Since I'm "slow" and don't stay on top of things, this might be "old" news, but if not...

http://www.foxmoviechannel.com/FMC-LAFS.html

And all film grads should remember this mantra:  "Would you like fries with that?"  


Phil

It look really interesting.


I wonder what percentage of film school grads actually work in the industry?

I don't know...

I know some that are making waves and winning at major film festivals, some that are bitter nothing ever materialized and quite a few in the middle....

I think a lot probably end up working in the corporate/event video sector. At the end of the day theres not that many creative opportunites in the film industry. Out of the massive amount of people involved in creativng a film theres only a small handful who have any real creative input.

One thing I heard about film school was you could either spend a ton of money on film school, or you could take that money and make a film with it. Making a movie is a film school (of hard knocks) in and of itself, but with the movie (though you may lack the professional instruction) at least you have something tangible that belongs to you when it's all over. I learned a lot from filming my short last year, so I'm finally planning to shoot another film, and it should be even better. My film school consists of watching filmmaking documentaries on DVDs.

I'm 10 months away from graduating from film school and based on my own experience and the experiences of people I know, I would say if you want to try and break into the industry, you'd be wasting your time going to film school. Plenty of knowledge. Zero contacts and contacts is what it takes to get into the industry. There's plenty of decent jobs you can get with a film degree. People need cameramen, sound guys, and editors outside of Hollywood or even outside of the entertainment industry. It's not a complete waste of time and I don't regret going. But in terms of getting produced, I'd say you've got as much a chance in film school as you do entering a contest or submitting a script to this site and sitting on your ass. Overall, film school is probably best for learning the craft and doing what you will with it on your own.

Of course, I can only speak from personal experience but I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Yeah, it's the same thing as majoring in film at a university.  You get through the program, you graduate...then what?  It gives you great knowledge, sure, but it doesn't in any way guarantee you a job in the industry.  My grandfather broke into the industry because he had a friend or a cousin who got him a job at Fox as basically a mailroom clerk and then he retired as VP of Global Print Operations.  

Knowing people helps.  

I was working on a fairly big production earlier this year and it amazed me how many people involved had no interest in film. The majority of people got their jobs through friends and family. I only met two other people who had been to film school and one of them got the job through a friend. Most of the people hardly knew what the film was about.