Better school other than USC and Video symphony?"

All,

Anyone know of a better school in the Los Angeles area, that teaches Video editing?
Right now it's between USC media school and Video Smyphony. Both are very expensive but I just want to be sure to find work when I finish. Hope you all can help.


Mark

You want to learn filmmaking or just how to use FCP? I would not put Video Symphony and USC film school in any sort of the same league to be honest. If you just want to use FCP- go to an Apple Certified Training Course- Moviola Digital, et al. If you want to learn filmmaking hard core and you get accepted- go to USC.

Noah

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I went to Video Symphony and even taught FCP there and it's a great school. That is, if you want purely technical training. You won't learn how to write a screenplay or learn anything about film history, etc. there as you would in film school.

My opinion is that you should look into both academic and technical training. To be a good editor, you really need a well rounded education: technical and theoretical.

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Ditto on Kev's post (well...the well rounded education part)

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usajpntv Wrote:
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> Both are very expensive but I just want
> to be sure to find work when I finish. Hope you
> all can help.
>
>
> Mark

Especially in LA you aren't going to get any editing work just because you took some training courses. If you are want to learn how to edit and you want to find work you need to get some jobs as PA in post production and work your way up from there. Training courses and/or a college education can help you become a better editor but nothing means more than actual work experience.


-Andrew

Many film schools don't actually give you enough technical training to truly work as an editor. You get technical know-how by working real post-production jobs, and you get editing chops (creative) by watching loads of films, promos, commercials, music videos etc. over and over, and by cutting them yourself. Academic knowledge of film history can be useful in some ways, but it can actually be to the detriment of real editing unless you balance it with hands-on work. I can't tell you how many colleagues got mentally poisoned just because some film theory professor showed them a Hitchcock film and then told them it was okay to cross the axis. Unfortunately, the guy had no idea why it was sometimes okay to cross the axis, and so it was miseducation of a bad sort.

The biggest benefit of film school is really networking. That, and it's a forum for showing your work. The more brutal critiques I got of my early work really shaped my sense of aesthetics, decorum, and identity. Good editors make a piece work; great editors infuse a unique sense of style while making the piece work.


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