Hi Everyone, Nina here with another installment of Film School Confidential.
When I found out that our favorite UK correspondent Dougie was going off to film school, I thought that it might be interesting for him to post his perspectives on it as he progresses his way through the program. I thought this might serve as inspiration (or warning) to anyone who was also considering film school. This would also help to keep Dougie honest, because if he drops out, we can all publicly chastize him.
Film School Confidential
Episode 3: Confessions of A 20-Something Film Student
So in the time that has passed since my last entry, our group has started, and finished, shooting. The recording studio was a fairly successful move, if chaotic, as there was no rehersal, dry run, or real discussion about each scene, to enhance the awkward nature of the bands actions and words towards each other. It worked well enough, and each member of the team has now retired to our own machines to put together our film.
Because I'm not the best at constructing long reports of any kind, I choose just now to answer a couple questions that have been semi-raised in comments. The school I'm attending is the SAE Institute in Glasgow. They were originally only an audio engineering school, but now have expanded to include film, and have schools located across the world. I chose this particular school because of how hand's-on the lessons are. While one of my other choices, Stirling University, may have been cheaper, what with bursarys and SAAS helping with tuition fee's, it's very much a theory-based couse, with no real practical work till the 15th month of the course. SAE emphasize the importance of learning by doing, and although expensive, I feel confident I made the right choice.
Because I'm not officially in the film making part of the course yet (this is an introductory mini-course in Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, 3D animation, digital sound and video editing), the tools available to us in class are limited to iMac's with iMovie. I'm don't like relying on the college's resources at the stage however, and have been working on my projects at home, on a PC. For the movie project, I'll be using either Sony Vegas or Adobe's Premier Pro.
If anyone has any other questions about the course I'm on, either comment or email me, and I'll let you know.
So, having set up my own web design business a couple years ago, the Flash, Dreamweaver and Photoshop projects were fairly easy passes, and with that coupled with me going into the film course, the rest of my team are expecting something special from my edited movie. I have a confession to make.
I have NEVER done any film editing prior to this course. Apart from a few vacations, and a couple consensual dirty tapes (not my idea, not something I'd ever want to view, and I 100% blame Paris Hilton for the resurgence of the popularity for the act), my video camera sits in the the drawer, gathering dust. I've never really had the inclination to grab a bunch of friends, head out and film Mad Max 4. In my defense though, my decision to go to film school was born from a fairly recent idea that it would be something I'd enjoy doing.
It does put you, dear readers, in an interesting position though. If I make anything of my education at film school and become a big shot director, you will have been witness to all the horrible mistakes I made in my career infancy. Bragging rights you'll be proud to own, I'm sure.
Which leads me rather neatly to this, the first glimpse at my first movie. It's the teaser trailer that appeared on my website project for school.
