Video Symphony

Jodie Former Student, 30-Sep-2009
When it comes to the learning tools, I think this school is excellent. 80% of the classes were hands on, while the rest were just lecture. In my time, the class sizes were in fact shorter, HOT Time scheduling was easier and teachers had more time to answer your questions. I was lucky enough not to be in the cohort plan which consists on larger classes, harder scheduling and busy teachers but the worst part bigger competition for job placement. The tools you receive from the school is in fact valuable, the money's worth questionable $30,000 for the Avid Editing Program. When you are in school you don't see the dollar bill sign that will haunt you, especially if your parents pay. But when it's graduation time and the bill goes up, that's when it hits hard. The reality is there is good Editing and Assistant Editing jobs out there, but unfortunately the number of job seekers is greater that amount, because inclusively several better prepared and experienced techs and instructors from that school compete for the same job as well without you knowing. When leads get sent to you it gets sent to 50 other people that's when the competition grows high and the seekers get desperate for the no pay jobs, these Post Production Companies take advantage of. You do have to get off your butt and look for the jobs out there with your resume, reel and Certificates at hand, but sometimes that doesn't cut it. Save your money, but FCP or AVID learn at home, get connections, build your reel. And you'll have money left over.

Nameless Former Student, 09-Apr-2009
I would strongly recommend not going to this school. Some of the teachers are excellent, but the end result is that you will not find a decent paying job. *$28,000 -> or $33,000 if you take loans. Is more than a semester at an Ivy League school. After 6 months after graduation you must pay roughly $725/month in loans for roughly 3 years. So basically you will be broke for 3 years unless you are extremely lucky (less than 1%, to qualify for this 1% you must be a women) in finding a job that you will be paid. Spend that money, get a real job, become a dental hygienist. *The job placement they will give you will of course be entry level into a no-low skill level jobs. *If you are a women, you might find work, because the field is roughly dominated or demanded by 80% men. *Their job placement, which I was offered two jobs, was 1) $15/hr job, and 2) $12/hr job. Now, how are you suppose to pay back your loans reasonably? Most people got their loans paid off by their parents eventually (yes, even 35 year olds since the interest is so high). *Even if you are a top student, there is no way to disseminate yourself from the other students through a grading system. Sort of like the casting process, there are a lot of bad actors, or wrong kind of actors for the part, so there is no casting process as per se with this school. Let me ask you this, how would an employer know how good of a student you are if there is no grading system. *Old, or foreign students. The median age for students who go to videosymphony are in their 30s (roughly I'd say is 33-35 yrs old). Which is backed by the high cost of living that LA and or Burbank offers. There are plenty of foreign students who will pay anything to get a student visa, however they will find it very hard to get a job due to the fact they need a work visa. This school does not attract young, top talent. *If you are a hot woman, 40 years or younger, you will find work. And possibly good work, however, even after speaking with a retired post sup, she even said, "Hollywood likes its women young and tready." I imagine once you get into your 40s, or late 50s, unless you have a great resume, you will find it difficult to have a family, or to late to have a family. *Don't plan on having a family. The hours are very long, and often not paid for. Don't expect a job that pays overtime. If you do, keep it. *The 14 month professional program can be completed in 8 months if done at a full-time, break-neck pace. And since there are no tests, you can fly by. *Avid is an outdated product slowly being run by final cut pro for apple, a significantly inferior product for efficacy and multi-layered effects. So the majority of the skills you learn for avid, while most high end shows are being cut on Avid at the moment, you won't get those jobs, not even close. *It will take you 6 months or more to find a job in post production. I would say overall that 50% of students find decent work in 6 months. By decent, I mean work that pays more than $17-$20/hr. *There is a reason they don't tell you how much you will make upon graduation. For instance, for any other serious profession they tell you exactly how much you will make. *The work in editorial is sporadic. Most freelancers only work %50 of the time. Seems like a huge waste. Now with the recession, and since companies cut entertainment first in the budget (or advertisement), I don't even want to imagine the compeition out there. Just remember, if you turn this into a career, there will be other recessions in the future, and also, bad patches of work. *If you do get a job editing, it will be trash. Think actor's reels. *You have no job security. Since you are entering a highly desired field to work, and one that now requires not a lot of skill to work in, you will have constant high compeition for your job. *A majority of people who work in the entertainment businesses are huge dicks. *If the school is so good, why don't the studios come to find students for work? They don't because the field is already flooded with the supplied workforce required. They don't want or need a highly skilled person for this job. Highly skilled means they will have to paid more money for these skills, they don't want that. *You are not the only one who has traveled far to LA. Everyone who comes to LA has a purpose, or selfish need, just like you. *There is no glamour in post production, a lot of grit. *People and the employers will rip you off in pay. Not being paid in a timely manner is a common occurrence in post production. (By the time production is wrapped, most productions have no money left to pay for post for low-budget to no-budget movies. As a result you will get paid low-to-no pay. We’re not talking about a highly educated field producing movies here that plan and prepare proper accounting; that comes later many years later when you have the qualifications to work for a studio, and even those are fading now today with the advent of New Media.) *The biggest issue, which is the most silent and the most overlooked, is that you are entering a Technical Field. The microprocessor is doubling in power (twice as many semiconductors within the chip) every two years; this is referred to as Moore’s Law. So two years from now, the computer chips of today will have twice as many transistors in them, meaning they are twice as fast, and in four years, twice as much, so forth.) So… let’s think, in 10 years computers will be 32 times less reliant on external hardware (such as Avid) (and in 8 years 16 times). Imagine that. The computer you have now for the same cost will be 16 times better in 8 years. All editing is done on computers; you are trying to get a job with computers. What I’m saying is, editing will become more software based as the hardware becomes better at an accelerating rate, so Avid will be obsolete in several years, since it’s primary brand is to be hardware based. I don’t want to go into more technical’s, but you can’t turn Avid into a career. Look at Microsoft, they are software based, not hardware. *I’ve heard of some limited success with Motion Graphics, but you have to be good, fast, and creative. Again, no life or family, and all the other negatives included. They will probably pay you decent pay (40k or more, again, especially if you are a woman) but this decent pay (which is really not super great) will be offset by the high cost of living and housing market in Los Angeles, so again, this is not really worth it. Don't get me wrong, the whole experience is not negative, and I imagine some of you have a great passion (you've traveled long distances to LA to work in entertainment, your employers know this, you are trapped, and the high cost of living makes it harder). This passion might inhibit reason, which is why most reasonable people who seek to further their education stay home and go to local universities or colleges for a fraction of Videosymphony to get a guaranteed well-paying job. Save your time and money, get a real job that maximizes your skills, potential, and abilities. So let's recap: Only go to Videosymphony if you want to get a low paying, no overtime, no family job, will be obsolete in 5 years, that you will have to find yourself. I would say good luck, but you are going to need a miracle. I hope I just saved you $28 or $33 grand.

Craig Current Student, 01-Jan-2009
Video Symphony is a very solid instituion. I've been there for just over a year and can attest that as someone who worked in the industry while taking the program, 90% of the classes offered in the Professional program are vitally important for a serious editor. The truth and most valuable thing the teachers can do for you is to not treat you as a student; moat treat you as a coworker and therein lies the reason some students struggle and leave with a bitter taste in their mouth because they are not hireable. Overall, an excellent place and environment to learn Avid and get a very honest picture of whether or not you are percieved as a professional.

Rob Current Student, 16-Nov-2008
Video Symphony has three programs. One for pro-tools audio editing, one for motion graphics and the Avid video editing program. I can only comment on the latter, but I have been very disappointed in my experience with Video Symphony. While their Avid designed courses are good, the bulk of the program consists of Video Symphony designed courses which with a few exceptions, are rather poor. The teachers are largely former video symphony graduates with moderate industry experience. There is a pronounced negativity and arrogance to the school. They seem more interested in beating you down than teaching. (One class dedicated over an hour to discussing divorce and alimony!) Their promises of job placement are largely smoke and mirrors. Too much of the equipment is old and unreliable. The support staff ranges from unhelpful to outright rude. Scheduling has been an interesting problem as some of the AVID designed courses required for both graduation from the school and the AVID certification exam were not even offered nor scheduled in my case and trying to move classes around or customize your schedule in any way won't receive much help from the school. Despite advertising small class sizes and supposedly being required to maintain such by AVID, Video Symphony has started booking much larger groups and personal attention from instructors as well as post-class Hands On (HOT) time is increasingly difficult to come by. Don't plan to have part-time work or much of a life outside of school either. The class hours bounce unpredictably all over the map and can change with very little notice. This school is absurdly expensive and there is no way what you receive justifies the expense.

Emma Current Student, 08-May-2008
Video Symphony is a great school. They show concern towards the student and their learning progress, and quality control towards teachers is a big issue to them that's why students need to complete a survey after every class. There are several few that give you a source of intimidation and arrogance towards their class that makes you scared to ask questions or add comments (Like the Effects teacher, Tracy), but most of them are pleasant and helpful instructors especially the Job Placement Teacher, Brad and 104 instructors Jenee and Kevin. They Also encourage alot of networking towards students, the more student friends you have the better. And the Students are generally nice people and pleasant to talk to, you just cannot be shy it can cost you. Yes sometimes they do disagree on the AVID Concepts which can lead to confusion. But overall I assume that the instructor encourages the student to use the AVID what works best for them, like customizing keyboards and bins. There is really no wrong answer. The Tech Group helps you alot when it comes to HOT Time especially the lead Tech, some of the newer inexperienced ones can seem a bit bothered to help you attitude wise. But I still do recommend this school, you really can't find a school where all the Staff members are squeaky nice, it's unrealistic. As long as most of them are pleasant and they are, I have been here over 3 months...so far so good.

Gerry Davenport Current Student, 26-Jun-2005
Having some experience in the field but not having any credentials or anything to show --anything that they would except as professionally made -- I was treated as a newcomer and a child. Every class was taught with a degree of arrogance, snobbishness, and a bias based on the instructors little experience. There were a couple that were really good. Instructors never agreed on procedures from class to class, there is plenty of redundancy for those that do not get it the first time--some classes were just extensions of others repeating the same info under a different name. I cannot take anything back, but would I do it again? Hard to say. Do I recommend it? Depends, Do not do the professional program, they throw in classes that one does not need. Also, this is not a film school per se; 85% of what they teach on the AVID is for broadcast TV.