I went to Emerson wanting to be a movie director and was impressed by the opportunities available and the size of the school, roughly 4,000 undergrads. This meant that I would be getting a quality education without needing to worry about class sizes or availability of equipment.
I had many wonderful classes at Emerson, but I found that I learned the most outside of classes by participating in different clubs and student films. I became involved with Emerson's annual award show, The EVVY Awards, the largest student-run, live-switch television production in the country, and was the head writer my junior year. I also had the chance to get my work judged by industry professionals by submitting to the show, and had the chance to write scripts for celebrities to read for taped congratulatory messages to the winners and nominees. There was a stress on professionalism with the organization, because we were constantly dealing with industry professionals.
During my junior and senior years, I decided to focus on writing and post-production, and I had many great teachers whom I learned a lot from. Their teaching came from experience, as many of them have or still do work in the industry. My television and film professor worked in LA for a number of years. One of the highlights of the class was being able to talk to working writers via conference call. He always ends his semesters with a lecture about making it in LA, and provides a lot of tips that I've read in your blog, such as the importance of connections and how to cold call a production office. My editing professor edited a number of features, and recently made the cross into writing. His first feature, Legion, recently was released. I also had the chance to work with one of the executive producers of Friends and Emerson alum, who came to Emerson to teach for the past couple years.
One final selling point for me was Emerson's LA semester option. Emerson was the first college to offer an "study abroad" option in Los Angeles, and many other colleges have followed suit. Emerson is currently building a permanent LA campus on Sunset. I did the program my senior year and really enjoyed it. I took one class and interned at a post-production company. It was a nice way to get a feel for the area and what working life is like. The LA Times profiled Emerson's program in an article about a year ago: http://articles.latimes.com/
If you have any questions about Emerson, please let me know. I'd be happy to answer them. Your blog has been extremely helpful to me as I start my search for work in television writing, and I'd love to give back any way I can.
If you'd like to recommend a school, email HU: HollywoodUniversityBlog@gmail.com.
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