CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMS

This course introduces and examines the tools and techniques used to write a screenplay from original concept through the first draft. It focuses on the fundamentals of visual storytelling such as: story structure, character development, text vs. sub-text, dialogue, and screen direction. It will also provide beginning screenwriters with constructive analysis and support as they write their first feature-length screenplay. Film clips, scripts, and articles will also be used to explore the craft and skills necessary to write a great script.

Cinema is a language in of itself, and the richest texts to study film are films themselves. The course provides a solid foundation for cinema studies and teaches a specifically cinematic vocabulary. This course explores how different cinematic tools—directing, cinematography, editing, and acting — have developed from the silent age to the digital age. Students will develop an aesthetic appreciation of the medium and learn how to “read” a film through a close analysis of each film screened. Such topics include: documentary and expressionistic techniques in Taxi Driver, mise en scene in Lumiere, Dialectical editing in The Battleship Potemkin, Deep-focus Photography in Citizen Kane, Method acting in On the Waterfront, the use of color in Black Narcissus, etc.

The Meisner Technique, an actor training technique developed by Sanford Meisner, one of the founding members of the instrumental Group Theater, exercises and hones the actor’s ability to listen and respond truthfully to themselves and scene partners. The course begins with improvisational exercises, where the actor's attention is focused entirely on his or her partner's simple, real behavior, as opposed to character interpretation, script analysis, or direction. Once this foundation has been laid, the students apply this technique to scripted text.

This class immerses students in the technical and creative demands of Cinematography. Students will learn how to load and shoot with the Arriflex- S motion picture camera and its accessories. Taking test shoots, students will learn the latitude of the film stock, how to get a correct exposure, the effect of different lenses, focus pulling, and incamera effects. They will also learn fundamental lighting techniques, and as they progress through the workshop they will learn how to “paint with light” to tell the story of the film.

Documentaries are creative treatments of factual information related to historical, political or social topics, and they are more popular that ever. Topics will include documentary styles, shooting approaches, methods of interviewing, documentary structure, themes, documentary editing, the importance of research, truth and objectivity vs. interpretation, point of view, ethical questions, and re-enactments.

In today's market, no rock band puts out an album without an engaging music video. The video should capture the style, essence and music of the band, and many bands use videos as calling cards to get gigs and major label interest. Most bands or artists, however, lack one necessary skill when it comes to making a video: the knowledge of how to visualize, conceive, produce, shoot and edit the project. By its very nature, music video is stylistic, expressive, evocative, and free of many of the constraints of standard narrative filmmaking, and is one of the most accessible ways that individuals can begin a career in directing. This course will address the different facets of music video, including producing, production, post-production and artist involvement. This is a lecture-style class, no actual production will take place.