It’s common knowledge on campus that the undergraduate film major is nearly impossible to get into at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. The major only accepts 15 students out of the over 500 applicants each year, as well as 15 transfer students. Despite these statistics, many applicants are still convinced that they’ll be a part of that slim three percent.
“I made it to the first round of interviews,” said third-year economics student Sunny Tripathy, about last year’s application. “I felt the interview went pretty well … I had them cracking up.”
Tripathy was one of only 30 that made it through to the interview portion of the application, and left feeling very confident. Steven Wilson, a fourth-year Design | Media Arts student, was pretty self-assured after his interview as well.
The film school, which first-year students cannot apply to, requires several essays, completion of prerequisite courses and an interview with the faculty. Students who are accepted into the program take only film classes throughout their third and fourth years.
“I knew how difficult it was to get in,” Wilson said. “But I was very confident, maybe even a little bit cocky.”
Despite their unexpected rejection from the program, both students decided against giving up on their dreams of a career in film and made the time to pursue filmmaking on their own time.
Tripathy has written a script entitled “Legally Brown,” which chronicles two best friends and their struggles, including racial tensions. Much of the script is based on Tripathy’s own life as a young man of Indian heritage.
Using the connections he’d established as an intern at Global Star Films and MGM, he was able to find a producer to sign on to it. It is now in pre-production, and the producer is shopping it to studios including 20th Century Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures.
“We want to produce it independently, and distribute it with a large studio,” Tripathy said. “We’re talking about Dev Patel for the lead, but that still could change.”
Tripathy is currently working on several other projects and recently finished a reality TV spoof called “Keeping Up With the Guptas.”
Wilson has found his success right here on campus. He collaborated with friend and filmmaker Jordan Dunn to make a short called “Nice Guys.” The film won Best Film at last school year’s Campus MovieFest, and went on to the Western Regional Finals.
This school year, Wilson’s submitted film “The Butterfly King” won best film at not only UCLA’s Campus MovieFest competition, but also at the Western Regional Finals. The film, starring UCLA theater students, details the heartbreak of a young actor as he performs in a school play. As part of the reward for winning the festival, Wilson and his collaborating filmmakers got to visit the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
As a senior in high school, Wilson’s short films had won first place at YoungArts Week, a program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. As one of the top submissions in the nation, he was flown to Miami for a week-long workshop where he won $10,000 for being one of the most successful students.
“It was pretty much a huge confidence boost,” Wilson said.
Both students felt that their previous experiences and achievements would solidify their acceptance into the major. Wilson had applied to the film school early, as a second year. Though he made it to the interview round, he was ultimately rejected. He reapplied as a junior, and said he felt at the time that he would definitely get accepted.
The two were devastated and somewhat stunned when they received e-mails of rejection.
“I opened my e-mail and it was like, boom ““ end of the world,” Tripathy said. “I’d done everything right … and now I was entering junior year and I had nothing. It was pretty much my low point.”
In addition to being upset, Wilson read the e-mail with a sense of surprise.
“When I got the letter of rejection, I was actually just more shocked than anything,” Wilson said. “The main interviewer made it seem like I’d had a really strong interview. … It basically just sounded like she was telling me I got into the film school.”
After the initial disappointment, however, Wilson and Tripathy persevered. The film projects of these two students show that film school is not a prerequisite for exposure in the field. School of Theater, Film and Television professor Hal Ackerman said he realizes the advantages of the school, but agrees that it is not essential to success.
“While there are many benefits to going here, no one should realistically think it guarantees anything except debt,” Ackerman said. “Among those value-added benefits acquired are the skills learned, the friends and contacts made, the good habits imbued.”
With or without film school, the drive to succeed is key.
“I’m going to do this anyway, no matter what,” Tripathy said.