If you have dreams of being the next great American auteur, the odds are you’ll be headed to La La Land at one point or another. Yes, there are great college-level film programs across the country (NYU and Emerson, we’re looking at you!), but getting your bachelor’s degree in Los Angeles has some obvious advantages.
What do we mean by that? Well, to borrow from your peers scouting real-world spots to shoot their next short, “location, location, location!” In this case, proximity is everything. That’s probably why so many of the nation’s leading film programs happen to take root here in the first place.
Just by being in LA, you’ll have direct access to the industry before graduation — you can apply for local internships and start working on professional projects earlier than many of your peers studying elsewhere, and you won’t be limited to the summer season. Plus, schools in LA are conveniently placed to bring in talent, so actors, directors, producers, and animators who live and work nearby will be able to drop in for a master class or a seminar without taking a full trip across the country for a campus visit. That means you’ll get the expertise of a larger pool of people, faculty won’t stagnate, and you’ll get to interact with working professionals who are still in the roles they’re teaching you about.
That all sounds pretty great, right? But the last thing LA needs is another real estate agent selling you on the city, so, without further ado, let’s take a look at the top film programs in the ~city of angels~.
USC (Cinematic Arts Program)
This one won’t surprise you. USC is usually the first undergraduate film program most people think of — it’s generally recognized as a pipeline to Hollywood since it caters to the commercial track rather than independent film, and it has a long history of placing up-and-comers in the industry. Just check out their, ahem, robust list of notable alumni here.
What makes USC special? Besides the legacy and prestige, they really do have the resources and the curricula to back it up. They are self-described as “the only media school in the world that teaches all the major disciplines of the Cinematic Arts.” Those seven disciplines are the John C. Hench Division of Animation and Digital Arts; the Division of Cinema and Media Studies; Film and Television Production; Interactive Media and Games; Peter Stark Producing Program; the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen and Television; and Media Arts and Practice.
Something that makes the industry so competitive, besides the sheer number of people who are vying for success in a creative field, are the unusually high barriers to industry. Most people don’t have access to the sets and exorbitantly expensive industry-standard tech needed to produce professional-looking work. A writer can get better by writing, and a filmmaker can develop an eye and a personal portfolio, but there really is a distinction between the “haves” and “have-nots” here. Your personal short, for example, can’t compete on a technical level with, let’s say, a blockbuster film if you don’t have the equipment and funding you’d need for production and post-production.
That’s another huge upside to attending an endowed program like USC’s — they have a reputation for securing funding for student films, connecting them to festivals when they’re still emerging artists, and providing them with the tools they need to be taken seriously. You can learn a lot more about their facilities here, but suffice it to say they have an entire media complex just for film and media studies that includes soundstages, animation labs, and post-production suites.
Chapman University (Dodge College of Film and Media Arts)
Okay, fine, you’ve got us, Chapman is technically in Orange, California. Except in the age of urban sprawl, that’s just LA — it’s a thirty minute drive from LA proper. According to Hollywood Reporter’s definitive ranking of film schools (and we’re using “definitive” unironically because they actually are the leading voice in this arena (in addition to celebrity gossip)), Chapman has been a top 5 program nationally for 4 years running.
HR points out a few highlights of the program: for one, they stay on the cutting edge by investing $750k annually in updating their tech, and, for two, they bring in leading industry talent (“including the likes of Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh and Colin Farrell”) to speak with students frequently.
Here’s what we like about them, though. Their program is well-structured and well-rounded. Chapman requires you to get a liberal arts education, so you will meet baseline requirements outside fine arts disciplines (which is good! It is good to know things!). Inside the film school, you build a knowledge base of film and media studies before moving on to practical, hands-on experience. Sophomore year, you’ll have to declare a specialization (directing, cinematography, editing, sound design, production design, or writing and production); junior year, you’ll collaborate with peers from other specializations to produce a 7-8 minute film; and by senior year, you’ll produce your individual thesis film.
Like USC, Chapman notes its history of good outcomes. Not only do they have a film festival office to help you with distribution in the early stages of your career, but “top employers of Chapman graduates from this program include: freelance film production, NBCUniversal, Netflix, New York Film Academy, Paramount Pictures, HBO, Google, DreamWorks, Fullscreen, Awesomeness, CBS.” Not bad!
UCLA (School of Theater, Film and Television)
UCLA’s Film, Television & Digital Media (BA) has just a 1% acceptance rate for the film and television track. So it’s safe to say they are… a competitive option.
Besides its stellar 3:1 student to faculty ratio, another benefit of this program is its administration’s conscientious development of it. HR reports that the current dean, Brian Kite, has stated his mission of “bringing in a more diverse faculty and student body, obtaining more funding for BIPOC students and reimagining building spaces for student comfort” and has already made progress toward those goals.
Another strength is its emphasis on learning the basics. Students spend the first two years of the program studying film and criticism to understand the canon and the history of entertainment before getting behind the camera. While this is slower-paced than the programs above, it certainly has its benefits: it assumes less experience and expertise coming in, and it allows all students to build a foundation for their creativity before moving on to craft.
CalArts (School of Film/Video)
Located in Santa Clarita, California, CalArts is another that we consider to be basically in LA. Like the other schools we’ve included here, they have notable alums and industry-grade equipment, but what makes them special is their focus on new forms and non-traditional filmmaking.
“Students in the School of Film/Video work in all modes of moving image and sound based artwork, including story- and character-based work in live-action and animated cinema; essayistic, socio-political and observational documentary projects in live-action, animation, installation and hybrid forms; and poetic, lyrical, structural and other modes of experimentation with the materials and forms of the moving image.”
They have a reputation for supporting independent filmmakers — those artists who don’t go directly to Hollywood for commercial, narrative filmmaking but rather intend to complete documentaries or experimental art. They also have a stellar animation program and have developed many of the leading voices at studios like Pixar.
Loyola Marymount University (School of Film and Television)
Like its competitors, LMU has the benefit of proximity to the local network, so students can easily acquire internships and hands-on industry experience. Unlike its private peers, though, LMU is a bit less expensive, which makes it all the more impressive that it is “consistently ranked among the top 10 film schools in the country.”
LMU offers a liberal arts education alongside rigorous film coursework, so, again, we appreciate that it covers college students’ academic bases fully. The film school’s majors include Animation; Film, Television, and Media Studies; Film and Television Production; Recording Arts; and Screenwriting, and it has intimately sized classes with a 12:1 student to faculty ratio.
TL;DR:
There’s no single path to making it in the land of silver screens. In fact, just in LA alone, you’ve got a variety of excellent film programs. So go forth, do your research, and apply to the schools that fit you best — and keep building your personal portfolio, while you’re at it, cause those supplements are no joke!
Need help crafting a strategy for applying to arts programs? We’re here to guide you!