A nonstop filmorama. Students make a number of shorts, then break into groups of four and make a single 16 mm film. Second year, thesis films are shot, and everyone completes a feature length screenplay. Students work with a decent amount of film equipment, some digital video equipment, and several nonlinear editing systems. There is a small sound mixing studio, and digital audio equipment, though occasionally students opt to use the film scoring facilities at the nearby Berklee College of Music.
Most students get some sort of scholarship.
Thanks to its high profile alums and the recent animation wars in Hollywood, this campus is a magnet for studio talent scouts. But CalArts' student body does more than draw pictures. There are course requirements, but from the first day students set their own pace. A conservative bedroom community 45 minutes north of Los Angeles, Valencia is about the last place in the world that purple haired, black clad experimental filmmakers would feel at home, but because this is very much an arts school, they flourish. Columbia offers programs in producing, screenwriting, and directing.