26 Met Film School reviews

Its fun so far but i get lost sometimes and i miss a lot of lesson time

Spaces aren’t exactly big enough for our type of course. All the good facilities shown to us on the open day we haven’t even been to once since we started, over 18 months ago.

They have a good school councillor who is lovely and easy to talk to.

The course isn’t exactly what was advertised and I don’t feel fully supported. However I have enjoyed some of it.

16

We’ve been put in contact with good people and had career plan support

No

Met Film School’s facilities are very good. They have a decent number of adaptable classrooms, designed to cater to any need that students might have while studying it’s filmmaking courses. As the undergraduate courses cover every aspect from pre-production to post production, the spaces are designed to work as writers‘ rooms, shooting spaces and anything else students might need. There are also some more dedicated spaces, like post production classes with desktop set-ups, larger spaces for sound and cinematography exercises, a number of small edit suites for working on personal projects, a theatre room and a sound suite. The school also has access to one of Ealing Studios’ sound stages, which students can potentially use, I was fortunate enough to shoot a project I was working on in the sound stage. The school also has it’s own kitroom, where all the school’s equipment is processed, stored and maintained. The school owns a decent amount of cameras and industry standard lighting equipment, which is bolstered by a complement of equipment from a leading equipment rental company. This kit can be booked by students, for free, to take and work on personal projects. Students are able to take the kit to work on projects anywhere in the UK. For me, I found the facilities available to be excellent and was always able to secure any space or equipment necessary to school or personal projects with ease.

I think that the support that the school offers was ok while I was attending the university, but it wasn’t clear how to access that support. In terms of academic support, once we had completed a module, submitted our coursework and moved on to the next module, if we wanted further feedback on our work that was more than we got in the feedback for our coursework, it was very difficult to get that, as oftentimes the tutor who had taught us and marked the worked was working freelance with the school and had moved on to a job outside of the school, likely in the film and tv industry, and so getting the feedback desired is difficult. The personal support offered is superb, but again wasn’t completely clear to the students while I was studying at the university. The school did begin to make changes to its support structure as my peers and I were coming to the end of our course, however we didn’t get to see if these changes rectified the issues We had as students as we had graduated before these changes came into effect.

The university is in a great location in terms of distance to accommodation and local amenities, it’s 10 minutes walk from the local high street and shopping mall, with a number of shops and restaurants very close by. There is a private student accommodation 5 minutes walk away. A number of bus stops nearby, a number of which the free UWL bus stops at, which Met Film Students can use. The film school is also nestled right between two tube stations, Ealing Broadway and South Ealing, both 15 minutes walk away at most.

The thing I like the most about the way the course was taught is that it is incredibly practical, we are taught enough theory to be able to understand what and why we are being taught the practical exercises that we are being taught. Another thing I like is that everybody that conducts the teaching is or has been a professional within the film and tv industry and the practical knowledge that we are being given is applicable knowledge that gives us an edge when we enter the industry ourselves. What I liked the least was that some projects that are group projects can be experiences that are made more difficult for students that are fully engaged and committed to the project by students who do not have the same level of engagement. I recognise that this is an issue that is inherent with group projects in most universities and isn’t something unique to Met Film School, but it can impact Student’s learning.

18-30

The film and tv industry is incredibly competitive and the school teaches the practical aspects of each part of filmmaking, this inherently boosts our employability over students that graduate from other universities that provide more academic style courses. The school also has its own careers department of sorts, called Met Film Futures, that all students and graduates are automatically signed up for. Met Film Futures sends out a list of opportunities for work paid and unpaid, from a range of sources, be that the school itself, students at the school, filmmakers in need of crew or companies that reach out to the school looking to recruit graduates. I myself and a number of my peers have secured work, internships and other opportunities that we found through Met Film Futures.

Met film school provides outstanding facilities. They have state-of-the-art computers, editing rooms, disabled access, nice and clean toilets and a cafeteria. The classrooms are spacious and adapted to student work. They provide decent enough cameras for the students to work with, alongside with sound equipment and lights. They constantly update and renovates facilities to make sure they're at their best at all times.

Met film school offers goods supplied both academic and personal. They have posters around the school notifying people that are always there for you if you need to speak to someone. They have posters advertising groups about well-being. Tutors give really in depth and personal feedback and it feels like they care about the work that you do. Met film school have a promise where they will always support a student even after they graduate. So far I have been very satisfied by the support I've been given.

London is a big city compared to the town I come from and it could be disorientating for someone isn't used to living in such a big city. I personally live close to the university so I don't spend time and money on travelling. I only go into London when I need to do something like watch a film or buy some clothes. The place I live in Ealing is a far away from central London so I wouldn't know what the city life is like.

What I like most about my course is that there is enough time between the school years where we get to do our own thing. They teach us different types of media, content creation and genres of film. We go from short films, to documentaries, episodic content to feature films. The teachers are really helpful and I felt like I could rely on them. Met Film School provides independency but sometimes I feel it's a bit too much. My least favourite thing about it is the amount of money I need to spend outside of the yearly fees. It feels like they don't cover any of the practical work and I have to pay for projects I get marked on.

24

Met Film School provides a platform for students to be employed easier by sending out emails daily for job opportunities in the industry. They don't offer placements but they provide opportunities for the students to work within the school. They have an outreach program which is designed for alumni to talk about their experience attend events and earn money. They work closely with University of West London which have 95% of employment rate a year after graduation. They offer internships at the school and give everyone an equal opportunity.

The University facilities and equipment have improved a lot since I left. The buildings have been renovated, there are more editing and sound studios and the quantity and quality of the equipment have improved too.

The support is good. Some teachers they accompany your progress and they are always there to help you. I am still in contact with some of them.

London is an amazing city that circles around culture. So it is an extraordinary place with loads of opportunities for film, tv, theatre and media industries. The school is located in the heart of Ealing Studios, one of the eldest studios in London that still operates as a film studio to the present day, so it is common to see actors and producers walking next to the school. Ealing is a safe, calm residential area, with loads of restaurants and bars. It is not too quiet but also not too hectic like central London, so it is an amazing place to live. Even after I left Met, I still live in Ealing.

Positives: Good teachers, interesting course structure, interconnection between different departments in the Industry Project and Moving Camera course, great network between students, quality and variety of film equipment have improved positively. Negatives: I wish there were more events to connect students. When I was in the school I was part of the student body and we organised many cultural and social events. Now there aren't many, however the career masterclasses have increased and improved so I am very happy about that.

35

Hello, I am Sara and I studied the MA Directing, MAF06, at Met Film School London. I think the school educated the students with all the important tools to face the film, TV and new media industries. I had the opportunity to work with people from different departments (cinematography, production, screenwriting) and have a feel of what the industry demanded while I was studying. The school also gives opportunities to work in companies and masterclasses to engage with Oscar nominated and great professionals currently in the industry. Finally the school provided a networking platform and contacts that I will carry for the rest of my life. I am still in touch with the school, the students and professors. We are like a family, so I am glad that I have studied at Met.

Being uniquely based on film studio grounds, Met has its own studio that students get to use even for personal projects if in collaboration with a cine student. This is an insane asset! Personally I would wish for more study/meeting space as the cafeteria is always packed and there is no library to speak of. Met is still a growing school but in what it lacks they offer access to University of West London's facilities. The deal Met recently made with Procam is one of the many improvements that the school is constantly under.

My tutor offered amazing support all through my uni life and even after! I was able to get one-on-one sessions to discuss projects and even my future after graduation. I know Met also offers technical support for editing, sound, anything that the students ask for really. They also have an in-house therapist available for students through booking.

London is a great city with something for everyone. Ealing is not exactly in the center of attention but Central line takes you to Soho easy peasy.

The structure of the MA program worked really well for me; starting from theory to bring everyone on the same level and then delving straight into practical work. We got to work with actors, dollys, industry professionals... The only thing I would say has room for improvement is the structure of the Industry Projects, as my year was a record high number of projects and the school wasn't quite ready to accommodate this unexpected event. Communication in this module wasn't clear, differing from all other modules.

35

Met is an extremely practical university and offers career advice and a mailing list of job opportunities in the industry, not only for students but also alumni. The courses prepare you for working on a professional film set with professional equipment.

Lots of equipment to use if we needed. Generally really good.

The support was really good, Sarah has been great in helping me to find opportunities. Generally the tutors were great and gave really helpful notes, although some were more useful than others which is to be expected. I didn't make use of the counselling, but I knew there was some available if I needed it.

London is obviously a great place to be, with lots of opportunities for young filmmakers.

Tutors gave helpful notes and we were encouraged to share our ideas. There were lots of useful courses and I genuinely learnt a lot about screenwriting. There could have been more opportunities to get us working with the other filmmakers, and I felt like screenwriters were overlooked slightly for directors and producers.

35

Sarah at Met film futures has been really good at connecting me to useful contacts and helping me to find opportunities. They also regularly send employment information out via email to all met alumni.

A bit run down but overall good condition. I guess they remodeled after my year left!

Honestly, great. my tutor has always been very helpful and supportive through my entire program. You can really feel his drive to make the school a better place, and in turn making us care a bit more about the school and our place there.

Ealing has a small town feel, which is great to espace to front he bigger London city feel. Relaxing to go to a school that isn’t in the thick of it all.

I love how hands on they are but sometimes we would just be left to our own devices without enough training and things would turn sour, but I guess we ended up learning a lot in those instances so it may not have been such a bad thing.

30

There is a strong emphasis on real world training as well as a plethora of job opportunities that hit our email inboxes everyday. Not many unis do that, and it’s incredible.

The cafe is good, it has been refurbished recently. The rooms are in dire need of sound proofing and modernisation. The kit room need more updated equipment and need to fix the equipment better as a lot of it is broken or simply does not work.

The tutors like I previously stated are kind and personable and approachable. They offer support and help when you need it and when you ask they help on jobs. Counselling has been a blessing I went through a very hard couple of years, and through counselling I have seen a way out of the dark and a way into a new way of thinking about myself

City life is good, lots of things to do and lots of things to see. Being from a seaside town, the city is dazzling and dull of magic

The course gave me the confidence to stand up for myself, the other students can be quite ego driven so you need a voice to be a contender. The bad thing I would possible say is that the courses can be very camera and less on sound and sound editing. Also the rooms are not sound proofed so filming exercises in class is difficult. The tutors are great, full of experience and are personable and are easier to go to and ask for help and advice.

56

MetFilm gives you the skills to get into the industry. However it would have been good is the university had am intern programme with Ealing Studios or with a studio in Central London, to work side by side with a professional and deepen the skills you already possess. MET staff are very friendly and down to earth and they state again and again that they will stay with their students and I have no doubts that is true.