Advanced Acting Workshop
GH226 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Introduction to Acting
Advanced study of the elements, practices, principles and values of acting, as directly related to the personal and social values of the individuals practicing the art. Students explore advanced approaches to acting as well as participating in the development, preparation and performance of advanced scenes.
Art Direction (Production Design)
F132 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Visual Design
A practical introduction to the profession of production design with an emphasis on communicating ideas visually. Students learn the skills necessary to become a production designer, including conceptualizing and researching, sketching and basic drafting, and basic model building. By the final class, students have completed a fully designed set, including concept boards, sketches, plans and a model for an assigned scripted project. There is a scheduled field trip. This course is strongly recommended for producers, directors, and cinematographers.
Art of the Pitch
GH166 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Hollywood Business Practices & History
A course for producers, writers, and directors, “Art of the Pitch” instructs students how to encapsulate their ideas into saleable concepts, present those ideas, and communicate with the writers and others who become involved in bringing these ideas to fruition. The course features guest speakers from the executive ranks of the industry, as well as producers, agents, attorneys, and others, with the instructor being both the constant guide for the students as well as moderator.
Business Plans for Filmmakers
F427 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Writers Workshop
During this class, students prepare the contents and organize an actual business plan for a film project, including financial projects. Class may be used to create the presentation you want to use for actual investors.
Comedy Improvisation
GH326 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Introduction to Acting
Using techniques and theater games devised from sources such as Viola Spolin to The Groundlings, the student learns the challenges of improvisational acting and its uses not just for the performer, but for all those who wish to spark their creative process and learn to think quickly on their feet in the performance setting, or as writers or directors.
Directing Action
F398 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Directing 2
The challenges of directing sequences involving action and movement are explored. Students direct designed exercises through which they are challenged to understand how camera placement and other tools allow action to speak to the audience in the way the filmmaker intends – both for drama and comedy.
Directing Actors
F245 (4 units)
Prerequisites: Directing 1 and Directing: From Casting Through Rehearsals
Gives the students the opportunity to enhance their ability to communicate with actors to adjust and build performances. Students cast actors and work on scenes and other pieces for several weeks bringing the actors to performance level both in presentation and blocking.
Directing Comedy
F309 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Directing 2
When he was on his deathbed, the great actor Edmund Kean is reputed to have said, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” This course explores the dynamics and particulars of camera and communication with actors that make comedy both come alive and fun to create. Students will choose and shoot comedy scenes, often more than once to improve upon their own work.
Directing: From Casting Through Rehearsals
F111a (4 units)
Prerequisite: Introduction to Acting
How do you work with actors to ready their performances for the camera through mutual communication? How should you listen to them and be open to their instincts at the same time they listen to you? How do you express the intent of the line and the event of the scene in an efficient, cogent manner, and help actors find the necessary place within themselves to bring to life what is on the page? How do you create a “safe” place for them? This course will focus on that thread that leads from understanding the basis of acting to directing actors in front of the camera. You’ll learn techniques of casting and rehearsing scenes and other short pieces with actors to create performances that will jump off the page (and the screen).
Directing 1
F110 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Completion of Tier 1
Focuses on directing actors and experiencing the filmmaking process from the actor’s point of view: analyzing dialogue and dramatic material; the development of the dramatic situation; understanding character needs and relationships; script breakdown. Director/actor preparation, research and the casting process are also covered. Students direct two scenes and a video project.
Directing 2
F210 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Directing 1
Explores the basic techniques of blocking and staging action for the camera, with emphasis on the practical problems and aesthetic questions that arise. Students work alone and in groups to develop solutions to dramatic and practical problems.
Directing 3
F310 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Directing 2
Lectures, discussion, screenings, assignments and class projects illuminate the process and aesthetics of directing. Workshop format and in-class tapings focus on developing a directing team. Each student selects, casts, directs, tapes and edits two complete scenes, while also assisting and managing others’ projects.
Documentary Production Workshop
F131 (4 units)
Prerequisites: Cinematography 1 & Production Sound
In this class students will conceive, shoot and do post production on a short documentary during the length of the quarter. Class time also includes lectures on the modes and genres of the documentary, screening and analysis of documentaries, and production exercises in which students work together to create “instant” documentaries.
Entertainment Law
GS256 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Writers Workshop 1
The basic elements of law as they pertain to the entertainment industry will be covered. Topics include contracts and contract negotiation, first amendment rights, copyright, defamation, invasion of privacy, unfair competition, misappropriation, music copyrights and performance rights, and various means of protecting intellectual property.
Experimental Video Workshop
F231 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Cinematography 1
A lot more can be done with the camera than merely shooting narrative or documentary films. The camera is a tool to vast artistic possibilities. Through this course students will execute single channel or installation video art pieces, and, simultaneously, have an expressive, creative experience with the camera unencumbered by the narrative screenplay. This course is designed to expand the student as artist with camera.
Film Financing
F420 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Modern Business & Industry (preferred)
A course designed to teach producers, directors and others the ways in which funding is raised for artistic endeavors, particularly independent films. Students will learn how to create a business plan that can raise money for their feature, what legalities must be served, and the language and practices of film finance.
Hip Hop Production
V320 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Tier 1
Don’t just dance to Hip Hop – make it! In this cutting-edge class you will develop and shoot a short project that either employs the hip hop style or comments on it – your choice of a film, TV commercial, music video, or documentary.
Hollywood Business Practices & History
GH253 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Sophomore Status Preferred
An in-depth look at how the Hollywood system works, and how the student can succeed within that system. The course offers not just a detailed explanation of the current model, but uses Hollywood history to explain how the business model has changed and how it remains as it was. Toward that end, the course follows three tracks: 1) a valuable practicum of how the film and television businesses work; 2) the actual history of the motion picture and television businesses, its players, system and highlights; 3) the physical history of Hollywood through lectures and a Saturday or Sunday tour of Hollywood landmarks. Students will emerge from the class able to ferret their way through the Hollywood business maze.
Mockumentary!
F266 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Tier 1
From “This is Spinal Tap” to “Borat,” this remarkably resilient genre has been used to explore every imaginable subject and theme. The course surveys the aesthetics, history and storytelling techniques of the “mock doc,” then students conceive, plan, and produce a mockumentary as a class.
Music Video Production
V318 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Tier 1
Production workshop for 3-minute music videos, from conception to answer print. Students write their own scripts, prepare schedules and budgets, recruit cast and crew, produce, direct, and shoot their spots, and post produce as well—editing, sfx, music, dubbing, etc.
Navigating New Media: Professional Paths & Possibilities
F315 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Tier 1
Use your skills beyond working on movies and television. The technological breakthrough of the 21st century has brought with it many viable opportunities for employment. Find out how to take advantage of opportunities in fields such as internet spots, commercials, Podcasts, electronic press kits, DVD supplements, and more.
Post Production Process
F221 (4 units)
Prerequisite: UPM/AD
The final stage of production is a complicated one. Students will be guided through the entire process that starts when picture wraps and ends with the picture on the screen. Deadlines, editing, rough cuts, color correction, telecine, digital transfers, and DVD dubbing are covered. A complete how-to and where-to-go knowledge of post production will be attained.
Production for New Media
F317 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Tier 1
New Media is a wide terrain, and one that could be a large part of a student’s future in entertainment. Students will create and produce dynamic program content that crosses multiple genres and can be launched on many different platforms – from the web to DVDs to streaming media. You will conceive, produce and post concepts such as “Behind the Scenes” shorts, and shorts for cellular launch, iTunes, downloadable content, and other media. Some emphasis is placed on marketing tools, one of the hottest new media genres.
Scoring Your Soundtrack
F144 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Pro Tools or Permission of Instructor
This course teaches how to use a computer with a little help from Pro Tools to create and lay the soundtrack for your short film or documentary, and, eventually your feature film. It is hands-on training, and includes field trips to an actual recording studio.
Script Analysis 2
GH255 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Script Analysis 1
The methods of Script Analysis I are put to work in a rigorous and practical way. Several scripts are analyzed in a variety of genres. The student examines—separately—the original script and the finished film, comparing his/her own analysis and dramatic plans with those of the actual filmmaker.
Storyboard Design
GH151 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Drawing
Through this course students develop a complete understanding of the storyboarding process – upcoming directors, in particular, will hone their “eye.” Students learn the fundamentals of turning a script into a sequence of images, as the class is designed to get them comfortable with the all-important pre-visualizing work flow. A 3-D software system is used in creating the storyboards. Additionally, the class analyzes several elite films and their director’s approach to storyboarding.
The Studio Production: Filming on Film
F133a (4 units)
Prerequisite: Tier 2
Fee: $100 towards cost of telecine
Simulates actual sound stage production. Students direct short (3-minute) scenes on film with 16mm or Super 16mm equipment, budgeting, organizing, scheduling, shooting, editing, and dubbing a completed version of the film. Students rotate crew positions.
TV Commercial Production
V118 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Cinematography 1, Production Sound. Storyboard Design Recommended.
Production workshop for 60-second commercial spots and public service announcements (PSAs), from conception to answer print. Students write their own scripts; prepare schedules and budgets, recruit crew and cast; produce, direct, shoot, and post-produce their spots, including editing, sound effects, music and dubbing; and prepare camera original for laboratory printing.
TV Directing and Producing 1
V103 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Intro to TV Production and Directing 1
Using the TV control booth and multi-camera production techniques, students will direct and/or produce studio-based television exercises. Students will be responsible for developing, writing, rehearsing, directing, and producing short TV segments.
TV Directing and Producing 2
V203 (4 units)
Prerequisite: TV Directing and Producing 1
An advanced course through which students direct and/or produce a studio and control room-based short TV program they have individually developed.
Visual Production Design
F345 (4 units)
Prerequisite: Tier 1
Gives students an “eye” towards the elements in the screen frame that are essential to the entire language of storytelling beyond the words and actions of the actor and the placement of the camera. This course trains directors and cinematographers in particular to understand the importance of color schemes – both lighting and set design, production design, costumes, and other elements to what they are conveying to the audience.
