Hey PROSPECT.

YES to all of your questions….

The school helped me find several working opportunities. They came through teachers, fellow students, faculty & notices from the school. But it was up to me to follow through on those opportunities. I had to make the calls and go to interviews and prove that I was reliable and ready to learn. I worked on commercials, features, documentaries, shorts & music videos while attending school and during the summer breaks.

The school also helped lay the groundwork for future employment leading up to and after graduation through the LA trip, introductions made by faculty to their personal contacts, letters of recommendation and by sending me out with a reel of work that was created over the 4 years.

But the most important thing that defined my career, aside from the filmmaking education, was the connections to fellow students and faculty that I made and continued to develop after graduation. 24 years after graduating, I can attribute 99% of my work to those connections. My class and the classes before and after me became producers, directors, writers, dps, etc… and they hired me. And I hire them too. The trust and loyalty that exists among alumni has helped build many careers.

Stick with it. Make friends. Volunteer to help everyone you can with their films & projects. And don’t stop at school assignments. Make movies when you are not at school too!

Good Luck – ALUM