Q&A ON STUDENTS AT THE EUROPEAN FILM COLLEGE
Q: How many students join the program every year?
A: About 110 students join the program every year. The vast majority of them (more than 90) live on campus and a handful count as so called day students. They live close to the college but join all meals at the college.
Q: How many students apply to The European Film College every year?
A: The number varies a bit, but we receive approximately twice as many applications as we have places.
Q:How many female students and how many male?
A: In the current intake we have approximately 30% female students and 70 % male students. The year before we had 45% female students and 55% male students. The numbers vary a bit from year to year but we aim to have an equal number of female and male students since this seems to support a good atmosphere at the college!
Q: How many Danes and how many foreigners?
A: According to Danish law at least 50% of the students (at any given time during the program period) must be Danish in order for the college to get state subsidy. To live up to this we allocate 55% of the places for Danes and 45% for foreigners.
Q: What is the average age of the students?
A: 90% of our students are between 19 and 25 years old. The last 10% are between 25 and 30 years old. The Danish students tend to be a bit younger than the foreigners. The awareness of age differences is always big at the beginning of the program, because the youngest of our students are afraid to seem too young and the older ones fear that they are too mature. After a couple of weeks this anxiety has vanished because the question of age difference is pushed into the background by all the things that our students have in common. We can assure you that you'll leave the EFC with friends that are both younger and older than you - because you share a common interest in films which is much more unifying than age!
Q: How much experience does the average student have with filmmaking?
A: This is very difficult to answer since some applicants have no practical experience with filmmaking and others have worked as runners or assistants in small productions before applying to the college. In the beginning of the program this difference in experience has a limited significance in courses and projects but within a couple of months the difference is almost evened out. Opposed to what one might think there is not a precise correlation between pre-EFC film experience and a successful film-production at the EFC. The development and making of a film is very much a matter of good team spirit and hard work and this can be achieved with both some and no previous experience.
Q: How much film knowledge do I need to have to apply?
A: You don't need to have any practical or theoretical experience to apply, but we expect you to have a curious and inquisitive approach to film.
Q: How do you choose among the applicants?
A: The two dominant factors have to do with nationality and gender, since we need to have at least 50% Danish students, and also aim to have an equal number of female and male students. Then age plays a role - we would like to accommodate the individual students as much as possible in our teaching and this is only possible if the group is to some extent homogeneous. Your personal letter of motivation plays an important part as well - not only the amount of documented experience but just as much your curiosity and eagerness to learn!
Q: How are the students coupled in double rooms?
A: Students are put together gender-wise and with a Dane and a foreigner in each double room. Since there is a minor majority of Danes a few of them are room-mates. We do not allow students who know each other beforehand to couple up because it obviously conflicts with the overall idea of getting to know new people.
Q: How often does it happen that room-mates split up?
A: Contrary to what most applicants think this rarely happens. On an average basis we have 1-3 room-mate couples changing rooms every year.
And in many cases this is not because they have a conflict but based on practical matters - different sleeping habits etc.
Q: How are the students put together in crews during the project period?
A: During the first half of the program the faculty puts together the crews for film projects. This is done on the basis of the technical skills that the students have acquired through courses in camera, lighting and editing (obviously every crew needs someone who is able to do this). In the second half of the program students put together the crews themselves - backed up by the faculty.
Q: Where do the EFC students go after the college stay?
A: This is impossible to say both because we need a systematic aggregation of alumni information, but mostly because our students go into every possible aspect of creative business. What we can say is that we know from evaluations that more than 90% of the students who leave the EFC state that they want to work with film in some way. We have an impressive number of former students in film schools, film production companies, design bureaus etc.
We encourage our students to be explicit with any specific film-related area that they would like to aim for - e.g. animation, set design, sound post-production or adaptation - to make sure that we support this as much as possible through their stay.
Q: Will I get a diploma/certificate when I leave the EFC?
A: Being a folk high school we cannot issue exam diplomas and we do not award marks. When you leave the college you will get a diploma documenting your stay and as a foreign student you can also have an EU-issued certificate (Europass) documenting which courses you have taken and how many hours of teaching each course has comprised.
More info about Europass
