New York Film Academy - School of Film and Acting

Disney-MGM Studios®

Starting June 2008, the New York Film Academy summer program will return for its eighth consecutive year to Disney-MGM Studios in Florida. As in all of our summer workshops each filmmaking student will write, direct, shoot, and edit his or her own short films. All acting students will act in the filmmaking student’s films that are shot at Disney-MGM Studios and EPCOT® Center.
Students in the New York Film Academy program at Disney-MGM Studios will have the extraordinary experience of shooting their films or acting on professional movie sets and realistic international environments. They will shoot on the Disney-MGM Studios lot with its fully dressed sets like Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, New York City Street, and London Street sets. Though they are shooting their films or acting in Florida, students will find that they may set their films on a street in Paris complete with the Eiffel Tower and French cafes, or shoot in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. These are among the eleven amazing international locations available for student’s productions at the EPCOT® Center.

STAFF

As in our other locations, our eclectic faculty are experienced instructors and professional filmmakers and actors, who have Master of Fine Arts degrees from the most prestigious film and acting programs in the United States.

TRANSPORTATION

NYFA staff will provide transportation to and from the Disney parks for the shoots. All other transportation will be the adult student’s responsibility.

CURRICULUM

From the very first day of class, the focus of the filmmaking workshop is to learn through making films. Each student writes, produces, directs, and edits his or her own films, and rotates among crew positions when his or her classmates shoot.
Students in the Acting for Film Workshop should expect to enjoy a similarly comprehensive program including acting for film, scene study, and improvisation.
Six-Week Filmmaking Workshop students will make four films of increasing difficulty. The final film will be up to six minutes.

DAILY SCHEDULE

Classes will take place at Stetson University and Celebration Hotel in Celebration Florida. The students will be shooting their films daily throughout the WALT DISNEY WORLD®, including EPCOT and MGM-STUDIOS. Student’s final films will be screened at a state of the art screening room.
The filmmaking program is comprised of morning and afternoon workshops, hands-on exercises in shooting and lighting, screenings, lectures, and special activities. In addition, students shoot and edit a film per person per week. Students will meet with instructors or teaching assistants for script consultation.
The acting program follows a similar schedule including acting for film, monologues, scene study, and audition technique classes. The acting students will also be acting in the filmmaking students shoots at EPCOT and MGM-STUDIOS.
Shoots will take place nearly every day in the early hours of the morning at Disney-MGM Studios and at EPCOT. All shoots are done in the presence of a teaching assistant.

EQUIPMENT

Students in the 3 or 6-week Filmmaking camps will shoot on 16mm film with Arriflex-S cameras. The 6-week Filmmaking Students will also learn and use portable Lowel lighting packages. The Digital Filmmaking camp and One-Week Camps will shoot with digital cameras on DV tape. In both programs students edit digitally using Final Cut Pro on Apple computers. The equipment the New York Film Academy students use is comparable to that of the leading degree programs in the United States.

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Although the schedules of our workshops are demanding, time is set aside for students to take advantage of the incredible array of amusement parks including The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Downtown Disney, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, and a variety of shopping venues.
If you like amusement parks, of all our film schools, this is the venue for you. In addition, to the excitement and fantasy of the theme parks, there are theaters and wonderful restaurants in the surrounding area. In nearby Downtown Disney you can see Cirque du Soleil, catch a film at AMC Pleasure Island 24 Theater Complex, visit the House of Blues and eat at Planet Hollywood, Wolfgang Puck Café, Fulton's Crab House or Bongo's Cuban Café, to name a few.

HOUSING

The Film Academy has made arrangements for interested students to stay at Celebration Hotel, a full service hotel with a swimming pool and a gym. Students are not required to reside at the hotel in order to attend the workshop. For more information on housing please click here.

NOTE: Cancellation and Refunds

To enroll and guarantee your place in this workshop, you may apply online or by mail and submit a $500 deposit that will be applied towards tuition. Full payment is due at least one month prior to the start of the workshop.

If you cancel your enrollment in the workshop, the following applies:
$500 is not refundable under any circumstances other than cancellation of the program; Program fees (minus the $500 deposit) are refundable until April 1st prior to the summer of enrollment. No refunds are available after April 1st prior to the summer of enrollment.

In order to cancel once you have enrolled, please contact our admissions office. Failure to cancel prior to the April 1st deadline will result in a bill for the full program fee.

In the event that we must cancel a program, all enrolled students will be notified immediately and given a full refund of program fees (including the $500 deposit).

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