It looks to me like a nice vacation with limited time to actually get to know what you are doing. It's certainly not a degree. It's a workshop to further advance your knowledge or to introduce you to film. In my opinion if you are wanting to take your career serious, know that it takes time and a lot of effort to actually come out of any film school on top. I have been doing some research because I myself am planning on going to film school in the next year once my BA is done. And here is what I have come up with.

Degree Time Tuition Rent (1br/mth) Total
L.A. Film School Certificate/? 1 Year 40,000 1200 54400
FullSail (Orlando) Bachelors in Film 2 Years 72,000 500 84000
NYFA - in la/ny Masters of Filmmaking 2 Years 68000 1200 96800

After going through all the nonsense workshop sites that are trying to make their schools bigger and better I have chose these 3 schools to actually look at for real consideration. Since I will have a bachelors degree, I think my best option will be to go for the NYFA masters program, it is the most expensive though. I also took a look at LA Film Schools, but the website does not make it clear to me whether its just a certificate, or if its accredited by any type government educational certification. It overall doesn't explain to me what type of paper I will be getting once I am done with it. But at the same time, the website is somewhat flashy but not very informational.

On the other hand, Full Sail, I had never heard anything about this until a friend told me he once was wanting to go to it. So I checked out the website. Sick flash presentation for sure. They do an amazing job of marketing their school. So time went by and a week later I typed in "Full Sail cons" in google and ran across a bunch of negative things about Full Sail. This has disappointed me because the website did an amazing job of sucking me in. I then went to YouTube and typed in fullsail to see if they had any projects or complaints there. You can do the same thing and find what I found. Nothing against the students there but every video I watched was of them whining about their school, it had some student who was poorly dressed, looks like he wake and bake's every day in an advanced education that gets a 4 yr degree done in 2 yrs. 21 months of nonstop 8 hour days of school, 5 days a week. What else would you do but complain if you aren't serious about your future and career. This sadden me to see students, aging from 18-21, I will take it easy on them for being young, because I once was there and probably still am. My overall view was that these students were paying a high amount of money to go to a school that was making them work their tales off and they couldn't handle it. Sometimes a little pressure, money, and the realization that life isn't long and we have to do what it takes to do what we love and make the money want. I will defend FullSail for doing a great marketing job on getting students to find interest. And also the % of women there, slim to none.

Enough of FullSail, time to talk about New York Film Academy. NYFA seems like a very great school, very expensive school, and is placed in a prime area for real production of major movies. I live in NYC and am seriously considering this place. BUT the masters programs 2nd year has to be done in Universal Studios, CA (North Hollywood), the backlots of Universal Studios. This seems like a different place for me, the moving isn't going to be a problem, I live with minimal amounts of materialistic objects for a reason, living in one place for longer than 5 years is not me. It's expensive, but it's living to find something I have never seen and trust me, every new city comes a shock and surprise to me. Anyways. So if you look above I have listed the prices. Do the homework, research, visit your schools of interest before making any commitment. Apply early and make sure to have some sort of portfolio if possible. Even though LA Film School didn't give much information about their degree I might take a minute and go out to LA and visit both NYFA in Universal Studios and then drive to LA Film School to check it out. After that, if I am not convinced I will then go to Orlando. The website for FullSail def. sells itself. It gives you tons of information but the once thing I am not convinced about is the actual getting a job from it part. I will see. If anyone is seriously interested in any of these schools email me and I will tell you what I chose and where I visited.

I am not trying to slander any of these schools so don't take it that way, just stating what I came across after my research of actual students who either hated or loved the schools. And in reality, who goes onto forums and posts how much they love their old school and that they have a very nice job, not many. And the ones who did post in the forums were probably asked to by their schools they attended. Or it was some rep at the actual school making his school look a little better. Who knows, either way, this was my research and I hope it helped you.

It took me about 5 hrs to go through tons of websites, forums, the school websites, youtube, etc. Hopefully this will get you done with 50% of your homework on researching your school.

Feel free to email me.
Jimm...@gmail.com if you have any questions or can help me make a better decision on where I need to be going. Thanks.

P.s., admin, don't hide my email address to readers, if it gets spam i will delete it.

The best place to study Video Production in Costa Rica is INA (Instituto Nacional de Apredizaje)

"The best students end up screening at Costa Rica's biggest film festival in Montezuma"

What festilval in Montezuma? I just looked it up and, because I had never heard of it.

I believe this review was posted by the same people who run the school

: S

CRAFT is a new filmmaking program in Costa Rica which started last year. We have a professional staff and equipment, and offer intensive, hands-on training in production.

The Montezuma International Film Festival (MIFF) also debuted last year. Thousands of people attended from all over the world, and every major Costa Rican newspaper covered the event.

Both CRAFT and MIFF are brought to you by a team of professional filmmakers and producers from Costa Rica and the U.S.

We are very proud to bring art, culture and education to one of the most beautiful countries in the world: Costa Rica.

For additional information, please visit
craftmediacourse.com

or

montezumafilmfestival.com

or email us at:
craf...@gmail.com