Manchester Film School

Mar 29th, 2022

Feb 20th, 2021

Some of the teachers care, others are just filling in hours. The shoots aren't organised and there are no actual lessons. I am waiting it out simply for the degree at the end. Biggest life regret.
Sep 25th, 2020

Apr 13th, 2020

I studied at the Manchester film school for 2 years to get a foundation degree and I had an interesting time there. As other reviews say, they have plenty of top quality equipment and industry professionals to teach you. However this is only true of certain departments. If you have an interest in camera then I would definitely suggest this course as the film school has some great equipment and there are often professionals coming in to teach you about the camera equipment. For other departments you won't be so lucky. My 2 years were focused on the art department (building sets and sourcing props) and we definitely weren't being taught "industry standard", we weren't even being taught. If you pick a smaller department such as art, post sound, costume, editing or script supervisor you will likely get one or two initial classes in the first year to teach you the basics and that will be it. If you're lucky you might get a freelancer coming in a couple times a year to help you but apart from that you're on your own. In art department there was an initial set build project to teach us the basics and we had to fight to get more lessons from freelancers and we were only working with hand tools. This, paired with the very short amount of time each project has to prepare before filming begins and it's almost impossible to make an industry standard set that looks amazing. I will say that if you are interested in camera or even lighting and sound then this course would be great, there's equipment and tutors to help you all year round. Also, if you are unsure about what department you are interested in within the film production industry this course can help as you get the chance to try out all the different departments to find one you enjoy. The course is also good for making contacts and getting experience, most of what i learnt wasn't from the course but the external film shoots I went on during my time there. Overall the course is probably better than others out there as they have the equipment and its a very hands on practical course that allows you to practise your skills. But don't expect all departments to have the same level of teaching and be prepared to fight for lessons on your chosen department.
Feb 10th, 2020