ONE-YEAR MASTERS IN DOCUMENTARY

Program Overview

Project 1: Observation Film
Each student produces a visual portrait of a person, place, or activity. Students are challenged to observe the subject closely, and find the most effective shots for revealing the subject to an audience. Use of camera angle, shot-size, focal length, and editing patterns are emphasized. Each student directs, shoots, and edits a film of up to 2 minutes.

Project 2: New Media
Each student creates a personal cyber-film for distribution on the Internet. Students are challenged to utilize the intimate dimensions of the player window to their advantage and attract the interest of the web-surfing audience. Each student directs, shoots, and edits a film of up to 60 seconds.

Project 3: Character Film
Each student is challenged to reveal an extraordinary or extremely ordinary person using image and sound to build a portrait. Students are challenged to record life as it happens rather than staging scenes or interviewing the subject. Each student directs, shoots, and edits a film of up to 5 minutes.

Project 4: Investigative Film
This project should be on a social issue or topic. Students will research their subject matter extensively before beginning. They must use both interviews and narration as building blocks for this project. Students may provide a fresh perspective on a political issue or document a local story that has larger implications. Each student writes, shoots, directs, and edits a film of up to 10 minutes.

Project 5: Reality Program
Working in teams, students will produce a seed or pitch an episode for an original reality program. Using documentary techniques learned throughout the first semester students will be challenged to structure a show that obeys classical story conventions. Team projects may be up to 15 minutes in length.

Project 6: Thesis Film, Independent Documentary
The culmination of the one-year documentary program is a thesis film of the student’s own choosing. Through extensive research, writing, and planning, each student produces a thesis film of up to 30 minutes in length.

DOCUMENTARY CRAFT
8 Semester Credits

This course introduces students to the craft of documentary filmmaking, establishing a foundation for all future projects. Through lectures and screenings, the instructor will highlight a specific documentary topic for students to analyze and discuss. Topics include, cinema variety, re-enactments, ethical considerations of working with documentary subjects, investigative techniques, chronology, character development, wartime propaganda, directorial manipulation of documentary subjects, docu-drama, mockumentary or faux-documentary, journalistic objectivity, explicit point of view and reality television. The Observation, New Media, Character, and Investigative Film assignments are overseen in this course, and contribute to the final grade.
Prerequisite: None

FILM DYNAMICS
3 Semester Credits

This course is designed to further students’ knowledge of the intricacies of feature-length documentary filmmaking by surveying the language and grammar of film including, mise-en-scene, continuity, montage, sequence and construction. Even in the most observational, objective style documentaries, the filmmaker chooses where to point the camera, and which shots to use in the edited film. The choices the director makes ultimately determine whether or not it is a coherent story. This course will teach students how to make the correct choices through the mastering of visual storytelling techniques and understanding the forces behind successful films.
Prerequisite: None

THE BUSINESS OF
DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING
3 Semester Credits

Documentary, once thought of as dull, textbook style filmmaking, is the most vital and exciting form of filmmaking today. As the popularity of the form has grown, so have the complexities of the business overall. This course is a comprehensive look at the business aspects of documentary filmmaking. The producer of the documentary often has the primary creative voice of the project. In this sense, students are the producers of all of the work they compete in the program. Subjects covered include how to finance your projects, how to write proposals, contracts, budgets, film festivals, rights and distribution.
Prerequisite: None

DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING
PRODUCTION WORKSHOP
2 Semester Credits

Workshop sessions are student-driven classes in which student work is evaluated and critiqued. Workshops give students the opportunity to experiment and explore the medium within a learn-by-doing environment. Deadlines will be established that guide students in the development of documentary film projects.
Prerequisite: None

CINEMA STUDIES
2 Semester Credits

The cinema Studies course introduces students to the critical concepts in documentary filmmaking through lectures, screenings, and group discussions. Each session will give students the chance to consider a documentary film with historical significance within the genre. Documentaries with groundbreaking style and/or structure will be a priority.
Prerequisite: None

CAMERA AND LIGHTING
2 Semester Credits

Digital Camera and Lighting class sessions are designed to help students master the many elements of digital video photography including white balance, shutter speed, focus, video latitude, gels, and filters. Through hands-on exercises, students will explore the possibilities of digital video. Other subjects include, apertures, frame rates, and scene menus. Lighting classes help students maximize the use of available and natural light, as well as traditional studio lighting for interviews and controlled situations.
Prerequisite: None

INTRODUCTION TO EDITING
2 Semester Credits

Documentary films, or films with nonfiction content, often find their true form in the editing room. This makes the editing process extremely important because a story may take a different shape after footage is reviewed. This class, in edition to teaching students the fundamentals of editing with Final Cut Pro, will also teach students how to deal with the particular challenges of documentary editing. Some class hours will be devoted to guiding students through the process of editing their own films.
Prerequisite: None

WRITING FOR THE DOCUMENTARY
3 Semester Credits

This course introduces students to the process of writing a documentary film. From research to shooting to editing, the subject matter may continue to reveal itself and evolve over time. However, the director is still responsible for delivering a narrative, finding the arc, and in some cases constructing the story from true events and/or “characters”. This means documentary filmmakers must go into a project as prepared as possible and with a strong sense of the story they want to tell. Students will be introduced to the tools and techniques which documentary filmmakers use to “map” out a project during pre-production. These will be especially important for investigative projects. Students will be introduced to the documentary storytelling techniques at their disposal. Writing narration and voice-over is a topic covered extensively as well as the use of titles, story boarding, outlines, re-enactments, re-construction, and docu-drama.
Prerequisite: None

ADVANCED DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING WORKSHOP
1 Semester Credit

In this workshop students will continue developing their documentary filmmaking abilities through practice and experimentation. Students will be given specific learning goals designed to add to their arsenal of skills in the battle of becoming accomplished and enterprising filmmakers. Instructors encourage ingenuity and creativity within a structured, goal oriented environment.
Prerequisite: None

DOCUMENTARY PRODUCING
4 Semester Credits

The producer makes the project happened by ironing out the specifics: scouting, budgets, permits, schedules, and legal issues. This course examines the job of producer by matching tasks and challenges with ways of approaching them. As students start to produce their own projects, the challenges will become clear, and some class time will be devoted specific production “hurdles”. Students will hone group problem-solving skills, a film industry must-have, and learn through sharing real examples. The Reality Program film assignment is overseen in this course, and contributes to the final grade.
Prerequisite: None

ADVANCED EDITING
2 Semester Credits

In this course students will learn advanced editing techniques used in documentary films. Through the exploration of Final Cut Pro students will learn its many possibilities as a tool for transforming raw material for a broad audience. The goal is for students to master the program and process so that they have a wealth of tools by which to express themselves creatively on their own evolving documentary projects.
Prerequisite: None

ADVANCED CINEMA STUDIES
2 Semester Credits

In continuation of Cinema Studies from the first semester, students use this class to discuss documentary filmmaking technique using in class screenings of classic and groundbreaking documentary film and television.
Prerequisite: None

NONFICTION TELEVISION:
DOCUMENTARY SERIES & REALITY TV
2 Semester Credits

More true stories are on television than ever before. This course examines the types of documentary television programs today, from reality series’ like The Bachelor to historical and educational television documentaries like that of the History Channel or Discovery Channel. In the past decade, documentary style storytelling has been pushed to new heights due to audience love and demand of the medium. Tabloid and biography type programs, offer a glimpse behind the scenes of the rich and famous, while reality competition series’, like Project Runway, offer a glimpse behind the scenes of formally enigmatic industries. Through screening and discussion, students will examine the popular forms of documentary TV, their styles, their successes, and their failures.
Prerequisite: None

DOCUMENTARY THESIS
4 Semester Credits

The culmination of the one-year documentary program is a thesis film of the student’s own choosing. Through extensive research, writing, and planning, each student produces a thesis film of up to 30 minutes in length. Each student will create a thesis committee from school faculty who will oversee their thesis project.
Prerequisite: None

APPLYING FOR ADMISSION

Candidates for admission to the MA program must possess a Bachelor’s Degree from a post-secondary institution recognized by the United States Department of Education. Candidates who possess a Bachelor’s Degree from a New York or California state approved school will also be considered for admission. No particular major or minor is required as a prerequisite for admission, however, applicants with a strong background in storytelling, and/or the visual arts are preferred. While GPA will be taken into consideration, and is an important component of the admissions process, the strength of the candidate’s creative portfolio is the primary determining factor for admission. Special attention will be given to grades assigned in areas of study related to any aspects of Filmmaking such as the visual arts, Design, theater arts, fine arts, performing arts, and the humanities.

Applicants who wish to pursue a Master of Arts in Filmmaking Degree who have received a Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent degree) from a foreign institution must submit a credentials comparison evaluation of all undergraduate work in order to verify their Bachelor’s Degree equivalency. All transcripts and portfolio materials documenting prior collegiate work (including credentials comparison evaluation) will be evaluated by the Admissions Committee. The Admissions Committee is also responsible for reviewing all applications and ensuring, via direct interviews and other pre-enrollment portfolio assessment sessions with prospective students, that the Academy does not admit students that are obviously unqualified or do not have a reasonable prospect of successfully completing the program.

In addition to the current application booklet, applicants must submit the following:

• Narrative Statement
• Résumé
• TOEFL Scores or other means of verifying proficiency in English (if first language is not English)
• Supporting Materials (will not be returned; see below)
• Sealed Official Academic Transcripts from Prior Institution(s) sent directly from the issuing institution to the Registrar’s Office
• Two Letters of Recommendation verifying the applicant’s ability to undertake graduate study in the field successfully
• $50 non-Refundable Application Fee (check or money order only in US dollars made payable to NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY. If accepted, this fee will be applied toward tuition.)