companies of Los Angeles and an extensive network in the ‘studio system’ of filmmaking. NYU, located in New York, while having a fair share of commercial directors as it’s alumni also has stronger ‘artistic’ or ‘independent’ film philosophy and ties.
During the 70’s and 80’s a look at the directors that came out of each program showed the difference in styles and filmmaking content. While George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis graduated from USC, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Oliver Stone attended NYU. In more recent years however, both schools have had a number of successful as well as ‘independent’ filmmakers come out of their programs. From a personal standpoint, in my experience USC gave greater emphasis on the technical production skills of filmmaking while NYU seemed to stress the story and artistic elements more. Both however