USC Film Production for Fall 2011

[brightlight]

Ugh, received rejection email today for directing. Just wanted to provide an "update" in case anyone wanted to keep track.


It arrived at 4:33 pm ET.

 

[Procallout]

Originally posted by brightlight:
Ugh, received rejection email today for directing. It arrived at 4:33 pm ET.

MAN, sorry about that Brightlight. Still nothing in my email, or east coast mailbox. UGHHHHH

 

[mongoose]

@brightlight Forgive me for asking what may be a stupid question, but I'm a little confused when you say that you were specifically rejected for directing. At USC, are we competing against the general applicant pool? Or do they group us based on whatever interest (directing/editing/cinematography) we expressed in our application?

VERY sorry to hear that you didn't get in! Thank you so much for posting to let us know.

 

[brian herzog]

Hey guys, I'm sorry to hear about the rejection. I am going to apply for directing in sept for spring, and am interested to know where people are at "skills wise" when applying. What do you guys know about the accepted applicants? and what was your application like? Why do you think you were not accepted. let me know your thoughts. i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Mirpanda]

Originally posted by jamesc:
Hey Everyone,

Received an email from USC at 10:00am PST. I've been waitlisted for Fall!!! Hooray! I thought for sure I'd be getting my rejection letter snail mail today.

I cannot log into the camel link (since I'm waitlisted), had heard nothing back from them at all and my online status hasn't changed. So hopefully there's good news left for others who are waiting

Finally... I can say I've been accepted to USC

YAY! Congratulations Jamesc! I'm so happy you made it.

 

[R. Sid]

Got the rejection letter three hours back. MFA film production. Best of luck for those still in the running.

 

[mongoose]

Bad mailbox day. Yet another Bed Bath & Beyond ad...and an official rejection letter.

Feel pretty crappy, but so glad to get on with my life. Now, time for working on a reapplication for spring!!

 

[Mirpanda]

Aw, I'm sorry you guys got bad news HI FILM, brightlight, R.Sid and mongoose. But I am glad that you guys finally heard something and can now plan what's next. Best wishes to each of you, whether with your applications to other schools or the reapplication process for USC Spring 2012.

 

[nirenabhav]

USC rejected a couple of hours ago. Best of luck to everyone else

 

[R. Sid]

Misery does love company indeed. Sorry to fellow rejects. And thanks Mirpanda, your application was really good, no wonder you got in. Hopefully ill see you there next year .

 

[Dimos]

Got my rejection email today. This is my 2nd rejection from masters program in a row. Not too phased but I definitely want to give it at least one more shot for the spring 2012 term and apply for the Sept 1 deadline.

Is there anyone that is willing to give me some personal advice or share their application with me?? Let me know cause it looks like I need help lol. Thanks!

 

[saintman]

Got rejected, best wishes to everyone who has made it ..

 

[Gordino]

Sorry to hear about the rejection e-mails everyone. I just got one from UCLA yesterday but as of yet haven't heard anything from USC. I imagine it coming any day now as I check my e-mail a couple of times an hour! What makes it worse is that I know the school is three hours behind me, so it'll be awhile before anything hits.

 

[Gordino]

Just checked my youtube stats, apparently my admission video, which they had looked at back around Feb 8th, has been looked at two more times on March 8th. I hope that's a sign my app is still in the running. Anyone else getting more hits?

 

[Aglick]

@gordino I got a few more hits - still havent heard back from USC through. I just assume the hits are from other people. Btw, if your interested in sharing your video I'd love to watch. My link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWAk0Fv8qAk if anyone wants to see.

 

[Gordino]

I did like yours Aglick, especially the look you were able to get with the film. That look is something I wish I could get with my Canon XL2, as I've never really gotten to play around with actual film.

This is the one I used for my Chapman admission, though I submitted a shorter version of this for USC, I like the longer version better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq2Ua7nvXAM

 

[M Dawg]

I doomed myself by submitting a trailer:

http://vimeo.com/19445097

and lighting reel:

http://vimeo.com/19544455

I wish I had the chops to do a successful short, but I've really struggled with past attempts. I definitely need more structure and that's one of the many reasons why film school is so appealing to me.

 

[jamesc]

Very sorry to those who didn't get in . Would have been great to meet everyone in person.

I strongly encourage everyone to re-apply, as this is was my third attempt at applying to USC. A few tips I have picked up:

1.) Your personal statement is probably 90% of the reason you will be accepted. Don't write to impress them, write to express yourself and who you are. Be clever, and at the same time, try to separate yourself from the pack. You can write about your passion for film and how you've wanted to make films since you were two years old, but there's a good chance all the other 600-900 applicants have the same ambition. So try to describe your passion creatively.

2.) Photo submission is strongly encouraged over the film submission. When I was at the Orientation meeting, the Vice Dean even suggested this because he said that while professors try to stay objective when watching film, since they are film professors, the quality, framing, composition and everything will still be in the back of their minds. Most of the people I know who has been accepted have submitted the photo option. Last year I submitted a short-film but this year switched to the photo submission option.

This was my visual submission this year:

Narrative: https://docs.google.com/viewer...=en&authkey=CPaEifcI
Slideshow: http://s1222.photobucket.com/a...?albumview=slideshow

Last Year's submission (5 min video):
http://vimeo.com/6319641

3.) Focus on telling stories. Your portfolio matters less to them than your storytelling as USC professors would rather train and educate strong story tellers over strong technical competence. Between my two applications, I did learn a lot about the technical aspects of film, but I also focused on strongly on honing my story telling. I watched a lot of films and started to analyze the different ways they approached establishing empathy for their characters, weaving the inner and outer splines and different rythms they used throughout. I tried practicing and refining my story telling skills by trying to tell stories to my friends, then trying to tell the same story to random people Ie met. If they story was well told and had something unviersally appealing about them, I could get the same reaction from everyone. If not, well then I'd have to figure out what I was doing wrong.


All that being said, if you can't already tell from my Narrative or these posts, I am a very, very weak prose writer. I've always been strong in math and engineering (8 years as a software developer), but terrible at grammar, languages and writing. The good news is that screenplays aren't entirely prose, so I figure can squeak by on a solid story.

However, given that the USC application is strongly prose based, chances were stacked against me. Or I guess what I'm saying is that I guarantee you, YOU are better at writing than I am. So just focus on story and you'll have a great chance of being accepted Hope that helps.

 

[kwokts]

before I wrote the personal statement, I've probably read the above advise from jamesc more than fifty times. It really is just how I wrote mine...be sincerely personal and freely creative...and I got accepted

 

[creativetype]

Jamesc, you rock!

Question: For those who were rejected do you think it is wise to resubmit a partially revised application rather than leave USC with the already once rejected stuff? I know that USC keeps the applications for those that would like to be reconsidered for the spring term.

Thanks for your continuing help and advice.