>Otherwise known as CSUN or "seesun" - as referenced in Boogie
>Nights. It was a good experience I'd say. It's considered (for
>some reason) a top film school in the area (remember I'm in
>SoCal...home of UCLA, USC, and AFI) and even though I started
>there in the Fall of '03 during the recall election and a
>budget crisis, I still had a fantastic time.

Cool.

The reason I asked is because I've heard about the USC Film School and how they pretty much tell every student to adhere to the classical continuity editing system. Grooming a bunch of Ron Howards.

Their students' films must have an active hero protagonist with clearly defined goal who must overcome an obstacle/conflict. A 3-act structure (Syd Field is the devil).

One cannot make a student film w/ passive characters. No "small" moments. Everything must be strictly cause-and-effect. Anything else is extraneous and should be cut.

So, if a student loves Antonioni, etc., and wants to make an Antonioni like-film (passive characters), then they're in for a rude awakening.

USC maintains that in order to break the rules one must know the rules in and out and master them first.

>Met some cool
>people, learned a lot, GREAT theory courses, pretty good
>production classes, and I'm not in debt.

Anyone of your classmates made some comparable first steps (your internship) like you?