Columbia College Film School Evolves

When walking around the Sloop on a nice day, it's not uncommon to see students on the streets filming. It gives the neighborhood an interesting feel and serves as a testing ground for future technical stars.

On Sunday there was a great story in the Chicago Tribune about Columbia College's attempt to remake it film school:

The cliches of student filmmaking (alarm clocks in opening shots, Tarantino-inspired handguns pointed sideways, etc.) tend to be universal. These days, however, faculty and alumni say they've been noticing more personal-minded, narrative-conscious students at Columbia. None of it comes as a surprise: The school's four-decade-old film program, long a home for documentary filmmaking and nuts-and-bolts technical instruction, is making bold steps toward reinvention. Yet there's a question on the minds of many of those same faculty, alumni and even students: When will it see the respect that other film schools enjoy?