As with most fields of study the decision of where to pursue higher education is a difficult one. As a student interested in film studies, the decision can be even more difficult because not all schools offer film studies programs and you want choose an area with opportunities to participate in the film industry and a school that will lend credibility to your degree.

Researching Film Schools

Good research in key in finding a the school that’s right for you regardless of what you decide to study. There is an increasing number of universities that offer film studies but you there are a few things to consider:

1. Is the school associated with a major university?

2. Does the school offer the degree program you are looking for?

3. Is the school located in the right place? While you may want to stay close to home for convenience sake you need to consider that New York and California offer the best opportunities for finding internships and job later.

4. Do the instructors have industry experience? Finding a college who’s instructors are able to provide connections to industry professionals may mean the difference in weather or not you are able to make valuable professional contacts and It may effect the way the industry considers your value and credibility later.

5. Does the school offer programs specific to your area of study? There are many different aspects to movie making. Are you interested in the a technical film production or a business education, etc… Be sure that you know what you would like to focus on. It will help you narrow your search.

Prepare A portfolio and Resume

In may cases, having experience and products related to your education thus far will help in the acceptance process. Depending on your focus, you want to provide examples of your writing skills or examples of experience in theater and media production. Many schools want to see example films that you have either produced yourself or have been a part of producing.

What ever your area of focus or aspirations good preparation and research will make your life as a student much easier, make your time at school more focused and valuable and give you more opportunities in your professional life. Take your time and enjoy the journey.

J. J. Abram's Enterprise

I have been a geek and a Trekkie for a very long time so I peed a little when I heard about the new film. At the same time I recognize that, to the uninitiated, Star Trek movies generally make no sense and are boring as hell. For that I would hope the franchise, thus far, would offer absolutely no apologies. The new Trek however promised to appeal to a more general audience by being fun. I was curious to see if and how they would achieve that. It turns out that Star Trek is actually fun. It moves fast, the visuals are stunning, the characters are young and sexy and the sound track is ok. They abandoned the semi-intellectual plot lines and the underlying societal commentaries and replaced them with explosions and green boobs. Trek sold out and it’s fantastic!

I don’t mean this to sound as though its a bad thing. I personally hope to sell out as soon as possible. No, it’s not a bad thing at all. In fact, I think a film with a wider appeal was necessary to keep Star Trek alive. After Voyager and Nemesis, Trek took a turn for the worst and it looked as if the days of boldly going where no man has gone before could be coming to an end. Personally, I think that if offending a few fanboys saves Trek it’s worth it.

In their defense, the creators of the new film were really pretty respectful, I mean after they changed most of the story and re-wrote 50 years of Star Trek history, they were pretty respectful. I really did like the folks they got to play these parts, especially Chris Pine who seems to have actually taken something away form film school. All of the actors brought something new to the characters they were playing but, at the same time, stayed remarkably true to the originals. Again, most notably Pine who, at times, was truly a spitting image of Shatner.

Over all Star Trek is a fun time and an impressively well made film even though it seems that J. J. Abrams couldn’t help but include the damn clover field monster. (You saw it too, you know what that is) Best part is you can see it with more then just you pasty, basement dwelling, Trek friends, you could even take a date. From what I’ve heard this is the first installment in what will be a trilogy so hopefully they don’t fuck it up.

Cheers.

Dead In 3 Days

I really wanted to kick this off by bitching about something but Dead In 3 Days wasn’t actually that bad. Granted, I’ve become a little jaded as of late from watching garbage but all things considered I was a little surprised by this movie. It was late and I was a little bit tired and I still had some work to do so I set out to find something mindless I could ignore while I finished my stuff, some noise to keep me awake. I found  one copy of “Dead in 3 Days” on the bottom shelf at Blockbuster and thought the cover art was funny.

The movie opens with a bloody, delirious girl stumbling down the street. She falls to the ground in front of a cop car and we get to spend the next 90 minutes finding out why. The movie’s about a group of young people who just graduated from college or high school or whatever, I couldn’t tell  (they were German or something) who all receive the same creepy text message, on the same day, informing them that they have three days to live. (Sound familiar yet?) One by one they start disappearing and getting drowned and stabbed and stuff. This goes on for a while and, believe it or not, the killings and the space between are actually handled with some subtlety and finesse which was nice. It all progressed a little slowly but for some reason it’s surprisingly interesting. It was a little like watching a book. And there’s a cool scene involving a fish tank.

I’m not going to ruin it and tell you why but it gets a little Friday the 13th ish towards the end and I started to not really care what happened to any one. You’ll figure it out anyway. Actually I never really cared what happened to any of the characters but was interested in watching it happen none the less.

Check it out. it’s decent.

You Suck

Hi there! If you’re here that probably means you know how much you suck at movies and you know that you need to go back to film school. Good news! You came to the right place. No, It’s not a real school but that obviously didn’t work for you any way. Unfortunately, you came just a little bit early and there’s no content. Don’t worry though because there will be soon, so much content in fact that you wont know what to do with your self. There’s gonna be reviews, clips, commentary, and lots of other good stuff so check back soon. Hope you enjoy our site about movies and movie reviews.