How Expensive is LA Film School?

2005 vs 2025 LA Film School Tuition

When I attended LAFS on campus in 2005 it was a 1-year school rang in around $32K. The shortest program they have now for film production costs $50K and is a 2-year program. An on campus bachelors degree is around $95K. LAFS also has a Tech Kit as part of these costs that rings in around $5-7K. It includes very basic equipment that the student owns ongoing (Macbook, iPad, Pocket 4K, etc). But again, it’s not really about how expensive LA Film School was or is. There’s more to it than that.

What Was LAFS Like?

When I started at the LA Film School in 2005 we spent the first 3 months taking classes in everything. If you wanted to DP you still took basic editing classes. If you wanted to edit you took producing classes. They wanted a general immersion before majors and minors were selected, and I thought that was smart.

Crewing On Senior Thesis Projects

At the 3 month mark we crewed on the thesis projects of upperclassmen. This allowed us to see things in action. The shoots could be located anywhere and at any budget range. We were allowed to sign up for the shoots we wanted to be a part of. And even though at our level of understanding we were basically craft services and grips much of the time, we still got to watch seniors do their thing.

Majors & Minors Selected

After the senior projects we focused on our specific major and minor. When the dean of the school asked my class how many people wanted to direct, hands went up everywhere. I realized right then and there a directing major wasn’t going to do much for me. I chose to double major in editing and sound design so I could at least crew on projects of classmates after film school.

Starting around 3 1/2 months in I took a deep dive into Avid Media Composer, Sound Design, Mixing and other post production items. My editing teacher had cut studio films and retired as a teacher. My sound design teacher worked on Law & Order during the day and taught us at night. We had long days in the 1-year immersion program, but I loved every minute of it.

Midterms

Halfway in were midterms. At that time, LAFS required directing majors and minors to select a scene from a list of approved films that were considered classics from directors like Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann. I hung on to a directing minor until the halfway point and decided to do a scene from Hitch. It wasn’t on the list, but they let me do it anyway. The point of midterms at the LA Film School was not to focus on our own stories, but focus on executing the craft. So the directors directed, the DP majors DP’d and so it went on down the line.

Thesis Projects

Studies continued after midterms as we learned as much as we could in our focus areas. Directing majors eventually chose a producing major and other key players from our class or even another classes and each directing major did their own thesis film.

This was an excellent training for moving a project through development, pre-production, production and post. After a few months of intense work thesis films were completed and graduation was around the corner. The school had an impressive THX certified stadium seating theater. It was all so much fun.

Was I Happy With LAFS?

100%. I had zero complaints about the school and am still happy that was the path I took to familiarize myself with filmmaking. But here’s the problem and there’s simply no getting around it: LAFS did not prepare us for life after graduation.

But guess what? No film school can. That’s the tragedy of the current film education system. When you’re in school everything is AWESOME. You’re surrounded by creativity. You have access to fisher dollies, sound stages, cameras, mixing rooms, editing bays…you name it, and a good school typically has it. But after graduation everything changes in an instant. And this is where the film school industry is broken.

The Challenge With Film School

The film industry doesn’t care about degrees. They don’t care about school pedigree. You could call studios when graduating and tell them you went to LAFS, USC, UCLA…it just doesn’t matter. You’d be extremely lucky to land a job as set PA. In fact, I learned this the hard way.

The LA Film School had a “producer’s lounge” with binders containing the phone numbers of studios, etc. It felt official. That is until I tried it. I’ll never forget what the receptionist at FOX told me when I called attempting to get an assistant editor position. She responded with, “You know we only hire award winning editors right?”

Nope. Didn’t know that. We were not prepared for life after film school.

My classmates and I hit the streets of LA with no jobs in sight. Many of us had hefty school loans to pay back. I immediately started working retail just to make rent. Met someone while volunteering on an indie film set who worked at Universal. She got me hired as an editorial PA on a couple of Bob Odenkirk’s films. But even with that I was 30 years old driving a beat up Honda all over LA running errands. There is no fast path—or even guaranteed path—from PA to director.

What Happened To The Others?

What about the directing majors in my class? Did they make it? Get anything off the ground? A few got ultra low budget features off the ground immediately after school. I was the editor for two. After that, one did a couple documentaries and got an Emmy for one of them so that was cool. But now he’s doing commercials and not directing films which is what he wants to do.

Some directing majors quit. Others switched gears to work other jobs in LA or the industry. I know of two that are trying to get a feature film going, but nothing is happening quite yet and it’s been 20 years. I’ll never forget seeing an upperclassmen from film school serving sushi in Malibu years after graduating.

This isn’t the fault of any of them.

They’re gifted. Hard workers. But breaking into the industry as a director of narrative film is one of the longest, most difficult career paths you can choose on this planet. Being an astronaut that actually goes to space or making it as a Navy fighter pilot…okay, those are probably more difficult. But that’s about it.

And when you spend your last dime (as I did) on film school only to graduate and realize there’s nothing ahead but pricey LA rent and school loan payments? You just lost 10-20 years without even realizing it.

A New Film School Option

Now I hope you understand the true cost of film school. It’s not about “How expensive is LA Film School and can I afford that?” It’s more about can you afford what’s next after spending tens of thousands on tuition?

Regardless of where you attend film school, if you want to direct movies, your singular objective after graduation is to begin directing movies. But it’s on your dime. Along with food, rent and everything else.

This is what Write & Direct is all about.

We teach you how to make movies for a fraction of the cost of traditional film school. And it’s about much more than that. We train directors in everything from development through post production. Why? Because unless an aspiring director has tens of thousands of dollars in the bank to afford crew day rates, they need to know how to do everything.

A reliance on technical people goes nowhere at the speed of light.

The students of Write & Direct take the money they didn’t nuke on tuition and buy their own gear. Gear that doesn’t go away when they graduate. And I’m talking everything required: Cinema camera, prime lenses, lighting, modifiers, sound equipment, gimbal, editing and grading hardware…and the list goes on.

With today’s pricing you can purchase everything needed to make gorgeous films for less than you’ll spend on one year at LAFS, USC, UCLA or AFI. Zero exaggeration.

That’s what Write & Direct is about. We’re here to liberate aspiring filmmakers from the traditional film school path so they can close the gap between dreams and reality. Enroll today!