Rating:(10/10)

Review:

I took the Producing course at the Met film school earlier this year. It was a part-time programme that ran 2 evenings per week for 14 weeks. It really was the intensive course I was promised - it involved a lot of work outside of the two evening seminars, and I was working full-time as well. However, the exhaustion was well worth it - I learned more than I ever imagined and when I finished the course I left the school with a producing partner, exec. producer/mentor, production company, a feature film project and an option on a novel! The course covers all aspects of producing, from development, physical production and post-production to financing, legals, distribution, festivals and exhibition - and all of the tutors really are working professionals in the area they teach in. For example, the tutor for legals was a media lawyer and independent feature film producer, the post-production was taught by a post-production supervisor and the distribution was taught by the acquisitions manager from a leading UK distributor. Despite their busy schedules, the tutors were fully focused on educating the whole group as best they could and i was pleasantly surprised that they were all willing to offer help above and beyond that they gave in the weekly sessions. I am in fact still in email contact with many of them now and one is executive producing my first two projects. I think the fact that they are working in the film industry means they are much more enthusiastic about training young talent as they not only want the industry to grow with fresh 'blood' but they also clearly remember how hard it was when they were starting out. The Met claim that their focus is on practical, vocational training. I was of course skeptical when i started this programme as it didn't come cheap (£2,500) and film schools have a reputation for being purely money-making machines. However, from day one of the course I knew that the Met would be different. There were only 6 people in the class and all a range of ages, experiences and backgrounds, which meant that in many ways we learned as much from each other as we did from the tutors. We also had our first one to one with the course leader in the first week of the course and it was so motivating to have someone who really wanted to know what I was aiming for and could immediately begin putting me in touch with the right contacts and giving practical, useful advice, both for my career and individual projects I was working on. As I said at the start of this review - I left the course feeling confident and equipped to set up my own independent production company with another producer I met on the course. We are now steaming ahead with two feature film projects and working with a development assistant, writer and executive producer to develop and package them - so watch this space! I honestly could not have done this without the Met and I would highly recommend this course and the film school in general to anyone wanting REAL film training.

Review Submitted by: Becky Baxter (unverified)

Related Link: Met Film School