Flashpoint Academy

Sara Former Student, 20-Nov-2008
Just for the record, I am not I former student. I just recently went for a tour of the school. It seems to be a fairly solid program, they have great equipment and offer a hands on approach. It seems like practical move when thinking of a "paying" career in film. Although regardless, I have a few concerns. First off, their not accredited. Second their expensive. I don't care if it's a new a school and they expect to be accredited within the next few years. But I personally wont sink $50,000 into a two year program where all I get is a worthless certificate. It's not even a legit associates degree! While I think the skills and experience gained by working with the great equipment they do have can be valuable and beneficial, I just don't think it's worth paying 50k for it. This school talks about their program as if their the only school with this "hands on" philosophy, I've seen many technical schools that offer a similar hands on experience, that IS actually accredited, and costs 30-40k less. Another thing that concerns me is that Flashpoint doesn't have any detailed course descriptions on their website and when I went to the tour they didn't have much else to say about their film program other than what the website already told me. It seemed the teachers weren't even quite sure of what to talk about during the presentation, they just said the same things over and over again. "Our hands on philosophy is logical... we really THINK our students will be able to find a job upon graduation, look, we have the matrix system in our classrooms.. you don't have to take notes! blah blah blah" Their so-called informative DVD provides very little (if any) additional information. Don't even bother going to the tour, everything you need to know is on their website. If your seriously considering a career in film, go to a traditional university. If your looking at a technical school, then do your research and make sure you make the most of your money. I do not recommend Flashpoint to anybody, again great skills and experience, great equipment.. but I have yet to see or hear anything that has convinced me that Flashpoint offers a solid education overall that makes spending the 50k actually worth it. Flashpoint is simply... flashy.