Hi everyone, I've been quiet for a bit, moving house and just generally being busier. This week I started at a film school in Australia and I thought I would document some of my experiences, similar to what I did when I had my first set experience; So I will be semi regularly updating this post.
I made the decision for film school based on a few key elements such as networking and proper industry learning. It is much harder to break into the paying film industry in Australia without the backing of a certificate and so in a way film school should be a bit of kickstart compared to volunteering on sets 24/7 (which by the way I'm still trying to do a bit).
I have 4 subjects at this stage; Directing & scriptwriting, production techniques, postproduction and screen literacy. Screen Literacy at this stage is the most theory based subject with postproduction being mostly hands on and production techniques being 50/50 practical and theory/analysis.
Some first impressions. There are about 50 doing my course. A max of probably 5 of us have proper experience from what I can tell with only about 3 of us operating a 'business' so the speak on the side. That being said I have not had in depth conversations with all of my classmates. Many have little or no experience whatsoever at either editing or camera work. Of course this course caters for many areas of film, so there will be students that have little interest in either of these areas anyway. I'd say about 20% aren't even sure if they want to work in the film industry.
Equipment is amazing, but of course there's a major clause. 1st years only have access to about 2 or 3 cameras compared to the 20 or something different ones that 3rd year students are allowed to use. Of course I understand the reasons behind this, but it seems a bit limiting to people who might have some experience and/or might be rather quick learners. The main camera we have access to is the Sony XDCAM. We can't even use their GoPro. They're also super strict of OH&S for 1st years. I mean obviously they always are, but for us it's more limiting.
In postproduction we are learning avid. We're in a frustrating situation too. We're using the older Mac Pros which your best bet is firewire 800, which is really expensive to acquire, and imo is outdated technology, especially the speeds coming from USB3 and Thunderbolt. Anyway on AVID..... basically it has made appreciate the beauty of editing with Adobe (or final cut for that matter). To put simply I'm not a fan and will take the Adobe route as soon as we have an option (which might not be until 3rd year). IMO the software is actually outdated in some of the ways it does things.
Basically our week consists of watching an allocated film, reviewing it, learning avid, taking min ~15 images on DSLR a week, basics of XDCAMs.
It shall be an interesting 3 years.
I made the decision for film school based on a few key elements such as networking and proper industry learning. It is much harder to break into the paying film industry in Australia without the backing of a certificate and so in a way film school should be a bit of kickstart compared to volunteering on sets 24/7 (which by the way I'm still trying to do a bit).
I have 4 subjects at this stage; Directing & scriptwriting, production techniques, postproduction and screen literacy. Screen Literacy at this stage is the most theory based subject with postproduction being mostly hands on and production techniques being 50/50 practical and theory/analysis.
Some first impressions. There are about 50 doing my course. A max of probably 5 of us have proper experience from what I can tell with only about 3 of us operating a 'business' so the speak on the side. That being said I have not had in depth conversations with all of my classmates. Many have little or no experience whatsoever at either editing or camera work. Of course this course caters for many areas of film, so there will be students that have little interest in either of these areas anyway. I'd say about 20% aren't even sure if they want to work in the film industry.
Equipment is amazing, but of course there's a major clause. 1st years only have access to about 2 or 3 cameras compared to the 20 or something different ones that 3rd year students are allowed to use. Of course I understand the reasons behind this, but it seems a bit limiting to people who might have some experience and/or might be rather quick learners. The main camera we have access to is the Sony XDCAM. We can't even use their GoPro. They're also super strict of OH&S for 1st years. I mean obviously they always are, but for us it's more limiting.
In postproduction we are learning avid. We're in a frustrating situation too. We're using the older Mac Pros which your best bet is firewire 800, which is really expensive to acquire, and imo is outdated technology, especially the speeds coming from USB3 and Thunderbolt. Anyway on AVID..... basically it has made appreciate the beauty of editing with Adobe (or final cut for that matter). To put simply I'm not a fan and will take the Adobe route as soon as we have an option (which might not be until 3rd year). IMO the software is actually outdated in some of the ways it does things.
Basically our week consists of watching an allocated film, reviewing it, learning avid, taking min ~15 images on DSLR a week, basics of XDCAMs.
It shall be an interesting 3 years.