How it All Started

A HISTORY OF THE LOS ANGELES FILM SCHOOL

In the spring of 1999, a group of Hollywood professionals with a love for all things film founded The Los Angeles Film School. Their goal was to establish a film school where current film industry professionals could share their knowledge of film production with a new generation of aspiring filmmakers.

The Los Angeles Film School set up its home in the heart of Hollywood, at the historic RCA Building located at 6363 Sunset Boulevard. The building had previously been used as a recording studio by legendary artists such as Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Henry Mancini, and John Williams, who recorded the orchestral score to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi there in 1983.

From its first moments, The Los Angeles Film School’s commitment to education and promoting the art of filmmaking has been paramount. During the inauguration ceremony, guest speaker Oliver Stone (Platoon, JFK, Natural Born Killers) set the bar when he said of the school, “Directors may rise and fall. Actors may wither and die. But great film schools last forever.”

Other renowned film industry professionals have visited The Los Angeles Film School over the years, including Wes Craven, Martin Landau, Spike Jonze, Nick Nolte, Paul Verhoven, Rob Minkoff, Bonnie Bruckheimer, Faye Dunaway, Vicky Jenson, Steven Kemper, Timothy Dalton, Billy Bob Thornton, Julie Taymor... and the list continues to grow each year.

Since its inception, The Los Angeles Film School has been dedicated to using some of the most current industry standard film equipment in its classrooms, labs, and soundstages. In 2000, The Los Angeles Film School opened the first fully digital High Definition Dolby Surround, THX-Certified Theater at any school in the world. To christen the new theater, director Philip Noyce (Dead Calm, Patriot Games) held a prescreening of his film The Bone Collector, starring Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington.

The Los Angeles Film School’s promise to keep on the cutting edge of the film industry has also extended to its faculty. With credits on films like The Matrix, Spider-Man, Fight Club, Chasing Amy, Blade Runner, Gremlins, Back to the Future, Jerry Maguire, Batman, just to name a few, the teachers and staff at The Los Angeles Film School bring years of knowledge and experience to the school's classrooms, soundstages, and labs. Sharing their experiences in the art of cinematography, directing, editing, producing, production design, creative writing, sound design, and anything else they might think is important, the faculty of The Los Angeles Film School continues to be second to none.

THE LOS ANGELES FILM SCHOOL TODAY

The art of storytelling has evolved, and today the only limit to the movies, games and media we make is our imagination. The Los Angeles Film School remains committed to providing the best possible education to storytellers looking to start their careers creating animation, film, video games and audio.

Keeping up with the ever-changing entertainment industry is a constant mission, and that’s why The Los Angeles Film School has expanded both its campus and curriculum. Today the school offers three Associate of Science Degree Programs in Film, Game Production, Computer Animation, and Recording Arts, and has added more than a dozen new classrooms, four new soundstages, thousands of feet of production area, and lots of new computers and gear, in a commitment to providing the best possible environment for learning.

All of these elements have gone into creating a school that truly celebrates the world of storytelling in it’s many forms, and shows why The Hollywood Reporter called The Los Angeles Film School “One of the best-equipped private learning centers in the country.”