I have "Beauty School Dropout" stuck in my head. Because right now I really want a weird singing man and a band of silver-haired angels to descend on my apartment and give me some advice.
Have I mentioned that its really, really easy to get discouraged by these applications. Columbia opened today (its a long shot for sure...go big or go home?) and while in my head, I thought my directing reel needed to be 10-15 minutes, they want something that's 15-20 minutes. Mine is 12. I honestly don't have enough usable footage to make it 15 minutes.
Since I'm less than five years out of undergrad, they *require* that one of my recommenders be a professor from my undergrad. The only two professors who I would have truly liked to keep in contact with retired during my final semester in college, when I was in Los Angeles. I have been unable to find their contact information. (No offense meant to my other professors. Y'all are awesome. But you know just as well as I do that we don't have a personal relationship other than the fact that we're Facebook friends.)
So my question is, do I ignore those requirements and submit my stuff as-is? Do I pad my video with 3 more minutes of footage? Do I hire a private detective to track down my professors?
I'm a rule follower. I always have been. And I've also been in the position of someone accepting applications. It is so easy to throw out something that is just slightly wrongly formatted. But I also really want to go to grad school.
Is it even worth applying to a program like Columbia knowing I probably won't get in? Why is this whole process one step forward and two steps back?
I really wish I knew someone who has gone through this process recently. A lot of the time it feels like I'm flailing around in the dark.
So guardian angel, where ya at? This little theatre kid needs some guidance.