Hi, I was wondering if anyone can give me advice on how to improve my film school essay for college admission. It says in the booklet, that the application essay requirements are: An essay at least 250 words describing creative, academic and professional goals. explaining why you think it's important to attend college and why you specifically chose to pursue film. I would appreciate any constructive criticism. I'm not sure if this is good or not, but here is my draft I just wrote:
expressing ideas, perspectives of life through a movie
I like the idea that film can express anything. It is a secondary reality that can move you emotionally and open your eyes to new ideas, exposing you to a different perspective on life. Film is like any other art form; first and foremost it is about expression. It is a collaboration of creative ideas and technology to create the finished project that will captivate others. I have always found film making intriguing. My love for technology, cameras, and computers, and my love for creating stories and telling them are two main reasons that I want to go into film making.
I have been involved in the arts all of my life. Starting with ballet, singing, acting and drawing at an early age. My mother has been an artist all of her life and so she wanted to expose me to the arts too, giving me many opportunities to explore all walks of creativity. So as a result, I was home schooled and studied ballet, performed in musicals, shows, appeared in a music video, and was invited by my music teacher to appear in a demonstration video for music through the church choir I was apart of. I attended the TN Governor's School for the Arts in 2008 on scholarship for ballet, earning 8 college credits, and taught dance for three years at a local studio until it closed and moved on in 2009. During my time there, I was running and organizing classes and leading rehearsals, as well as participating in community events and volunteering to be featured in shows and demonstrations. I was never uncomfortable being in the leadership position as an instructor.
My interest in film making goes back to back when I was ten years old and I had a program on my computer that was called "American Girls Premiere". The purpose of the program was to create productions on the computer with the characters in the program. It had a simple time-line feature that recorded movements you chose. You could add your own audio for dialogue, there were several simple effects, music tracks and sound effects you could add. As archaic as the program is now, I would spend a lot of time on it back then, creating my own stories and animating the characters to match. Eventually, as computers upgraded, the program would no longer function on the newer computers, so I focused on school and dance.
Then, in early 2005 I was on the computer one day when I discovered the editing program on my computer called Windows Movie Maker. This was my first encounter with digital editing. Fascinated with the idea of editing clips, I grabbed some downloaded video I already had on my computer and began putting them to music- writing text and creating trailers out of already published material. I didn't have any previous knowledge or training in the program, I just self-taught myself by trial and error. I'm a visual learner, and so I'd study professional trailers or movies, observing their techniques with cutting clips, as well as experimenting and learning techniques on my own. I later joined a community online that enjoyed video editing and practiced improving editing skills by taking footage from TV shows and manipulating it to create original trailers and music videos. I enjoyed entering their editing contests and competing with other skilled editors to win online merit on the site.
Three years later in 2008, I progressed onto a much better program called Sony Vegas Movie Studios Pro 10 (similar to professional programs like Final Cut), which is what I use currently for my video editing. I like to film my own movies and edit them for fun. Sometimes just filming vacation videos and editing them to make them more interesting and document my travels. This hobby of video editing has become a huge part of my life. In 2010, I entered a video contest through Global Cashcard and was one of the top ten finalists, earning an award for my work which I wrote, edited and filmed over the course of four days that I had found out about the contest to make the entry deadline.
My last job in December 2010, was being an extra on the TV series that will air this year on MTV, and I loved the film environment, and it really made me realize that it was what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. I am a very driven person who is self-motivated, focused and determined. I would love to participate in a film program where I can be in a film environment, amongst other people who are motivated to be film makers, collaborating ideas with other creative people and learning the craft. I hope you will consider me for your program.Small remarks:
I have been involved in the arts my whole life.
... earning an award for my work which I wrote, edited and filmed over the course of four days that I had found out about the contest to make the entry deadline. You edited, recorded and wrote it, but was was that with four days and entry deadline? Doesn't sounds logic to me.
In my opinion, essay is one hell of a written story. Easy to follow (events are happening one after another), simple plain explanations, rich with linking words ... Maybe you should add some lines explaning why did you choose this school in particularly and your future plans/expectations. But again, great work!! =)
Well, even if you did not get much practice, you did learn to write well. You have great skill with language!
I have always found film making intriguing. Wasted words weaken the essay. This sentence "goes without saying."
My love for technology, cameras, and computers, and my love for creating stories and telling them are two the main reasons that I want to go into film making.
Oh, you are so impressive because of the way you are jumping into the field instead of waiting til after college. Most kids wait until after college to think of enterning the field. So... this is great. But now you have to add some discussion of film makers whose work inspires you... Dreyer, Hichcock, Spielberg... or maybe some of the more obscure ones to really show your interest... can you get interested in reading the bio of Dreyer, for example? That is old film making....
Anyway, I suggest citing some articles or books about film makers.
:-)
Thank you for the suggestions! I will definitely take them into consideration and will revise my essay. :)
I do a lot of creative writing just for fun, but I'm not really sure with the academic essay type of things, so this forum is very helpful.
