Second City Film School FAQ

Brief video Cover Letter under 5 mins.
Show us who you are! What makes you you? Why do you want to go to film school? We aren’t looking for your first Oscar winning short–a smartphone video will do just fine–whatever helps you tell your story!

Resume
Give us some details about your work and creative experience. Are we looking for your entire work history? Probably not. But don’t hesitate to include that summer you spent working at Dairy Queen if it was the cornerstone of your comedic identity.

Photo
A current photo of yourself. Doesn’t have to be a professional headshot but we would love to see your face.

Work Sample OR Essay
Show us a little of your creative output. If you don’t have any, that’s okay! You can write us an essay that tells us about your creative process, your goals, and why you want to make people laugh through cinematic storytellling.

One Letter of Recommendation
We don’t know you yet, so a single letter of recommendation from someone who does really helps us on the way.

• The one year is fully in person*
• The 2 year part time program is in person but may include a hybrid component depending on both enrollment and desire for it to run.
  
  NOTE: ***Everything is subject to change since it’s still early and the Covid pandemic is still a complicating factor. For anything listed as in-person, that is our intent, but we must follow state/local guidelines for Covid regarding in-person vs. virtual for the safety of our staff and students.

Yes! We will have the same faculty pool for both programs. We can’t guarantee the exact same teacher teaching every single class all of the time – it’s always going to change somewhat. But, the level of teacher excellence and rigor is the same. The only thing different from the one year to two is format. We have created the two year program to accommodate folks who can’t make a one year full time commitment.

Night classes typically run between the hours of 5:30 PM and 10:00 PM and weekend classes typically run in three hour blocks between 10 AM and 3 PM.

The Harold Ramis Film School brand name was retired in Fall, 2021 and in its place The Second City Film School has been launched.

Since The Second City is currently undertaking a transformation, this was the right time for this to happen. This decision is the culmination of years of conversations about how to best deliver film education at The Second City, and we fully believe that this is the best way forward to continue this unique and world-class program.

The biggest changes are in format, there are two tracks now that a potential student can take:

The yearlong filmmaker program is essentially the same with some tweaks based on what we’ve learned over the last five years of running this program.

A new part-time program that takes two years to complete and will be offered on nights and weekends. This is geared toward people with full-time jobs, families, or who have other considerations that would not allow them to participate in the full-time program. 

We have one scholarship available at this time. The Stuart Cornfeld Scholarship which accepted students can apply for in their second session and is based on financial need. Work study is on hold at this time at the Second City.