The Art Institute of Las Vegas Review: How Did They Get This Far?

Today, in my 300 level class (I don't know why they bother to give the classes rank or structure at the school - I'm just months from graduating and I'm taking a 200 level class, and students can take 400 level classes in their 2nd or 3rd quarters), we were given an assignment to fill out some paperwork for our scripts we are planning on shooting.  I already have taken the Production Management and I already had the paperwork filled out (I thought it was due before class started).  Unfortunately, there were some students who didn't even know where to start.

This wasn't because they haven't taken Production Management or any other class that might have given them information on how to do paperwork.  To my knowledge, only one of the students have never taken the class.  Unfortunately, Production Management was offered last quarter.  It was taught by an instructor who, to my knowledge, never has made a short film.  This instructor loves to talk.  I've had him as an instructor.  He'll talk for hours, and I have never heard him once say he's filmed a short film.

There were students in his Production Management class.  They should have known what to do today, but they looked like they had no clue as to what was going on.  I've also heard through the grapevine that one of the students only turned in half of his final project (all the pre-production paperwork for a short film) and he received an "A" on the project.

(Students will take numerous classes in here and won't be competent with tripods after 2 years)

Unfortunately, this is nothing new.  You'll see in other blog posts that classes aren't taught what they should be taught, they are only taught what the instructor feels like and/or whatever knowledge the instructor has on the subject.  The students are set up to fail if the students aren't 100% go-getters and knowledge seekers.  Honestly, though, I can't blame them one bit.  They are putting almost $100,000 into this school and they shouldn't have to go seeking information.  For that amount of money, the information should be professionally delivered.

I have seen plenty of students get good grades on really shoddy work.  I have seen students get better grades than me on work that was last minute and bad compared to mine. 

It would be unfair to expect the student to hustle and catch up to the information s/he needs to complete the class.  Yeah, life isn't fair.  Hush.  Don't be a dick.  When you throw down large amounts of money, I would hope that you expect things to get done correctly. 

On a movie set, if someone is getting paid thousands of dollars, you expect that person to know what they are doing, as is the same in any other field (like your doctor maybe?)  What if your doctor went to operate on you and ran into an organ s/he has never seen before?  And you still had to pay for the surgery even though nothing was done?  That's fair.

List of all the posts I have about my experiences at AILV