VFS

[pumpkinwaltz]

I'm still a year and a half away from finishing my BA in English at McGill, but I'm already dreaming about attending film school. My main choice at the moment is Vancouver Film School, in the Film Production program. I have two concerns, however

Comments

[leiden]

I'm a graduate of VFS and yes, the tuition hurts but any decent film school is likely to bleed you hard.

As for admissions: The prerequisites to get in are pretty low. That is because the school approaches the education from a ground-up philosophy. You start with shitty little cameras and tripods, just getting some basics down and it can be fairly redundant for those who already have some experience.

VFS was an outstanding experience for me. I followed it up with a really successful year in Los Angeles (if you're Canadian, I suggest staying in Vancouver or Toronto. The whole cross-border thing is agony.) I left LA largely due to the Writer's Strike and exhaustion but I currently own my own production company, am writing screenplays and maintaining my LA contacts.

That said. VFS is a fantastic film school that directs most of its focus to the practical aspects of film making, though it sacrifices a decent chunk of theory in order to fit the practical parts in. It is a competitive program and requires a large amount of work and a bit of luck to pull the top spots (Director and DoP). Also, getting a job in the industry (if that is your goal) after the fact ranges from a fair amount of work to an agonizing amount. Given that, if you're willing to shoulder the debt, workload and the stress you will find the film making to be an incredibly rewarding profession.

The Pros of VFS: Great schooling, intensive atmosphere, hands on work for a majority of the year and a total overall understanding of the film making process that will give you a major leg up on the competition once you're looking for a job.

The Cons of VFS: In the "industry", your contacts are as important if not more important than your skills. It is a world of who-you-know and who-knows-you. Most 4-year programs put a major focus on developing those contacts but at VFS you simply won't have time. If I have one major complaint about the school, it was that it didn't spend much time focusing on post-school work (to pay off those loans!), especially for those of us in the States. So if you go there, be very ready to hustle.

[pumpkinwaltz]

Oh wow, thanks for taking the time to write that! It's good to hear that you had a good experience there, and that it paid off in the end, despite some of its shortcomings. I like that it starts from the ground up (my experience is minimal so far), yet remains a demanding program by all accounts.

And yeah, I plan on staying in Vancouver after the program, unless I end up disliking the city for whatever reason.

Thank you again :D