Sunday, May 16, 2010

Open Waters, Lynette + My Final Thoughts on school







and now my thoughts on college (already posted on my tumblr but, here it is for those who dont read that)
out to an 8-5 job
college was....very disappointing
I've got a few nice things coming out of it
and I'm gonna try to not harp
but kids, when people laugh at/or about communications degrees, just know there's a reason for it. Thankfully, my sore excuse for a dept. is dissolving in a few years. My Univserity as a whole (The University of the Arts) in philadelphia isn't bad. My school within it, CMAC, was terrible. Formed out of a petty feud between video artists and neo-traditionalists (my dept.), it was just an ego war which thankfully has been lost by my side. Only problem is, too many people trudged through it.

If you want to go to school for film, don't. Get a good group of friends, form a close pact and keep making movies. You can learn anything that they'll teach you in a number of books (I'd be happy to recommend them) but in the end, a shitty looking movie with a gripping plot totally outweighs an over lit looking movie that proves you know how to handle equipment.

I hope someday I can find a close group as I once had in high-school and make movies again (just for kicks, especially now that it can be made accessible to anyone), but I don't know when or if it'll happen.

If you know anyone going to cmac, tell them to get out. The staff is just holding onto their jobs until the department's totally gone.

I'm sure I'll keep making music and writing. And at least I got to go to college (I know many who can't or couldn't), but this wasn't what I hoped for in the least.

ADDITIONALLY:

I suppose it's only fair to point out that my Communications Degree is slightly different than most in most colleges.

It claims to be multi-disciplinary, students choose from one of (six when I started, two now) a few concentrations, ranging from Advertising to Narrative Film to Screenwriting, Documentary production or Interface Design. I chose Documentary (pressured by my teacher since he liked an early piece I did) and screenwriting and was assured that if I didn't like documentary, I could do a narrative for my senior thesis. That was a lie. How this department gets people is through the promise of 'being able to learn about/make movies while getting a B.S. (bachelor science) instead of a B.F.A. (fine arts). It worked on my parents who promised to help pay half (which I am grateful for) if I kept my grades up.



So if you're in CMAC and actually want to make movies, get out.
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