Seattle Film Institute — Local services in Seattle

I came from England to study for a Batchelor’s Degree in Filmmaking and I graduated in October 2017 after an intensive one year course of study. I have read and agree with the comments in the reviews of my fellow former students Nathan Hare and Nicky Smit. Like them I award Seattle Film Institute ‘4 stars’. The school is reasonably well-geared up to take foreign students, but the course is taught in English and it is intense. Support of students is good, there is a wide range of equipment available for use, (the vast majority of which works well, despite what some reviewers have said) and the teaching quality is ‘good’ for the most part, ‘very good’ in particular classes and excellent in some other areas. At times the organisational skills of the institution left a little to be desired, but this was not generally the case – for the most part the admin. was good, with some areas ‘needing work’ at times. The ‘atmosphere’ is very good, (well at the odd time or two it wasn’t), and the benefit to be gained from collaborating with one’s fellow students in filmmaking projects is incalculable. I made good friends along the way, who when they are as successful as I expect to be I can call ‘contacts’; hopefully they will think the same of me! All in all a valuable, instructive and enjoyable experience, which I feel is a very good introduction into the world of making films, properly and for real. Four stars, but don't go if you don't like hard work, as that is the key to success at SFI and key to its success as a Film-making / Acting / Composing / Motion Graphics and Sound...

Failing to heed the other bad reviews of SFI online, I took an intro to film making course offered at night and taught by SFI owner operators. It was the most disorganized and inefficient course I've ever taken on anything. The instructor was continuously going off on tangents and failing to demonstrate the basics of film in a manner that had any meaningful impact. In addition, we spent four to five weeks being forced to take home and use very old Super 8 cameras that were all broken in one way or another. The F stops were dysfunctional and mine wouldn't even focus. We actually got to touch more modern cameras only once or twice for very brief periods and received minimal instruction on higher-end cameras--the kind we would actually use if we were serious. Examples of lighting for scenes came once towards the end of the class. Film editing with Premiere was another exercise in futility, malfunctioning equipment, and the usual lack of focus. We did receive a cheap book regarding the rudiments of film-making which was helpful, but the cost of the course was a whopping $795.00. I could have bought a more useful book and used the rest of the money to buy some lighting and other gear. One of the other students and I made a short film using our own iPhones because SFI would not give us one of the higher end cameras that we had already paid for in advance--because it was checked out! We are proceeding to get our money back as...

I very much enjoyed my time here as part of SFI's very first Acting for Film program. We were fortunate to have a great staff of working, Pacific Northwest actors of both film and theatre (many of whom also taught at other schools, including Shoreline Community College and Cornish College of the Arts), as well as an amazing, local casting director. A couple months into the program, the tiny school already felt like home. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, and it was easy to make friends/connections in the lobby with filmmakers, writers, makeup artists, directors, editors, etc. I also highly enjoyed taking part in several of their short film projects.

This school does need improvement in organization, quality of equipment, holding accountability of student project completion, and active response to student evaluation feedback. Since graduation, I have returned to take classes and have seen improvements in some of these aspects, but there is still a long way to go. Nonetheless, I recommend this school for aspiring actors who would enjoy small, intimate classes with one-on-one feedback and making great friends/connections...