IFC reality show focuses on stressed-out student filmmakers

Pursuing a degree from New York University's prestigious film school can open up vast possibilities: acclaim as a director, success as a writer, or a year in lockup on Rikers Island.

Nanette Burstein knows something about all three.

Burstein is creator and executive producer of "Film School," a new 10-episode reality show on the Independent Film Channel that debuts Friday night at 10:30. The show follows four graduate students at NYU's film school who have 10 weeks to make the short films they hope will launch their careers. Murphy's Law seems to hover over every step in the process, whether it's trouble finding locations or a flaky producer/

fund-raiser whose biggest donation coup is $20 from Henry "the Fonz" Winkler. Burstein, an NYU film school alumna, has never spent time on Rikers but the experience of a classmate who did showed her that film school could make compelling reality TV. The classmate in question realized the footage he was shooting for his film project was unusable. In a drunken rage, he pushed his girlfriend, who fell down some stairs and broke her spine. He later was sent to Rikers on assault charges.

"There's so many mistakes that can happen, and there are so many stakes that are very high," Burstein said. "Most people have given up other careers to do this, and feel it's their one shot in life."

For Alrick Brown, 28, one of the show's four students, going to film school wasn't just a shot at the big time but a way to save his life.

Brown's film, "The Adventures of Supernigger," is an allegory about the 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo, the unarmed West African immigrant who was shot 41 times by New York Police Department officers.

For Brown, the incident hit home in two ways. He said he's been hassled by police and had a gun pointed in his face. When Brown was 4, his father, a building engineer on a construction project in Kingston, Jamaica, was shot multiple times and killed in the course of a robbery at the job site.

On the show, Brown remains surprisingly confident and focused despite the obstacles he faces.

Seeing how stressful the process of putting together a film is -- raising money, auditioning actors, finding a crew -- you wonder why anyone would go through the added pressure of having their every mistake caught on tape.

In an interview, Brown, whose favorite films range from "North by Northwest" to "Point Break," said he wasn't fazed by having cameras follow him.

"I would've been doing the same thing had they been there or not," he said. "The process of filmmaking is so rigorous and so demanding. It's such a crunch time schedule that I was busy when they were filming me."

All the students are in each episode. The program moves from one to another, showing not only their progress on their own projects, but how they're doing in relation to their peers.

Burstein said the plan, for now, is to show the students' films on the Independent Film Channel once the program completes its run. Students would also be able to submit their films to festivals, but some, including Sundance, won't accept films that have already been broadcast.

The fact there's no guaranteed big break for the students sets "Film School" apart from another reality show on filmmaking, "Project Greenlight."

Launched in 2000, "Project Greenlight" is the brainchild of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The show's first season featured a screenwriting contest where the winner got $1 million to make his film, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. In its next season, the show added a directing contest, where the winner's film was based on the screenwriting contest winner's script. The movie was then given a theatrical release.

But the films produced through the show have failed to generate as much buzz as the show itself. "The Battle of Shaker Heights" and "Stolen Summer" were box office flops. After two seasons on HBO, "Project Greenlight" has moved to Bravo. And proving that Oscar winners aren't immune from studio pressure, Affleck and Damon have reportedly been told to choose a film with more commercial appeal than their previous "Project Greenlight" picks.

While "Film School" captures the students' struggles to make their films, it also shows what they have to do just to stay in school.

NYU gets more than 1,000 applicants a year to fill 36 openings, professor John Tintori says on the show. Tuition costs $40,000, and on top of that students have to finance their films.

In "Film School," there aren't any trust-fund babies (or anyone selling their eggs to infertile couples, as one real-life NYU film school student wrote about doing a few years ago). The students here get by with loans, financial help from the department, and maxing out their credit cards.

For Vincenzo Tripodo, 35, the financial stakes are especially high. With little aid available for international students, he has to come up with $15,000 in a hurry or risk being asked to leave the program. He gets the money, but that's just the first in a long line of hurdles he faces en route to making his film "Heart of Spider," about a man who awkwardly tries to connect with women he meets on the street by scaring them with a fake spider.

Speaking by phone from Sicily, Tripodo, who gave up a successful career as an opera and theater director to attend NYU, said he has no regrets about being on the show.

"It was a great experience for me," he said. "I loved it. In the end, it was like a family. I did my best. I think everyone involved in the project did their best in that moment."

But not all of the "Film School" students have such fond memories.

"I completely regret it," said Leah Meyerhoff. "It was totally a nightmare. I have no interest in being famous. For me, it was more about what's the easiest way to get some money to get my film made."

Meyerhoff, 24, a Brown University graduate, spent a year at NYU's film school after college but left for a year before deciding to return.

She ran into what she described as "drama" that kept her from making the film she truly wanted to make.

Meyerhoff's film, "Twitch," is a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl who's resentful about taking care of her mother, who has multiple sclerosis. Their complex, fractured relationship is based on Meyerhoff's own experience with her ailing mother, who she casts in her film.

Meyerhoff said while Burstein was great to work with, some of the producers were insensitive to her mother's illness and the personal nature of her project (which she described as "The Virgin Suicides" meets "Sweetie").

At one point, she tried to quit the show and hasn't decided yet if she wants her film to run on the Independent Film Channel once the series is over.

Unlike Meyerhoff, Tripodo and Brown were drawn to NYU's film school because of its legendary alumni roster, which includes Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, and Spike Lee. Some of these filmmakers appear at the beginning of each episode to comment on the challenges the students face.

Despite the school's impressive list of graduates, "Film School" creator Burstein knows the students still face long odds but says the risk is worth taking. In her case, her student film did launch her career.

At NYU, she and Brett Morgen directed a feature-length boxing documentary called "On the Ropes" that was released in theaters and later nominated for an Academy Award. Burstein also teamed up with Morgen to direct "The Kid Stays in the Picture," a documentary on famed movie producer Robert Evans.

Burstein says film school can be a way for aspiring directors, screenwriters, and others to pursue their dreams. "I think some people definitely need the structure, myself included," she said. "If you don't carve out time for [filmmaking] you can kind of keep pushing it aside, and life can get in its way."

Rhonda Stewart can be reached at rstewart@globe.com.