something you have to weigh to pros and cons of: If your heart is in fiction, you can try it, but accept the possibility that you might not get in on the first try, you can apply as many times as you want and try to make your own short fiction films (easier said than done, I know) to build your portfolio. Are you okay with potentially trying multiple times, having to wait another year to try again? You will be competing with A LOT of very talented people. That being said, someone in the fiction course right now actually has a mainly documentary background, so everything is possible.
If you have a strong documentary portfolio, the documentary course might be easier to get into, but then again - in the application, interview and selection workshops, they will dive deep into your motivations and if you don't have a lot of good things to say, might also be challenging. You have to also ask yourself: Would you be happy to spend a significant amount of money on tuition, time and effort on moving to England, doing this course? Like if you still like documentary a lot, I think it might be worth it, but if you say "I actually don't care too much about documentary" maybe you won't enjoy it as much as you would hope. If you do get through the interview stage, there is a selection workshop with the final 20 people - of which 10 will get in. This selection workshop will give you a good idea of what some of the assignments that you'll have in the course feel like, but on a way smaller scale.
I hope I gave you some things to think about! But in any case - definitely apply to something! You lose nothing by applying.
Marcel
