Master of Fine Arts in Producing

at New York Film Academy - Los Angeles Campus USA

An MFA in Photography program at the Photo Arts Conservatory at the New York Film Academy (PAC at NYFA) is an accelerated, conservatory-based, graduate program designed for full-time study over the course of four semesters. We provide a creative setting in which to develop, challenge, and inspire the skills and talents of prospective photographers in an immersive, stimulating environment. By combining seminars and lectures with intense, hands-on classes, students acquire a sound understanding and appreciation of still photography and learn to integrate knowledge and professional experience.

At the Photo Arts Conservatory at NYFA, students engage with a diverse international student body and a core faculty of working professionals. This master's degree program includes visits to museums, galleries, and studios, along with guest lectures and critiques by photographers, artists, and curators. PAC embraces all lens-based media, offering a unique curriculum that includes digital and film-based photography. Though all MFA candidates must take two semesters of Lighting, Imaging, Printing, and Introductory Theory, beginning in Semester Two students are able to choose the rest of their course load themselves.

PAC faculty are committed to our Photography students and their futures as successful image-makers. Through demanding, hands-on coursework, instructors help students keep pace with technological change and push them to excel in all the areas needed to compete in the ever evolving marketplace.
Applicants to the program who have graduated from NYFA’s One-Year, Two-Year, or BFA in Photography programs, or an equivalent program from another institution, may attempt to test out of certain foundational courses within the MFA program. All evaluations and decisions are at the sole discretion of the department chairs, and are final. Students who successfully test out of any courses will substitute other courses in their place, and must fulfill the 63 total credit minimum, as well as all course category requirements.

The New York Film Academy recognizes the critical role writers play in the creation of every film and television show. Yet writing talent alone is not enough to create successful work in these mediums. Screenwriting is a learned craft, and a writer must write every day to train for the demands of this field, and to truly understand the elements that make a screenplay or teleplay functional as well as engaging.

In addition to learning the conventions of the writing craft, students are given the support and structure to write and meet deadlines. Students write intensively throughout the program and complete several projects with the assistance of constructive critique from instructors, as well as peers.

Students in the New York Film Academy’s Screenwriting programs generate a lot of written material, building a portfolio of writings that span several mediums. There is a focus on film and television, but MFA students will also study comics, web series and games. Upon completion of the program, students not only understand story structure, character, conflict and dialogue, but also leave the Academy with finished products that they can pitch, produce, and try to sell.

In the MFA Screenwriting program, students are taught the art of screenwriting through workshop courses that have them learn by writing, but also in skill-building courses that focus on film history, film genres, and specific skills, like scene construction, adaptation, and character building.

Students also study filmmaking, acting and editing, to get a complete sense of how cinematic stories are told. In addition to stories, treatments and scripts, students will also create, direct and edit their own short film and their own web series pilot.

NYFA’s degree programs in Screenwriting have business classes that teach students the reality of the industry; how to find work as a writer, how to work in the industry to support yourself, how to find an agent or manager, and how to pitch your stories and story ideas. These classes require students to get an internship in the industry.

The MFA Program culminates in a Pitch Fest, where students get to pitch their thesis script to agents, managers, executives, and/or producers.

New York Film Academy’s three-year bachelor's degree in acting for film is for highly motivated students who would like to enter an intensive, hands-on professional course of study. By completing the bachelor's degree in three years, students can:

• Save one year of expenses
• Enter the field of their choice a year early

The Academy makes this accelerated schedule possible by creating an extended academic year, allowing students to complete three full-length semesters in each calendar year. Students may also choose to complete the program in a traditional four-year time frame.

The New York Film Academy (NYFA) Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Acting for Film is an eight-semester conservatory-based, full-time study program. The curriculum is designed to immerse gifted and energetic prospective actors in all aspects of acting as a discipline. The program provides a creative setting with which to challenge, inspire, and perfect the talents of its student body. Students follow an intensive curriculum and achieve multiple learning goals.

Our prescribed eight semester acting curriculum serves to address the following core competencies necessary for the completion of a BFA in acting:

BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS ACTING FOR FILM: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• PERFORMANCE
  • Demonstrate the ability to create a fully articulated, believable performance in scenes exhibiting emotional depth which are appropriate for actors' physical type and age range in both stage and screen.
• LITERATURE
  • Provide critical analysis of the global standard of literature for film and theater, demonstrating an advanced understanding of the vocabulary, history and writing trends within the industry.
• PRODUCTION
  • Acting BFA students demonstrate an understanding of and basic competency in technical film/video production skills and standards relevant to today's film and television industry.
• KINESTHETIC EXPRESSION
  • Demonstrate technical mastery in the selection and execution of movement, gesture and vocal elements that reveal the subtext and intention of a character.
• BUSINESS
  • Demonstrate critical analysis by researching the industry for their own marketing niche and create a personalized business plan to meet their vocational objectives.
• SYNTHESIS
  • Evaluate the core training skills practiced and synthesize these into the formation of a unique artistic product (vision), allowing for continued growth within the industry.

Overall, the first six semesters of the program concentrate on developing the tools required to create a believable character, while the final two semesters refine these tools for use in film/video projects, preparing students for their careers in the entertainment industry.

The NYFA Master of Fine Arts in 3D Animation & VFX is a four-semester graduate degree program intended to prepare animation & visual effects artists for technical and creative leadership in the various fields of the cinematic and emerging arts while nurturing a deep sense of service toward storytelling.

Students will:

• Develop a thorough technical understanding of the animation & VFX workflow & pipeline.
• Analyze and identify the industry trends that affect Pre-Production/Preparation of Animation & VFX.
• Hone their craft in intermediate and advanced Digital Element Creation, Motion Capture, Animation, Interactive Games, Stereoscopic 3D, Post-Production/Image Manipulation, Organization of Data Acquisition & Capture for use in the VFX pipeline.

In these MFA courses, students will learn from faculty that bring knowledge from the industry, many with experience from major brands including Disney, Dreamworks, Universal, Netflix and more. Students will master tools and techniques to create compelling 3D Animation & VFX shots that culminate in their final Thesis courses.

The integration of Animation & VFX curricula has been fine-tuned at the Los Angeles campus at the bachelor's level, to provide students with a specific technical and artistic education. The curriculum has been tailored to fit industry standard technical and artistic roles as laid out in the Visual Effects Societies Handbook.

At the master's level, NYFA does not just create artists or technicians; they effectively execute on a hybrid learning curriculum for students seeking to become leaders and innovators in 3D Animation, VFX, Computer Imaging, Feature Film, Television, New & Emerging Media, Research & Development, and the Interactive & Game Industries.

The New York Film Academy Bachelor of Fine Arts in 3D Animation & Visual Effects is an eight-semester conservatory-based, full-time study undergraduate program. The curriculum is designed to immerse gifted and energetic prospective 3D Animation and Visual Effects Artists in all aspects of the discipline. The New York Film Academy Bachelor of Fine Arts in 3D Animation & Visual Effects provides a creative setting in which to challenge, inspire, and perfect the talents of its student body.

Students follow an intensive curriculum and achieve multiple learning goals.

The structure of this program emulates the workflow and pipeline of a professional production in the industry, which will provide students with the following:

• Preparation for a competitive professional environment
• Knowledge directly applicable in current work field using the latest software and technology
• Practical skills developed from intensive discipline and practice
• Ability to deliver a project from the beginning to the end in the manner used in actual professional production

The program will also be dedicated to strengthening fundamental visual storytelling knowledge. Students will dissect principles and techniques rooted in the real world and discover how they apply to a CG-generated world. This will enable students to have the choice to mimic reality and photography or to create more stylized imagery.

The New York Film Academy Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Cinematography is an accelerated, conservatory-based graduate program intended for full-time study over the course of five semesters. Designed to instruct gifted and hardworking prospective Directors of Photography in a hands-on, professional environment, the MFA in Cinematography program provides a unique setting for the development of both the creative vision and technical proficiency necessary for a career as a Cinematographer.

Students will follow a rigorous program of classroom study, self-directed projects, instructor-led workshops, and school- facilitated collaboration with NYFA students across different disciplines. Upon graduation, students will be proficient with many of the state-of-the-art camera systems used by professional cinematographers today, and be able to confidently supervise the creation of sophisticated lighting schemes. Most importantly, they will be able to effectively harness the visual tools of cinema to tell meaningful stories.

The New York Film Academy Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Photography program provides candidates with a thorough grounding in the fields of commercial, fine art, and documentary photography.

Undergraduates in the photography degree program are immersed in all aspects of photographic study. Throughout their eight semesters enrolled at the school, students take a series of academically rigorous classes that seek to challenge students creatively while giving them the skills they need to succeed in a competitive industry.

Students' creativity is carefully and constantly nurtured as they are encouraged to find and develop their own unique visual language and vocabulary through a process of investigation, critique, creative conceptualizing, self-reflection, and practice.

By the end of this program, students will be thoroughly equipped not only with the creative and technical skills to succeed in the industry, but also with the business skills necessary for a highly competitive marketplace. The advantage of New York Film Academy’s commitment to a rounded education is that our photography BFA students will graduate with a broad knowledge base that will help them succeed in photography and complementary fields, giving them a wide choice of professional paths to pursue.

The first two semesters of the BFA Photography program are foundational; students then have the freedom to choose classes best suited for them in semesters three through eight. The BFA Photography program culminates in a final portfolio presentation and group exhibition which invited peers and industry professionals attend. This event is an opportunity for students to exhibit their best work and to develop their professional network.

Photography Bfa Program: Learning Objectives

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of available and artificial light, and apply this to their images.
• Students will demonstrate mastery of Lightroom as an organizational tool and Photoshop as a nondestructive editing tool.
• Students will demonstrate knowledge of lighting tools and digital and analog camera systems.
• Students will demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of digital output systems.
• Students will demonstrate an applied understanding of the visual language of photography and the ability to incorporate technical, formal, and conceptual competencies in their creative work.
• Students will demonstrate working knowledge of industry standard business practices in commercial, fine art, and documentary disciplines.
• Students will demonstrate professional skills and practices appropriate to their area of interest.
• Students will demonstrate their knowledge of and relate their work to the technological, artistic, social, and cultural currents within the history of photography and contemporary photographic practice.
• Students will identify their area of personal interest and then conceptualize and complete self-directed projects that culminate in a cohesive body of work for printed, online, or exhibition presentations.
• Students will demonstrate their ability to produce photographic work that is consistent with high professional standards.
• Students will articulate in verbal and written form the key technical, formal, and conceptual issues in their creative work and the work of others.

The role of the producer is often misunderstood but always integral to the successful execution of a film or television series. What does a producer do? What are the differences between creative producing and production management? In the New York Film Academy Bachelor of Fine Arts in Producing program, students delve into these questions and gain an immediate understanding of these differences. Through extensive coursework, study and practicums, students will develop the knowledge and skills of effective collaboration and producing.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Producing is a three-year, eight-semester program intended to instruct and prepare future film, television and other visual media producers for the fields of creative producing and production management. Areas of creative producing the students will be introduced to and will master are story and script development, creative collaboration methods, the ever-evolving ways to secure financing and the various and ever-changing distribution options available to producers. Production management functions that will be introduced and practiced are physical production management and line producing.

During their first two years of study, students will learn creative producing and production management skills while developing and expanding their breadth of knowledge through extensive coursework in the liberal arts. These liberal arts studies include courses in Foundation Studies, Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. In their third year, students will round out their educational experience through advanced specialized courses in producing as well as upper level liberal arts electives.

Through a variety of courses, each designed to focus on one of the many specialized areas within the discipline, students will be introduced to and instructed in the mastery of tools and techniques critical to successful producing and production management. Our producers will be prepared to function in the professional workplace, whether in a creative producing environment or in physical production where effective production management skills are required.

The Academy makes the MFA Acting program's accelerated 20-month schedule possible by creating an extended academic year, allowing students to complete all five semesters of the program in under two years.

The first semester of NYFA's MFA Acting program concentrates on building a foundation in the craft of acting, using training techniques rooted in the theater but applicable to the screen. Students participate in an intensive array of core classes that guide them to find the actor within, simultaneously training their instrument to do the kind of technical, emotional, and physical work necessary for film acting. Acting for Film students will shoot a short film project on location with a professional staff.

It is geared to students with little or no experience in producing, but who recognize that an intensive and demanding program, much like the job of producing itself, will provide them with the knowledge they seek.

Students are treated as Producers throughout the duration of the course, and are challenged at each step of the way. Students are encouraged, but not required, to bring a piece of intellectual property - a book, screenplay, show concept or treatment-at the beginning of the course that will be used throughout the year as the foundation of their final project. Students take this project through the various stages of development: pitch, treatment, script, talent search, budget, schedule, and plans for marketing and distribution. Students learn the real-word strategies for successful producing and are encouraged to develop the professional network needed within the film and television industry.

Students must be prepared for full-days of intensive work throughout the entire program. They must be committed to a fast-paced, intensive learning and production schedule, and willing to work collaboratively with our filmmaking, screenwriting, and acting students.

Producers are confronted with a number of visual, dramatic, financial, legal, logistical, managerial, and technical challenges in the process of filmmaking. From the first day of class, students are immersed in a hands-on education on how to work through these challenges. Through an intensive sequence of classes and workshops, and with professional insights and encouragement from their instructors, students rapidly learn the fundamental creative and technical skills they need to produce for film and television.

Learning Goals

• Introduction to the roles, tasks and obstacles faced by film and television producers including development of script, casting and talent negotiations, budgeting, scheduling, locations, hiring of crew, payroll, contracts and deal memos, equipment rentals, applicable Union regulations and contracts, and post-production requirements.
• Master storytelling concepts of elements, conventions, structure and style.
• Understand basic principles of entertainment law.
• Introduction to filmmaking from the perspective of the screenwriter, director, cinematographer and editor.
• Hands-on study in camera, lighting, sound and editing