Chapman University Reviews of Master's in Film Production

"International documentary program has prepared me well for a career in my field. I chose to focus on international documentary production and will travel to South America or South East Asia to complete my documentary production. There are many interesting elective topics as well as great required courses that will help anyone wishing to work in documentary."

"Pros of the program are getting to work with great faculty, who have deep passion and knowledge of the doxumentary film industry. Also, the courses are all hands-on, so I learned extensively how to use new, industry standard equipment to film compelling stories. The con is not getting enough financial aid."

"The pro is that I get to network with students,distinguished faculty, and filmmakers of Hollywood. The con is the tuition of going to the graduate program."

"My graduate program provides a great amount of film production training. It is a wonderful experience having hands-on learning in the classroom while doing independent filmmaking. I am truly satisfied with working with the distinguished faculty and going to networking events that can help me get easy access to film careers."

"Everyone will tell you that you don't need a master's degree to work in film and to a point that is very true. My experience has been different since I did not enter the school with a film production background, but rather came in with some freelance type experience from a tangentially related field. This program is a conservatory type school that allows you to focus in the discipline you would like (directing, cinemetography, editing and sound design). Class size is small and access to professors is phenomenal. Some of the structure of the current program is undergoing changes that I feel will benefit the incoming students and will take the focus off of time consuming intro level busy work and start prepping students to deal with larger productions and working together right off the bat. Orange is...a suburb and doesn't have much going for it other than that. The area is nice, everything is pretty safe and pretty bland. BUT LA is just a short ride north and most students migrate to LA by their third year in program to take advantage of the city and the work opportunities. As with any graduate program you will only get out as much as you put into it. Work hard, play hard and get to know as many people as possible so that you can build a network among fellow filmmakers who will be jumping into the real world after school ends."

"One of the tops films schools in the world and a beautiful campus. Financial Aid for grad students could be better."