In this week’s blog, we review Lights Film School.
School: Lights Film School
URL: https://www.lightsfilmschool.com/
Average Completion Time: 3-6 months (advertised).
LFS course curriculum consists of text, proprietary video lectures, and curated YouTube videos that educate or reinforce skills. These are grouped as six modules and broken down by film-making phases (i.e., screenwriting, cinematography, editing, etc.). Communication with staff and between students occurs via a SLACK messenger channel. Following each (major) module, there’s a student (hands-on) assignment. Each of the five assignments are assessed and reviewed by one the instructors:
Script treatment (10-page maximum)
Director/camera exercise (essentially, a micro-short)
Submit a cinematography portfolio for your final assignment
Review an assigned foreign film
Submit your own 10-minute short film, documentary, or extract of your work
In short, you really get what YOU put into this online course. I've seen final product that is obviously rushed and looks incomplete. Perhaps they wanted to finish to avoid a renewal or simply wanted a certificate to show off to friends? For this reason, if someone mentions they went to film school - my #1 ask is now "let me see your completed work."
From registering to submission of my final assignment, it took 10 months as filming for my final assignment included travel across the states. What was the end result of my time at LFS? A completed script (assignment 1), a dark comedy micro-short film (assignment 2), and a thirty-minute documentary (final assignment). All of which, were reviewed with instructor feedback. LFS offers two assignment tracks (narrative or documentary). But overall, the course lessons are primarily tailored to narrative film-making. Given we haven’t made a documentary and based on one of the instructor’s background, we chose the latter. This does not preclude one from creating a narrative, micro-short and submitting it as their second assignment. In fact, I wrote, shot and acted in a one-man short simply to get feedback on cinematography from a narrative-perspective. That micro-short, A Broken Oath, and the assignment details are broken down in our blog.
Pros:
Instructors and staff respond to questions fairly quickly via SLACK. The staff really want to help and try to guide their students toward success.
Their SLACK app networking utility - "Donut" is a great idea. (More on this later.)
The optional ability to re-work and re-submit for a second review is inexpensive ($50 additional fee).
LFS' provides quite a few PDF workbooks that enforce lessons, in addition to an educational blog.
Cons:
Although there is a 10-day turnaround time, submitted assignments are routinely reviewed late. I only mention this if you are expecting to incorporate their feedback for an upcoming festival in a time crunch. It has been experience, as well as reviewing other students’ critiques, that the major focus of grading is story and continuity rather cinematography/lighting. Keep that in mind when submitting assignments.
With the exception of some outgoing personalities, I found the online community to be sadly non-existent. Most folks didn't want to chat on the “Donut” networking tool despite being registered and others (including Alumni) leverage the student forum for their own marketing purposes. This isn’t really a ‘con’ against LFS rather just an observation on those who attend and was a significant factor for me closing my account post graduation. One of the biggest reasons that I selected LFS was due to the potential for networking, which a lot of folks say is the true benefit of attending an accredited film school. LFS provides the tools, but doesn’t really require student collaboration. Perhaps, they could require students to review each others’ works as an additional assignment?
If you watch a lot of filmmaking YouTube videos, there’s a high probability that you’ve already seen some of their curated videos. This was a bit surprising to me as I sadly realized how much of my time is spent online.
Verdict? In my opinion, it was definitely worth it given LFS was the birthing canal for our documentary. Its curriculum is on par with other online film schools and tuition probably costs less than the all the coffee I’d buy while attending an on-campus film school. The true value is having your work reviewed by an experienced practitioner. As you may know, it’s quite hard to get actionable feedback (if any) on your work - this is a great medium for that. Students should really take their time, practice their craft, and experiment. This is a safe place to make mistakes, as well as a resource for creating your vision! Just be sure to take your time. Don’t rush your assignments and sacrifice quality.