Second City Launches Harold Ramis Film School
Second City Launches First Film School Devoted Solely To Comedy Dedicated to Harold Ramis
The Harold Ramis Film School– the first school of film devoted solely to comedy is now accepting applications. Ramis is not only a legendary alum of the Second City Chicago mainstage, but also a comedic filmmaker of historic proportion. Seriously. Be prepared to have your mind blown.
If you are the average comedic movie fan, Harold Ramis is a name you probably associate with Ghostbusters 1 & 2 and if you are old enough, you might know him from Stripes. If you are a more involved sort of comedy fan, you might have made the Second City Bill Murray connection and assumed that he was hanging around when Caddyshack and Groundhog Day were made as well. I fancy myself a fairly knowledgeable person in the ways of comedy. I knew Harold Ramis was a brilliant comedic actor and I knew he was legendary within the Second City world. What I didn’t know is that he had a hand in almost 
every legendary comedy film. Meatballs, Animal House, Back to School, National Lampoon’s Vacation…the list is endless. It didn’t seem to matter if Ramis was writer, director, producer or actor on a project, but the evidence is overwhelming that if Ramis was on set, it was likely a good product. “Harold Ramis was the quintessential Second City writer/performer – intelligent, funny and devoted to the spirit of ensemble,” says Andrew Alexander, CEO and Executive Producer of The Second City. “His early mentoring of the Second City TV cast set the template for how that show would operate for eight seasons. His unselfish and generous spirit dominated the many wonderful films that he directed and wrote. I am thrilled by this opportunity to instill Harold’s philosophy of successful storytelling in film in the next generation of artists.”
The Harold Ramis Film School is looking for creators who “are in the emerging stage of their careers as filmmakers. “This program is designed for people with a comedic point of view and a desire to create content….Our students are immersed in comedy training, film history, writing and film production classes to give them the context in which to create. Students will graduate our program with produced content be it a screenplay, sitcom pilot, or hour-long pilot, or short film”
Comedy theory, writing, filmmaking and master seminars are the focus of the year long program. The idea of comedy as it’s own area of study while not common, isn’t new. Of course Second City is a juggernaut of live stage performance and Toronto’s Humber School of Comedy expanded comedy into a two year degree (full disclosure- I spent some time in the Humber program) that revolves mostly around writing and live performance. The Ramis Film school will fill a demand from a growing market of writers/directors/producers and performers who know that comedy on screen is to be taken as seriously as any dramatic performance. While there is no doubt benefit to the exposure of a wide range of genres one gets in film school, there is also equal benefit in offering a specialized year long alternative to those committed to finding the comedy in everything
Think you are the next big comedic thing? Apply to the Harold Ramis Film School now at www.ramisfilmschool.com
“It’s hard for winners to do comedy. Comedy is inherently subversive. We represent the underdog as comedy usually speaks for the lower classes. We attack the winners.” ~ Harold Ramis
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