In mid-January, Lucia, Lenka, Iris, and Nora from the Prague Film Institute administrative staff spent three days at Gaudeamus, the largest educational fair in the Czech Republic, speaking to prospective students about our filmmaking programs.
From early morning until late afternoon, a steady stream of teens paused at our stand to pick up a leaflet or have a chat about studying in our school. From these casual chats, we had the opportunity to inspire these future filmmakers to pursue their passion by studying film at the higher-education level.
Day after day, some 3000 to 6000 prospective students entered the bustling hall, eyes wide with the thrill of possibility. For the many prospective students who were unsure about their potential career paths (what about law school? what about biology? what about architecture? what about filmmaking?), Gaudeamus offered the unique opportunity to sample all of the 200+ education programs which are on display. For the rare teen who already had their mind set on film, there was only one destination: the bright booth with a giant movie poster and a cinema camera for them to try.
Lucia, as the head of admissions, is accustomed to answering questions about our course through online communications, but she is does not usually have the chance to speak face-to-face with young aspiring filmmakers who want to join our course.
Here is what she says about this experience: “Most film schools claim to deliver hands-on training. But PFI’s long history in teaching on-set proves we ‘practice what we preach.’ It was amazing for me to see how the faces of aspiring filmmakers light up when I mentioned how much time our students spend on shooting and that PFI guarantees internships on film sets. It tells me that we are doing something right.”Meanwhile, four of our current students were in the midst of the action at the busy fair as hired videographers to cover the event.
You can see the video they shot and edited for Gaudeamus here: https://youtu.be/qoj7T9VYISg
