Best Film Schools in Europe: Differences to the US
Many guys aspiring to become a filmmaker try to distance themselves from their “film heritage” they want to study abroad, preferably at a school with a certain unique trademark or creative imprint. If you´re from the U.S. here´s a few reasons studying at a film school in Europe could benefit your development and career:
High quality undergraduate programs
In Europe, almost every film school offers a high quality undergraduate program. You don´t need to already have a degree in order to enroll for film making, you just finish school and you´re ready to go. Note that the focus of at least 90 % of European film schools lies on diploma education, 4 years, no bachelor – no master. It´s a comprehensive and valuable curriculum that takes you from beginning to end.
No private schools = moderate fees
Most of the film schools in Europe are non-private or governmental. Therefore, the fees you pay are much lower than at a private school that has to fund itself from students paying for their education. Of course the better the Equipment and general studying conditions, the more you pay, but still it´s a lot less than you usually pay. I believe Munich Film School, which is always in the top ranks, is a few hundred bucks per 6 months. Crazy huh?
Choose from various artistic influences
Every school in the Best Film Schools in Europe Top 10 offers a unique create imprint to soak up. Be it a Eastern European one like FAMU in Prague, German like Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, or NTFS in the UK, once you´ve come to watch a few short films made by students you´ll recognize the unique style they teach. Some of them rely heavily on special effects, tv-friendly story and funny dialogue, some of them don´t focus on dialogue at all and try to teach you to tell a story just in images, with text to assists in a few spots. Some focus on colors and the structure of an image. It´s such a wide range of choices that you´ll have to take some time and evaluate each choice on it´s own.
I´ve given my own insights about my personal top 10 in my blog: Bekubrick.com. If you´re thinking about studying film in Europe, give it a look.