OVERVIEW

New York Film Academy students at the Sardinia Workshop will be immersed in the ever growing field of High-Definition digital filmmaking. They will get the opportunity to explore the many different formats currently available in this exciting new medium. Students will learn the HD workflow from camera operation to digital editing and output as they shoot their short films on HD.

Students in the 4-Week HD Filmmaking Workshop are taught the language of filmmaking and the director's craft as applied to the HD format. Instead of being handed a book, our students begin to learn how to write, shoot and edit their own projects from their very first day of class onwards. Aspects of mise-en-scene, visual storytelling, continuity-style coverage, documentary filmmaking, directing actors and writing visually will be essential to the director's palette.

Hands-On Digital Camera and Lighting Classes will help students master the medium including white balance, shutter speed, focus, video latitude, gels, and filters.

Each student in the 4-Week HD Filmmaking Workshop directs three projects of increasing complexity. For each of these projects, the student will have to go through the process of writing, producing, directing and editing. The first film, shot at the end of week one, focuses on the art of the shot; the second, shot at the end of week two, on continuity and the conventions of the film craft. The last of the projects, shot at the end of week three, can be a documentary or narrative film of up to 7 minutes with a soundtrack. In addition to their directing opportunities, filmmaking students rotate among the key crew positions (director of photography, assistant camera person, and gaffer/grip) on their classmates' projects, which will give them the greatest understanding of the functions of the various departments. 

Week four of the digital filmmaking program is comprised of additional editing classes and post-production. All films will be shot on HD with Lowel lighting packages, and edited on Apple Final Cut Pro digital editing systems.

Students work in three to four person crews to complete each film. Every student directs two films. When their colleagues direct, students rotate among the key crew positions.

At the end of the course, the final films are celebrated in a screening open to cast, crew, friends and family. All students who successfully complete the workshop will receive a New York Film Academy Diploma and a DVD copy of their film

*Continuity is one of the fundamental principles of modern filmmaking. Students are challenged to make a film that maintains continuity in Story, time and space.

Primary language of instruction in the Sardinia Workshop is Italian.