film-school Thinking of going to Beijing Film school... any thoughts/advice?

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LucaInfante

Hey everyone, I'm considering film school, but the universities in the UK are really expensive now. I've heard great things about Beijing film school and its something ridiculous like £5000 for the 4 year course, which is nothing in comparison to the UK.

Does anyone have an experience on this matter? Should I go, Should I just go to the one in the UK? I'm residing in Guangzhou just outside Hong kong until November now, so hopefully I'll start to learn some mandarin.
 
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LucaInfante said:
Hey everyone, I'm considering film school, but the universities in the UK are really expensive now. I've heard great things about Beijing film school and its something ridiculous like £5000 for the 4 year course, which is nothing in comparison to the UK.

Does anyone have an experience on this matter? Should I go, Should I just go to the one in the UK? I'm residing in Guangzhou just outside Hong kong until November now, so hopefully I'll start to learn some mandarin.
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Why not go for it?

祝你好運

And living in Guangzhou... come on dude, just learn some Mando! It's not hard. Well, actually, it is hard, but living there will make it so much easier.
 
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If you get a degree from China, would other filmmakers in the business take it seriously, when you came back home? Some businesses only want degrees from certain schools, and do not take degrees seriously from other countries, but I am just guessing this could happen and am not sure. I also thought they spoke Cantonese in that area of China but I could be wrong as well lol.
 
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The contacts you would gain at that school would likely be useless outside China.

It's not just the cost of the school. Property in Beijing is crazily expensive. What is rent etc like - not for a dump but for a place that is at least Western student level acceptable?

And what gear etc does the school have access to? What experience do the lecturers have etc?
 
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If you're going to go to film school, it's probably a great idea.

You're not going to get hired from any university based on your degree anyway. If it gives you the opportunity to make a lot of films for relatively cheap for four years, I don't think it can be beat. You'll probably have more to show than most of us here.

Also it's China, so the school is probably public, I don't know. But if it's public, it probably is well equipped. I've never been to Beijing, but I've been to Xiamen, and I was at Xiamen University for a week. It's an unbelievable place. You can't believe the resources that are available, and the kind of research they're engaged in. Everything is brand new, every building, every bridge, every road. China has plenty of money to spend on what they want to spend. So I don't think the School will be lacking in resources. I personally think they'll have better equipment than the for profit institutions over here.

You should do it!!

Edit: But you have to know their language though. Nobody f**king speaks any English. I couldn't even get a yes / no out of the shopkeepers. :D
 
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That's true, you won't get hired based on a degree only. I see the OP is from the UK. If you have short films on your portfolio, but they are in Cantonese, or in English, but starring people from China who speak English very differently, could that hurt your chances, as oppose to using your money to make movies in the UK? If not then that's good! Sounds like a smart plan maybe.
 
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I'm thinking it would be so cool. And after all, as True indie says
You're not going to get hired from any university based on your degree anyway.
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If they have better equipment, for lower living costs and tuition fee's I think I'll apply for next year, having a year to make films in hong kong & guangzhou, teaching etc, then after learning some mando Get to it!
 
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Film school is a waste of money if you can read. It's also a farce that line the pockets of hucksters. Any residual benefit of this waste would be industry contacts. Contacts in Beijing are not going to be able to open any doors for you on this side of the Pacific. It'll be like burning your money AND rolodex at the same time.

Consider cheaper options that will result in the same outcome.
 
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