Ask a Freshman (for anything but chances) - 10-11 Edition

Colleges & Universities University of Southern California
21

<p>yo whats up I’m a freshman at SC too!</p>

<p>I’m going to apply to the Interactive Media and Film/TV Production programs at the School of Cinematic Arts (because I loved 190 and all you film students are awesome).</p>

<p>I was wondering, what did you do to make your application stand out? How did you approach your personal statement? What did you use for your creative sample? What did the content and format of your portfolio list look like? I hope you don’t mind me picking your brain about this, but I’m willing to climb a friggin’ mountain to get into either of these programs and it would be really helpful to hear from a successful applicant!</p>

22

<p>@justrelax</p>

<p>Hehe, brain-picking’s not a problem. </p>

<p>First, question, did you have Tuesday or Wednesday lecture? (Assuming you took it this past semester, Fall 2010). Just curious, haha :slight_smile: I LOVE DREW CASPER! </p>

<p>Let’s see… for my creative sample, I sent in a ~3 minute video clip of a sequence from Band of Brothers (which originally had no music) that I wrote the score for just for fun. </p>

<p>I can’t remember exactly, but I’m a pretty “multi-disciplinary” person (sounds like you would be, too, if you’re interested in both of those), so I had it divided in to sections - film, music, theatre - and subsections as necessary (music > groups, compositions, arrangements), and then listed the relevant works below each category with title, date of creation, position in creation (e.g. director, composer, blah), length, tools used to create (software), then a small description of the work/objective of the work. I tried to find the file just now, but I think I deleted it when I formatted over the summer =\ If I do find it, I’ll let you know so you can see it if you’d like.</p>

<p>As for what I did to make it stand out… well, keep in mind this is purely a guess/opinion things since I dunno how my app actually stood out or if it actually did (o.o), but with me, at least, what I tried to push was my “multi-disciplinary” aspect, like, the fact that I’m, as I said in my essay, a “hybrid of technology and the arts”. I displayed clear knowledge of both aspects of video games using appropriate jargon (from Phong shading to storyboarding). I also had an appropriate artsy response about getting third at a singing competition for the one that asks you to describe an emotional experience.</p>

<p>And oh. Not gonna lie, I had killer recs from two composers in the industry, which I def think helped. The saddest part is that I thought I was special until I found out one of my friends in the major got a rec from the head of Westwood/Petroglyph, which shut my pseudo-ego up nicely. o.o</p>

<p>Good luck with your application, and feel free to lemme know if you have any further questions. Hope to see you in the SCA family next fall!</p>