Well I had my first day at the New York Film Academy yesterday, and it was sure a long one. The day started with registration at the Union Square location at 8:30 in the morning. Next we had orientation with the heads of the school where the told us the basics of what our year was going to be like. We had Matthew Modine in as a guest speaker to tell us what we need to do to become filmmakers (the standard inspirational stuff, work hard, don’t give up, find your own voice, NEVER BE LATE TO SET OR YOU WILL BE FIRED etc). After our orientation they brought us down to the SOHO location for a quick tour, and then we had a lunch break.
After lunch we came back to the SOHO location (where we will be spending the majority of our time this year) for our first two classes, screenwriting and directing. Each class was 2 hrs 30 mins, and were pretty decent introductions to the course, but the same sort of stuff was echoed to us as before (inspirational stuff, common sense tips etc). After these classes we had yet another orientation at 6:00pm, finishing at about 6:45pm.
So far I have a pretty good impression from the school, but after completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta, I got the impression that things here are not quite as structured or organized as my previous program, I still don’t know what I am expected to figure out for myself for my first shoot (which is Saturday September 23rd, 2006). However, I think this could be a good thing in an industry where things are so competitive and you need to make things happen for yourself. If you come here, and you feel a little overwhelmed, or confused as to what is expected of you, don’t feel like you are on your own.
