I was in Remo’s class, thanks to VFS he is one of the people that I became really good friends with and highly respect as an individual and as an artist. Everything Remo has said in his review is great advice. If you are considering VFS pay close attention to this review and try to be real honest and realistic to yourself.
Of course every student’s experience is going to vary from one person to another. Remo is by no means the worst, and his experience is by no means exaggerated. In fact due to his dedication and hard work I think his outcome was one of the more positive experiences out of VFS. As for myself, I took the 3d animation stream. Started off with an amazing teacher, by the time we were graduating to the ant farm, we got introduced to our new teacher and that was the end of the useful input I was getting from that school. To keep my comments short I will say this.
The experience at VFS for me at least was a good one but not because of the school itself and it was not worth my $50k investment (20K for living expense for one year). In my opinion VFS provided an environment where ambitious students with common passion would unit under one roof. Without my fellow classmates the experience at VFS would have been garbage. When half your class is paying $30k and the other half $50K(international students) in tuition fees, as a learning institution you owe them a few things.
You owe them nice facilities, you owe them descent computers and monitors, but most of all you owe them good teachers that love their job and are committed to you and can give you better advice then “look at more reference”. VFS had a few good teachers, don’t get me wrong but that’s just not good enough. So the harsh reality is this: VFS is a business that is making 30 to 50k *30 students every 2 months, for one program. By the time you are ready to graduate you will have met 5 classes that were ahead of you and 5 others that came after you, and each one of those classes is generating about 30 demo reels that wants to find their place in the industry.
Samer S.
2.23.09
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
