Filmmaking is presented as a means of interpretation and expression. This course combines technical information in motion picture exposure and editing with a theoretical and practical approach to motion picture continuity through non-synchronous film production and editing. The course also will provide an aesthetic understanding and essential vocabulary of film production, script, and budget planning. In this course, students will have the opportunity to work in groups to visual storytelling and editing techniques to experiment with different styles.

This foundation level course introduces students to documentary film as a creative and socially engaging form of storytelling. In addition to aesthetic and conceptual skills, production techniques focus on the ability to develop filming strategies, gathering clean sound, filming to edit, and interviewing skills. In addition, the relationship between filmmaker and subject, will be examined, including the ethical challenges of representing real life subjects. Critical thinking skills will be employed as we analyze the different styles of documentary film. Students will work in small documentary crews out in the field learning the use of microphones, field lighting, handheld and other non-traditional camerawork, selecting/interviewing documentary subjects and capturing material with proper coverage in order to build scenes in the edit room.

This course is an introduction to the arts of directing and acting with an emphasis on script analysis, performance, and blocking. Students direct and act in scenes from professional productions. Scenes are rehearsed outside of class, and then staged and critiqued in class. Students then follow a director’s workflow: obtaining a script, presenting a visualization of that script to the class for critique, and creating a one-scene short film.

Over the course of the semester, students will produce one completed moving image work that is in conversation with avant-garde filmmaking/expanded cinema. This course demands the use of alternative expressions in concept, style, pipeline, and technology, and students are encouraged to take risks, break "rules", and explore their own unique artistic expression. Students may work in a variety of media, or chose to hybridize multiple techniques in the process of crafting their work. Students will complete projects for screening at the end of the semester.

SOFA Independent Study will provide students with the ability to study in a specialized area with an individual faculty member. Students, with the assistance of a faculty adviser, should propose a course of study or project with clearly defined deliverables. Students must obtain permission of an instructor and complete the Independent Study Permission Form to enroll. Student must have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA to apply.