Yeah, at least in my circles, Rochester has a relatively good reputation when it comes to yield protection. They do consider demonstrated interest, and the “optional” interview is strongly recommended (read all but required) if you want consideration for merit aid. As always, you should take appropriate care with supplemental essays.
But if you do all that, the feeling is if Rochester wants you but believes you are likely to get into “higher ranked” schools, they are more likely to try to throw money your way than reject you.
CMU is definitely a STEM, Arts, and Business college (makes sense when you think about Andrew Carnegie’s interests . . . ). I think of them as more of a fine and performing arts school than film, however (in other words, the stuff in their College of Fine Arts which includes Drama and Music, and also Architecture–another strength of CMU). And I am not sure I would strongly recommend it for someone who was coming from a core liberal arts perspective, except for arts stuff like creative writing.