Columbia College Hollywood
Locations: CA-Tarzana
Degrees: Associate's, Bachelor's
Programs: Cinema, Television
Tuition Range: $6,000 per Semester
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Located northwest of Hollywood, Columbia College Hollywood is a film school offering associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in Cinema and/or Television (depending on degree program). Within their majors, students can choose emphases in Directing, Producing, Cinematography, Screenwriting, and Editing/Video effects. Course studies have a hands-on training focus as students participate on each other’s projects.
While a career-focused college, Columbia College Hollywood uses a standard academic format, so plan on a 2-year commitment for an associate’s degree, and 4 years for a bachelor’s. Tuition is assessed by credit hour, with discounted rates for higher credit loads. Full-time students generally pay around $6000 per semester, not including fees.
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Located northwest of Hollywood, Columbia College Hollywood is a film school offering associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in Cinema and/or Television (depending on degree program). Within their majors, students can choose emphases in Directing, Producing, Cinematography, Screenwriting, and Editing/Video effects. Course studies have a hands-on training focus as students participate on each other’s projects. While a [...]
Review by Greg B.
August 9, 2012 1I went to Columbia College Hollywood in Tarzana, California off Reseda Boulevard by the 101 Freeway and graduated in September 2009. I had looked at multiple schools to go to. Some were too expensive. Others I just couldn’t get into. So we looked around. L.A. Film School was something I wanted to do, but they were too expensive and they weren’t accredited, so you technically didn’t get a degree. You got a certificate or a license or something like that. So we went to Columbia College Hollywood, which was accredited for you to receive a degree, an actual Bachelor’s or an Associate’s of fine arts, whichever one you wanted. So that was the school I went to.
And I graduated about, I want to say September of 2009 or October of 2009. Yeah. I’m going to say about September 2009 I think is when I graduated. I didn’t walk. They asked for me to walk. You had to pay for the gown. I didn’t want to pay for the gown. I had to pay I think like $25 for my degree and I got it in the mail. Which was kind of fitting I thought for that point in time in my life, which I’ll get into a little bit later. But yes, I did graduate. I did graduate with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production.
After my second or third semester going there, I kind of realized that they weren’t going to teach me anything. I was hoping that this school would kind of teach you trades and tools and knowledge that you would take into the field when you’re actually working in the film industry, but they didn’t. They basically just hand you a camera and say, “Make a movie. Here’s how you do lighting.” That’s basically what they did. It was a disappointment, especially toward the end of the semester when I realized I had wasted all my time and effort in these classes. Because, essentially, I would make any movie I want and then get an A. It was pretty bad.
I originally went to the school because I wanted to be a producer. I really had little interest in directing. I didn’t want to direct. Everyone and their mother seemed to want to be a director lined at the door and I didn’t want to have anything to do with that. Because the line was so long. I wanted to go to produce originally. So I took some classes on business and film financing and they were very, very unhelpful. They really didn’t give you any kind of insight to how the industry works or even what a producer really does. I had to do that on my own time, reading my own books, looking up my own information. The teachers at that school were absolutely no help to me. I then shifted my knowledge toward post-production because I figured that, in post-production, you actually have a skill set and you actually know software and tools and hardware, that can make me earn a living.
I had a job, a very really good job that I was very thankful for while attending school. I was making $20 an hour freelancing. It was full time. I did it for an entire year. It was an amazing experience. I learned more from that job than I learned from my school in the two years I went there in that one year working for that job. I got laid off on that job right as the recession hit, about a month or two after I graduated and I found nothing, absolutely nothing. I had to go to construction to work with ex-cons and other people digging holes. And it was kind of funny because it was at Sony Studios. Which I was digging holes for a building. It was really funny. I thought that was kind of ironic. And the whole point, I thought of going to film school, or going to school just in general to obtain a degree was so I wouldn’t have to do something like this.
I finally got a break about two years after graduating when one of my friends who I met through another friend, got me a job as kind of like a runner/P.A. for a post-production facility. I didn’t do a lot of editing and didn’t do a lot of post-production stuff. But I was going to be around it, and I was excited. I would get food and coffee and clean up and do that occasional grunt work, but I didn’t mind. I had a job, a real job in the industry that I trained for. I was super excited. So I did that for about 5-6 months, got pulled into my boss’s office, and told I was getting laid off because work was dying down to a crawl.
I would say stay the hell away from this school. Get as far away as you can from this school. Do not go to Columbia College Hollywood. I would avoid the school I went to 100% and go to a different school, one that had either more connections or just better teachers or just a better program in general. Whether it offered accreditation, a certificate, whatever. I’d go to a better school that could actually teach me tools that I could bring to the real world environment and make myself an asset to somebody. I would totally go to a different school. Maybe I wouldn’t even go to school at all. I may just try to find a job somewhere interning and get experience that way because my degree has done nothing for me. All the jobs that I’ve gotten, I could have gotten without the degree.
Found work after graduation? Yes