Course General Description

Independence is the key word in filmmaking. It means having a personal vision. It means having choices in your career – whether that’s working for a company or being on your own – or both. It means being able to do what you love for life. As an SVA undergrad, you can specialize in Directing, Screenwriting, Cinematography, Editing or Sound. You can create a body of work that rivals most graduate schools. Our immersive program has many special features designed to educate you better and faster – like courses which are taught in collaboration by writers and directors, and an integrated curriculum which means you develop work in writing classes, fine-tune it with professional actors in directing, prepare and shoot it in production, and edit in post-production. While you get a solid start in your specialty, you also gain knowledge in all aspects of filmmaking. The essential experience of SVA Film is collaborative and your teachers and classmates quickly become your partners in creativity. All of our faculty do what they teach –actively contending in today’s high tech media marketplace. The relationships you form with your mentors now mean you are already connected to the film industry. When our teachers need to fill a slot on the set or in the studio – who better than the people they have trained themselves? Our students intern at the top production and post-production companies, among others, and are often working before they graduate. Because your education isn’t just academic but hands-on right from the beginning, you learn early what you love and what you’re good at. You share your skills working on your classmates’ films. Bonds are formed during the intense days and nights of shooting that not only contribute to fine work during school but to career opportunities after graduation.

School General Description

Welcome to New York City, SVA’s hometown, and the leader of today’s creative economy, with more than 14,000 creative businesses and nonprofits. According to the EY Global Talent in Global Cities 2015 study, New York attracts more creative talent than any other city in the world because it “enjoys a unique cultural scene, embedded in a cosmopolitan and forward-thinking urban environment.” There is no better place to study, practice and work as a creative professional. Critique is a vital and challenging part of the educational experience in a college of art and design. Participating in this practice requires students to be open and vulnerable while they present their work for discussion and questioning, and to trust the transformative powers of the process in service of the work. Through the frequent repetition of this act of openness, students and faculty share and strengthen their humanity, empathy and kinship and their work evolves.