New York Film Academy (NYFA)

I was curious, I am researching schools for acting and its quite a daunting task. I was curious if there are ANY schools I can utilize the GI bill from the military. Any and all information would be helpful as I love the performing arts and would love nothing more then to break into the industry. Thank you in advance!!!

I went to NYFA for two years. I did the film making and the producing course. It was very valuable the education I got. I will move forward with a better understanding of how to make and produce films. I also think its good to take both courses. Easier to come out of the Producing course and get jobs then it is with the film making. I always say to wanna be directors learn a crew position because you wont be directing straight out of school. So try to pick one vrew position and be good at it. However I will agree big time with what Evan said. There is NO heat in the winter in the classrooms at least in the Union Square building. It is ridiculous. I spent like 40k to go to that fricken school and its below zero out and everyone has to wear a jacket and gloves including the teachers and try to write notes. Its ridiculous!!! Miserable. I walked out a few times cause I was like this is inhumane. They are very good at advertising especially in foreign countries. They put a lot into their advertising. I agree and think they should put some of that money back into the building. The one in SoHo seems nice as well as LA but the Union Square one is for shit!!! The electricity, the heat and the internet suck!! And yes the scheduling is ridiculous. As a woman that was also running a business it was awful as they have no respect for peoples lives and how they schedule shit. For someone taking a Producing Program where you are taught about scheduling it behooved me at how they scheduled. They need to find a better way to do what they do in that regard. Big Time. It was very hard running a buisness and having a life with how they scheduled stuff. Many times you didnt get your schedule for the semester until a few days after it started. So scheduling anything as far as seeing family, holidays setting up business meetings etc was extremely difficult. It may not matter to a 22 yr old but as a 36 yr old with a lot of responsibilities it was very frustrating. They do have some great teachers though and I agree some not as well. The Producing Course I believe is supposed to be one of the best in the world. Overall I liked 90% of my teachers.Felt they were good at what they did. However it was annoying that they only focus on indie film. If you want to do TV this is not the school to go to. They dont teach you barely anything about TV and none of the teachers have any TV experience. They also dont teach you anything about studio films and studio work either. Which is frustrating for a Producer that may want to take their career in that direction.I hope the LA school does but the NY one doesnt at all. Also yes it is a ton of lazy rich kids that go there that are completely clueless and lazy as hell. Most of my projects I did alone with getting outside pros to help. As a lot of students are useless and lazy. Which is weird as my friend in LA that goes to LACC said the exact opposite of the students there, that they were all really driven and motivated. I think its the rich kid thing. A lot of these kids have never had to work in their life and the program is intense and you have to work your ass off. Its not all the students that are this way but Id say 40% of them are. Which if your not smart enough to get peeps outside of school to help you and you are stuck having to use just the students they can really mess up your projects. Thats why I always crewed up all my stuff with free non students. Overall though through all the pain of dealing with the school it was as I said very valuable to me. I had been in the adult biz producing and directing for 13 years. However going to this school I did still learn a lot. It really is a program of you get what you put into it. I even got a 5k grant for one of my semesters. They also were great with me having to go through a lot as my Mom passed away while going to school there and they were compassionate and dealt with me in an admirable way. So after 2 years of course I have a lot to bitch about but I also have a lot of good things to say about the education I received. It was worth I felt my time and money. I do wish they would let producers have more access to equipment. As producers you are very limited in equipment which sucks. However there course and what they teach is good. My friend however also is going to LACC for film. He has GREAT teachers and has learned alot at 1/4th of what I paid. So if you can afford it, it is way worth it. However if you cant you can get the same education for cheaper. Also God I spent a shitload on my projects. They say the budget for everything is zero which is bullshit. Over my 2 years, I must have spent at least another 20k on my projects alone. However I have a fabulous and great reel which is what I wanted from the school which is what I got. You should be very serious about each project and make each project good enough to be able to get a job from it after school cause after school its hard getting equipment and Ins etc. Most students didnt seem to take the projects as serious as they should have and now have no reel or really crap looking amateur stuff for a reel when they leave which is such a waste. So Im not unhappy about the $ spent on projects at all, just letting everyone out there know to be prepared to spend money on your projects otherwise you may end up with a shit reel as most of my peers did as they were not willing to spend much. But they still did spend, you have too. For most thesis projects you can expect to spend at least 5 to 10k. I just graduated a week ago I am happy to be done. I learned a shit load in those two years. Good Luck with everyone on there film ventures:) Hopefully my view helped somehow.... If you want more info feel free to send me a message.

DO you attend a film school like NYFA before college or after?

Hey everyone!

Did any one of you take the 1 year 3D animation program? I am thinking of taking it after I graduate and get my Bachelor in Graphic Design next Spring. I learned the basics of 3D animation at university but I want to learn more.. I want to do a Masters in 3D Animation, but in order to do so i'm thinking of doing that 1 year program at NYFA to learn and master the MAYA software before going into masters so that I get there ready with all the tools and skills that I would need.
All I need from you is for you to tell me about your experience at NYFA. I need to know its reputation and how you felt while being there and taking the courses, and how you felt after you completed the training. Do you think it was worth it and worth the tuition money? because it is 17 000$ per semester without the living expenses. That's 34 000$ for the year without living expenses and it's not a Master's degree so I need to be convinced please!

Thank you so much for your help,
Steph

I went for the acting two year program but left after one. This school has some of the best instructors in the world, some. However they are held back by the administration. As an actor here you are a number, and bag of money. They make stupid decisions regarding schedualing with no consideration for the students or teachers. Everyone can get into this place so its packed with lazy rich kids who dont want to put in the work it takes to make a good film. And they are alowed to act however they want and not get expelled. I was in a class with Miss Teen USA, an important sponcer of the school. She was my partner in several scenes, but because of her status and the numerous "special events" she had to attend she was allowed to miss nearly every class and hold back my education. Also the "creddits" advertised dont transfer to any schools with a film program or an acting program, so if I want to continue to work in film, these creddits are useless. Also all the money given seems to be blown on stupid NYFA chairs, NYFA tee shirts, TONS of advertising and making sure everything looks "pritty" for the open house. I would have prefferd they buy things they could use like sound proofing, air conditioning, props/costumes, Film and mini DV tapes for the students. Filmakers have to buy thier own film, so be prepaered to spend an extra $12,000 befor the year is over. Allso after a year in the Acting for film program, and after staring in 8+ student films, I didnt get a single clip I can use for my reel, not one. It was up to the students to get coppies of their films from the Tech Office, but it is run by a bunch of alumni who lost every single tape I requested. Even most of teachers at this place seem to think its B.S. even though they cant say it blatently, they make it pritty clear that they dont care about you, the school, or anything but thier paycheck and thier ego. Save yourelf the time and money, just go on thier website, look at thier classes, then find similer classes outside of the school, thier way cheaper and much more educational. It is unfortunet because with thier massive funds, knowlagable staff ther could be some amazing stuff coming from this place.

The Greatest... I've went to undergrad at two schools, one year at Full Sail before transferring to NYU... Two years of film theory is enough to kill anyone and their creativity. After graduating, I got a job working with a television station where I grew up in Connecticut, but I really felt like I missed out on a lot and decided to look into grad schools.

I'm going into my fourth semester at NYFA and I've worked on probably like 70 films. I've directed twelve films, the kicker is, in my first year, I directed 7 and I found out that had I just taken the one year program the curriculum is the same pretty much (both programs do 7 films in their first year) and you don't need a degree to do the one year or two year program... I could have saved a lot of time and money had I just taken a program here initially.

This school is in the best area of NYC!