Which One is The Best Film Academy?

Everyone wants to know what a rock star's life is like." The program is reeling from founder Jeanine Basinger's imminent retirement, but it'll have a reminder when she's gone: Construction is underway on the Jeanine Basinger wing of the Center for Film Studies. "I started the film major here back in the 1960s, and everyone thought I was crazy," Basinger says. "I am pretty crazy, but starting the film major was not."

Students at Emerson College are able to obtain three different degrees in Visual and Media Arts. The school offers a Bachelors of Arts in Production as well as a Bachelors of Arts in Media Studies and a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Media Arts Production. For the Bachelors of Arts programs, students need to complete 44 credits while the Bachelors of Fine Arts program is more extensive at 60 credits.

With a Bachelors of Arts in Film & Media Studies from Stanford University, students will gain valuable knowledge in the traditions of national cinema, documentaries, and experimental films as well as general film aesthetics and modes of production when working on films. The program is designed to improve the vocabulary and framework of the student in regards to the role of cinema and related media.

Students at this small liberal arts college get to spend four weeks in Prague thanks to an exchange program with FAMU, 
one of Europe's top film schools. Or they can spend a semester in Los Angeles, where Emerson has internships with top Hollywood producers, networks and studios.

It's got a motion-capture studio, 
a range of 360-degree, stereoscopic cameras and — because it's Texas — one of the biggest greenscreens outside Hollywood. It's all part of the school's forward-looking initiative to train a 
new generation of filmmakers 
in 3D production.

With a Bachelors in Fine Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design, students will receive the technical skills they need to step into a career in the film industry. They will learn how to become a visual story storyteller as well as be taught the technical and conceptual techniques of filmmaking. The course track for this degree includes 180 hours of general and specialized studies. Some of the classes students will encounter include:

Total course of study: 180 hours

Production: Lighting, Camera, and Sound
Short Film Screenwriting

There's a film studies major for undergraduates, which covers all sorts of cinema, but for the prestigious MFA film program, which accepts only eight applicants a year, it's all documentaries, all the time.

Thanks to Dick Wolf's Chicago Fire franchise, DePaul students are getting plenty 
of on-the-job training. Wolf's 
Windy City-set shows share soundstages with the school at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios, which means that many students "get jobs before they graduate," says DePaul director Gary Novak.

The Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film that a student would receive from Syracuse university encompasses 129 credits. The program focuses on fostering the creative and intellectual process of the student as well as emphasizing personal achievement. Students can expect to take classes in

Sound/Image
Cinematic Modes of Production
Film Scriptwriting

Founded in 1930 and conveniently located in the heart of the Los Angeles entertainment capital, ArtCenter centers its educational programs on making an impact in a globalized society. In keeping with the school’s conservatory-like model emphasizing learning by making, students in the film studies program begin shooting right away. The program offers three tracks:

"So many live-action films have VFX and CGI that people aren't even aware of," explains department chair Paul Schneider, who says the degree will start in about two years. Meanwhile, students can opt to spend a semester or summer in L.A.

Ethan Hawke's Blaze Foley biopic Blaze is the latest project to be shot at Ringling College's Studio Lab, where students had previously received on-the-job training making projects with Kevin Smith 
and Justin Long.

With a Bachelors of Arts in Film and Media, students learn both introductory and advanced communication through the works of film, television, radio, internet and new media. The coursework focuses on history, theory, criticism and the practice of film and media arts. With Film program encompasses 35 to 40 hours of coursework with classes such as:

New Media
Calvin Media Company
Media Cultures

California State University-Long Beach was originally founded as Los Angeles-Orange County State College in 1949. Later changing to California State University-Long Beach, the school offers many opportunities to its students. Offering an array of curriculums, the school overlooks the Pacific Ocean and is set on a 322-acre campus. It has 63 academic departments and programs of which one is its Film and Electric Arts degree.

when D.W. Moffett isn't acting in The First (it premieres this fall), he's pushing his campus' TV production initiative. The SCAD-produced sitcom The Buzz won best scripted series at last year's College Television Awards, and this year the school has two more shows in the works

Experimentation is the name of the game at the nation's premier visual arts school. "I kind of learned my first things about filmmaking at RISD," remembers Gus Van Sant ( ), who started studying painting before moving 
over to making movies.

With a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film and Electronic Arts, students can choose majors in Theory and Practice of Cinema and Narrative Production. As a freshman, you will be admitted to the school as a Pre-Film and Electronics Arts major with no portfolio requirement due at this time. Here, students will complete their general requirements and then move on to classes with the Film and Electronic Arts major such as:

Film History
History of Broadcasting

Depending on the major that you select as part of your Bachelor of Arts degree in Film and Electronic Arts at California State University-Long Beach, you may need to submit a portfolio for admittance in the curriculum.

A lot 
of people were reinventing themselves there, whether they started in photography or fashion or glass blowing. It's a school that attracts the best of any art field, but once you were in, there was a lot of switching around and rethinking your ideas."

Students applying for the Narrative Production program will need to submit a portfolio to the review committee while Theory and Practice of Cinema students are not required to do so to be admitted into the field of study.

the Los Angeles Film School was developed in 1999 by a group of Hollywood professionals. The school allows current film professionals to share their knowledge with students. The school benefits from being located in Los Angeles as it is in close proximity to several movie productions.

The school is home to several film and movie related programs as well as the Los Angeles Recording School, which is an on-the-job training program for recording engineers.

The Los Angeles Film School offers a Bachelor’s of Science in Film in a 36-month program. The program allows for areas of emphasis in producing, directing, cinematography and production.

A Bachelor’s degree can be obtained in each of these areas and allow a student to perfect their craft. Some of the classes that students can expect to take at Los Angeles Film School are:

Introduction to Transmedia Design
Digital Editing